New Zealand’s Supreme Court Rules A Christian Lobby Group Doesn’t Qualify For Charity Status

Conservative Kiwi political group Family First has been fully stripped of their charity status.

The Christian lobby group will now be made to pay taxes in New Zealand after the country's Supreme Court deemed them to be harmful to the broader community.

Family First actively rallies against abortion rights, prostitution decriminalisation and assisted dying in New Zealand.

They also launched a campaign in 2017 to rally against transgender rights, with the goal to ban trans women from bathrooms, toilets, and other spaces.

The court said that while having a standpoint on a particular issue isn't grounds for having their charitable status revoked, they do have to 'genuinely seek to educate rather than advocate, and do so in an objective and balanced way', according to RNZ.

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The decision from the nation’s highest court brings Family First's legal saga to a close after years of challenges.

The Supreme Court found that the right-wing group's research lacked the level of balance 'required to further an educative purpose' to be considered a charity.

"One-sided promotion of personally held views detracts from the cohesiveness of our pluralistic society and disempowers the receiver by failing fairly to inform them of alternative viewpoints on the subject," the ruling said as per NewsHub.

"Family First's promotion is self-referential; it is not about community."

The NZ Supreme Court also disagreed with the group's argument that they were helping to preserve the concept of the family unit by pushing their anti-LGBT and anti-gay marriage views.

"As we see it, pursuing support for the traditional family by advocating against law reform which would recognise or support other forms of family can be seen as discriminatory,” the court said in the ruling.

“As the High Court Judge noted, Family First advocates for measures to prefer the traditional family and disadvantage others, such as amending tax and welfare law to eliminate disincentives to marriage."

The Supreme Court ruling has been praised by people on social media.

One social media user said: "[Family First's] twisted idea of charity is funding any exercise designed at converting people to their religion or imposing their bulls**t onto others when they refuse."

A second user on Reddit said: "Yet another reason why New Zealand is an example to the world."

A third chipped in with: "American here. Please lend us some of your common sense."

Many people made the joke that they would love to trade the New Zealand Supreme Court with the one in the United States after the latter voted to overturn national abortion rights.

The controversial move has sparked protests across the country and dozens of US states have now restricted or outlawed abortion.