Church is filling void

PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma is wrong to call for church leaders to stop meddling in politics. Addressing members of the Twelve Apostles Church in Christ during their International Thanksgiving Day celebrations at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on Sunday, the president seemed to forget the pivotal role members of the cloth played in the liberation Struggle.

He said it was sad “to see church leaders getting mired into matters of politics instead of praying for leaders”.

This is worrying, considering that it was church leaders who opened their doors to liberation Struggle heroes who sought hideouts from police at the height of apartheid.

During the June 1976 uprisings, for example, the Regina Mundi church in Soweto was a sanctuary to students who fled police bullets and teargas. The church allowed activists and political leaders to hold meetings and political rallies under its roof.

More recently, amid the battle over university fees, another clergyman, Father Graham Pugin, opened the doors of the Holy Trinity Catholic church to Wits University students who fled police rubber bullets or needed a place to hold meetings away from their campus. His good deed was repaid by rubber bullets to the face.

Zuma seems to have a problem with those who have criticised his leadership and asked for him to step down, such as Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and Archbishops Njongonkulu Ndungane and Thabo Makgoba.

We can’t forget that people like Tutu, who led the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, played a key role in facilitating reconciliation at the dawn of democracy.

If the church is to pray for South Africa, as Zuma suggests, it also needs to be involved in everything that drives the country, so that it can know how to channel prayers.

The church has continued to play a key role in communities in the absence of political leadership, filling a vacuum and providing help to distressed societies. Its role must be recognised and supported.