The church should take its place, speak for the weak
THE CLERGY HELPED IN FIGHTING APARTHEID
TOWARDS the end of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings in 1997, the Dutch Reformed Church made submissions to this important body set up to help South Africans begin the process of national reconciliation and the building of a new nation.
As expected, this church did not emerge from the TRC smelling of roses. After all, the Dutch Reformed Church had been integral to the National Party’s apartheid policies since the Nats came to power in 1948.
The game-plan was simple. When blacks were forcefully removed from their ancestral land and dumped in squatter camps and reserves, the Dutch Reformed Church told the so-called chosen white nation that these acts were in line with God’s will.
When blacks were forcefully conscripted to work for slave wages in the mines, catch tuberculosis and other deadly diseases, this church distorted the Bible justify apartheid as holy.
The collusion meant that while the Nats and their capitalist backers openly advocated for the gross abuse and domination of black people, the Dutch Reformed Church used the pulpit to make the abnormal sound normal.
It was this unholy alliance that gave rise to the Dutch Reformed Church being labelled as the ‘National Party at prayer’.
Nonetheless I do not wish to suggest that every member of the Dutch Reformed Church, dead or alive, wittingly or unwittingly, supported apartheid. I am arguing that the church stood for a heretical doctrine. One that claimed blacks were children of a lesser God and an inferior to whites.
Fortunately, even in those days of apartheid tyranny, courageous theologians such as Dr Beyers Naudé and later Right Reverend Allan Boesak rose against their church. These men and women of faith who challenged this gross abuse and distortion of the Christian texts did so at a great cost to themselves and their families.
Since the brutality of colonialism and apartheid capitalism hit our shores, various men and women of faith have provided formidable leadership by promoting the idea of a God, of equality and justice for all.
African independent churches as well as those mainstream Christian institutions were integral in advancing African nationalism and the birth of the ANC in 1912. .
Over the years South Africa has produced leaders such as Father Trevor Huddleston, Archbishop Dennis Hurley, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Simon Gqubule, Manas Buthelezi, Sister Bernard Ncube, Reverends Jo Seoka, Mcebisi Xundu and many others. These Christians provided witness and fought with the oppressed and the downtrodden.
No religious power or system of belief systems should make us justify the abuse of others in our society. Under no circumstances should we use the name of God, Allah, Qamatha, Mvelinqangi, Budha, Moses, Jesus or any other prophet of God to commit crimes or violate the rights of others.
Under no circumstances should we abuse our women, children, the elderly, and the physically weak, foreign nationals and those we employ or manage, in God’s name.
When we abuse fellow human beings, we have turned our backs on God, the church and have lost the path of righteousness. When we are silent about human rights abuses and the breaking of the law in our centres of worship, we are no longer for righteousness and social cohesive in society.
The ailing Archbishop Emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Mpilo Tutu illuminates this point.
Faith gives us a centre of moral gravity. Faith calls us to order when we are arrogant.
When Africans in particular are disrespected and their rights violated in the name of freedom of speech, churches and other faithbased organisations must stand up strongly to denounce that.
Against immense odds, we are doing our best in the SA Police Service to act in accordance with the constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Above all, we endeavour to act with a firm belief that we all account to a supreme being. We are committed to justice and the rule of law. The SAPS is not a perfect institution, but one that strives to do right every time.
We are gravely concerned about crimes against women and children, drug and alcohol abuse in our society. The continuing senseless murder of SAPS members is deeply disturbing.
In the SAPS we understand that commitment to faith is realised in practice through the legacy one creates and lives behind. The Dutch Reformed Church of the apartheid era evokes terrifying memories.
On the other hand, liberation theologians who were at the forefront of fighting for equality, justice and peace, give all of who believe in God, a great sense of pride.
The big question today, is what kind of legacies are our churches and other faith-based organisations leaving behind, given a plethora of crimes and ills that afflict our society today?