Church-State Conundrum

Several times, in the course of my ministr(ies), we came into conflict with the state -- or should I say, the state came into conflict with us. Thankfully every situation was resolved. This is about a "classic" situation. Our Church caretaker had beaten his wife with a whip (a sjambok) on the Church premises, so that she was streaming blood. I responded to a distress call, and she showed me the lacerations from the whip. We had already warned our caretaker -- and counselled him --  about gender based violence, and had decided on immediate dismissal if it happened again. I called an ex-policeman to "read him his rights", and he left (he returned with a gun, but that's another story). Someone soon called us on behalf of the state, stating that gender based violence had no connection with employment, and the Church could not dismiss anyone on this basis.