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As you all know we still have this problem with our Government officials who either do not communicate to each other or who are not willing to take responsibility for their mistakes. We were served a notice to close our centre down in January this year and I was threatened with prison if I refused, which I did for obvious reasons. The response from the people on our program went two ways. A few panicked and left the program. An enormous flood of support streamed into our office in various forms from the other side. The reason for the threat from certain Government officials is not so much about what we are doing wrong, it is about what we are standing up for. A psychiatric/psychological clinic close to us lodged the complaint because we are not registered under Act 70 of 2008 pertaining to substance abuse treatment. What is offensive it seems is that our signboard next to the road reads; “Drugs? JESUS Heals! These people really know nothing about us or our program.
As a Bible believing faith based centre we cannot register under that Act because it only makes provision for the medical model of therapy. It does not mention the Bible or Christ or any other alternative model of therapy. Neither does it recognize our training in Biblical counselling and the years of study that went into our training. Both Annatjie and myself hold Doctorates in Biblical therapy which they refuse to acknowledge. She started off after school studying psychology and psychiatry as an Occupational Therapist and worked in psychiatric facilities. She abandoned that career because of the weak prognosis in the therapy model she once believed in.
As far back as 2005 I started discussions with various officials in Government as I got a copy of this proposed law and saw the problems in it. Countless discussions, meetings and letters to various National Directors and even Ministers was to no avail except for the Minster of Health. The Department of Social Development just went ahead without any serious consultation with the Church and its officials that stand for pure Biblical truth and had the Act published. Like I stated in previous posts, there is strong support for our point of view among some of the officials but no is is prepared to take a stand in writing with us. They all seem to be passing the buck! So what’s new? From previous experience in management in the corporate world I have learnt to always state my case in writing. To follow the lines of authority until I get to the top guy and then dump the buck in his lap. In this case I wrote to Pres. Zuma seeing that he made a public appeal to the nation to help him in the fight against drugs during the State of the Nations address. On top of that he was inaugurated while placing his hand on the Christian Bible!
My simple mind tells me that the top man in our Government is asking all parties to help in the war against drugs. That surely includes us who are Bible believing and putting our faith in God not just psychologist and psychiatrists. We will talk more about where these two so-called sciences come from later! If furthermore the President is sworn in as leader of the nation with his hand on the Bible, surely he stands accountable to the author of the Bible, not so? How can his Government officials then pass laws that exclude Bible believing citizens who are professionally trained, in setting up therapy centres? Worse still how can they go ahead and turns us into criminals when our faith prevents us from registering under an secular and ungodly law?
So we are making our stand and calling upon our President to make good his promise to the nation. There is no more passing the buck!
Passing the Buck!
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