A PHOENIX pastor who called out women in his congregation for dressing in white, saying he wanted to baptise them for looking like a “large group of kavady carrying ladies”, has received a backlash from religious leaders.
Pastor Emannuel J Moodley Junior, who headed Bethsaida Ministries International in Stonebridge since the death of his father, Pastor Emmanuel J Moodley in 2017, made the utterance at a Women’s Day event, at the church, on Friday.
He told the female congregation dressed in white: “How many of you are blessed in the presence of God this afternoon? Amen. I must tell you, I have never seen such a large group of kavady carrying ladies in my life. You look good. Amen. When I saw you all I wanted to arrange a mass baptism right now.”
The event was live streamed on the church’s social media platforms and on YouTube, and a voice clip of the “derogatory comments” circulated on social media soon after.
Religious leaders and cultural activists said the clip was disrespectful and smacked of “religious intolerance”.
However, Moodley, 47, said there was no malicious intent.
“It was our Women’s Day gathering and my comments were that of admiration regarding the ladies’ attire. They were all dressed in white.
“My comment drew comparison as I said how good they looked dressed in white, like the Hindu ladies dress for the temple during kavady.
“The comparison was made to baptising them because when we do baptisms, we wear white as well. The comparison was just about the attire and I regret that offence was taken and I unreservedly apologise for it,” Moodley added.
He said he had submitted a written apology to religious leaders who contacted him about his utterance.
“On Tuesday night, I will apologise to the Hindu community in front of my congregation, while our church service is being live streamed on our YouTube platform. I had worked across religious borders all my life through the church, and in no way meant to cause any harm to any religious group by the comments.
“I work in the community and have a good relationship with people of all faiths. We have a community outreach feeding centre that feeds people of all religions and teams that help schools, made up of learners of all religions.
“I do humbly apologise for any offence taken by my statements that were never intended to hurt or denigrate the Hindu community,” he added.
Seelan Achary, chairman of the Shree Mariammen Temple, said after he listened to the voice note, he arranged a meeting with Moodley on Monday, at his church.
“We asked him to retract and offer an apology on video and on YouTube, where he posted the initial video. His utterances show that he has no respect. He said it was an honest mistake. He accepted that it was distasteful. But we are still waiting for an apology,” he said.
Achary said Moodley’s comments amounted to religious bigotry.
Social cohesion advocate, Raj Govender, said he called Moodley and told him that his comments were “not appropriate and incurred the wrath of the Hindu community”.
“Kavady is a sensitive religious and spiritual event. His reference was made with malice. We gave him two options. One was to apologise unreservedly and the second was that if he did not apologise, we would report him to the Cultural, Religious and Linguistic (CRL) Commission.
“He said that he did not know that his comments would have a negative effect on the Hindu community. He told me that he had a very good relationship with the Hindu community and that his late father was a prominent pastor who promoted cohesion among all religions,” Govender said.
He said when he brought up the number of incidents where the pastor had offended the Hindu community with negative comments to Moodley’s attention, he remained silent. “I think he is young and immature. He realised he made a mistake. He apologised and also sent a message of apology.
“He also contacted Reverend Cyril Pillay, who is socially cohesive and promotes this across religions. He acknowledged that he was wrong.
“He was remorseful and throughout our engagement, he apologised. I give him credit for making attempts to rectify his behaviour and contacting senior religious leaders to mitigate what he had done. But this must be a strong message for pastors to not denigrate other religions,” said Govender.
He said he believed pastors who condemned other religions and used their platforms as an opportunity to gain favour for mass conversions, was “nothing new”.’
The only way to stop the “continuation of pastors condemning other religions”, Govender said, was by engaging communities in more interfaith dialogues.
Reverend Cyril Pillay, advocate for religious cohesion and chairperson of the Chatsworth Spiritual Crime Prevention Forum, said any anti-religious language, intent and abuse was totally unacceptable.
“As religious and community activists we must strive for social cohesion and practice tolerance in our communities. In respect of Pastor Moodley’s utterances, I had interviewed him and he has unreservedly apologised for his utterances. Personally, knowing him and his late father, I watched as they both have worked tirelessly in the Phoenix communities for decades across religious and racial diversity,” Pillay said.