Christian evangelical community River of Love has called for the resignation of the parliamentary secretary for equality, Rebecca Buttigieg, accusing her of “inciting hatred based on lies”.
Pastor Gordon-John Manché told Times of Malta that he was in discussions with his lawyers on what action to take after Buttigieg accused the religious group of “preaching hate”.
We are in discussions with our lawyers on the way forward- Pastor Gordon-John Manché
“The comment by Parliamentary Secretary Rebecca Buttigieg was out of line, amounts to hate speech and incites others to more hate, all based on lies,” he said.
“Her comment about our church and Christians who identify with many others who are Bible believing Christians was defamatory. We are in discussions with our lawyers on the way forward.”
Manché said Buttigieg’s position was untenable and he expected her to resign, especially since she is “holding an office that is meant to promote equality not supremacy of a particular group over another”.
'Pure abuse of power'
“She was not elected to bully Christians. Apparently, she has no clue of what the word equality means,” Manché said.
“She is inciting hatred against us and casting a bad shadow on us based on lies,” he added.
“This is pure abuse of power and it’s not going to go down well with thousands of believers who feel greatly abused and bullied by her and a few others like her with even more hateful comments.”
Christian political party ABBA also called on Buttigieg to substantiate, apologise or resign over her comments on River of Love, which is attended by some of its members.
Party leader Ivan Grech Mintoff said her “direct and shocking attack” on River of Love was “a lie” and that she was also lying when she said it preached hatred.
Describing the statement as “purely hate speech”, ABBA called on the prime minister to demand her resignation.
“She can never use, preach and broadcast hate speech and breach the laws in the way she has already done.
“What she did was nothing but more heinous and dictatorial hatred with the aim of intimidating the Maltese Christians from opposing any belief imposed on them and that goes against their belief,” Grech Mintoff said.
Criminal complaint against satirist
The parliamentary secretary criticised River of Love last week following the evangelist movement’s criminal complaint against the owner of the satirical news site Bis-Serjetà.
Matthew Bonanno was served a court summons by the police for having allegedly threatened the movement with a Facebook comment a year ago.
In his post, he had suggested relocating River of Love to Buġibba, “then carpet bomb. Two birds with one stone”.
He posted the comment in a thread beneath a post of his in which he argued that the evangelical group should be “treated exactly like ISIS”. Manché subsequently filed a criminal complaint.
At the time Bonanno posted the comment, River of Love was in the media spotlight due to its potential ties to alleged murderer Abner Aquilina.
Aquilina stands charged with killing Paulina Dembska on January 2 last year after having attended a River of Love meeting the night before.
Manché denies any ties between the River of Love and Aquilina.