The Good News that Empowers Us
Transition is a trying experience. We have endured a three year gestation period since the February 1990 announcement of a new birth for South Africa, and some are asking if the annunciation was real. The labour pains have been almost unendurable.
Long after Pharoah was forced to Iet them go, the burden of the transition to a new society caused some Israelites to hanker for the past “Why did we not die at Yahweh’s hand in the land of Egypt when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our hearts content? As it is, you have brought us to this wilderness to starve this whole company to death!” (1) In the time of the Prophets, after returning from exile, and when Jesus' followers were establishing the Christian Way, transition was found to be a time of tension, a mixture of joy and dismay, of achievement and impatience. It is a feature of great social change: writing Magna Cartas, Declarations of Independence or Freedom Charters is much easier than transformIng
The danger of being misled, the temptation of using the Gospel to support a subsidiary interest of race, class, nation, gender or denomination is very real and the Church can lose its way. We are back to the threat of pseudo-gospels with whIch we began twenty five years ago, and because pseudo-gospels are promoted by people who believe in the Gospel and defended by reference to the Gospel, they easily become corruptions of the Gospel as happened with apartheid. The uncertainties of transition can tempt us to make idols of any concerns to which we cling, from politics to religion.
“If the Church is not clearly a community of people who are liberated to accept each other truly, and to exploit a freedom which is elsewhere denied, the Church itself will have betrayed one of its basic characteristics: It will have broken a primary bond which links it to the Kingdom of God: it will have become the servant of a pseudo-gospel.” (2)
We carry into this period much experience and unfinished busIness from the Message and SPROCAS and Black Theology, and the years of repression, gaol and death. Many of the tunes we sang in those days still ring in our ears and the themes whIch emerged must be brought to conclusion in a liberated society. Many of our political and economic questions are at root theological questions, “grounded as they are ini biblical propheticc presuppositions, spiritual forms in secular garb which the church can no longer afford to ignore.” (3)
What theological contribution can lead our march towards the new South Africa, which will send the pseudo-gospels packing, and enable us to hear the
Good News that empowers us in building the new society?
1. A theology that empowers TOGETHERNESS.
During the struggle a vision emerged of people who had discovered a new community. We experienced the type of unity that ordinary Christians discovered in the days of Paul: Christ drew them out of their old segments into a life in which “there are no more distinctions between Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female,” (4) a community which defeated divisive evils.
Bishop Manas Buthelezi expounded this as it affected the church during the 1988 SACC Conference: "While ecumenical theologians of Faith and Order and others are still seeking convergence in understanding certain key matters of doctrine and practice, people in the pews have gone beyond seeking. They have sought and apparently found what professlonal theologians are still seeking. That is on the level of peoples ecumenism. The tents pitched for funeral night vigils are the new cathedrals and sanctuaries of popular ecumenism. There you find Catholics, Lutherans, Zionists, Methodists etc all doing their holy thing peacefully together, not worried by any theological scruples ... Are these the makings of a “people's church” that transcends denominational affiliations? It may very well be so.” (5) Bishop Tutu testified to the Eloff Commission that "this divine movement in which the SACC and its member churches are caught up ... is for bringing together, for uniting, for reconciling, for atoning. The only separation the Bible knows is between believers on the one hand and unbelievers on the other. Any other kind of separation, division, disunity is of the devil. It is evil and from sin.” (6)
The togetherness we discovered in the struggle was not limited to people of Christian faith. Maulana Farid Essack who knelt in the street to pray with Church leaders in CapeTown before they were all arrested in 1988 said: “They did not ask us if we were Muslim or Christian when they declared Claremont and Constantia white. They did not ask if we were Hindus or Muslims when they teargassed us; nor do they enquire about our religion when they kill our children on the streets. Side by side Apartheid has sought to dehumnanise us and side by side we shall work to destroy It and create a new South Africa.” (7)
Many efforts are now being made to undo that unity and take us back to separateness, not to re-legalise apartheid, but to reinforce divisions between tribe and party, township and suburb, urban and rural, affluent and impoverished, elite versus the ordinary people and church versus church.It is done with the guile and fervour of a pseudo-gospel.
The House of God
In this case, as in many others, “judgment begins at the house of God.” (8) Are the churches singing songs of liberation with the people, or singing songs to themselves inside the excluding walls of eccleiastical separate development? Do we enact the united community to which we are called at the level of leadership, the people in the congregations, and the people in the street? Are we emphasising the universality of God and the unity of the people of God, or is this lip service hiding a greater commitment to our local bethels and prestige in our own denominations?
Theologically, the Church is one. Beyond the traditions of our separate groups and the comfortable clinging to power within them, beyond black and white and the use of tribalism for gain, beyond the quest for affluence, beyond acquiescence to western control, beyond the guns and violence and fear, beyond the subtleties of pseudo-gospels, the church is challenged to proclaim the good news that empowers a new community in South Africa.
2. A theology that empowers Religion
Religion played a major part in the struggle. God was with us. Even though we had no power at all and it seemed the darkness and suffering would go on for ever, we never doubted that the God of liberation was with us and would save us. The thing that kept us going all those years was not money, guns, education, jobs, votes, or political idealism but faith.
This was true of the Israelites in the long wanderings in the desert with Moses after their escape from oppression in Egypt, and in later periods too when they had no centralised authority to lean on, or their leaders were exiled, or their country overrun by tyrannical empires. They were powerless, but their faith inspired and led them, and they were delivered.
During this stage of transition many people have moved from reliance on faith to reliance on power. The problem is not the legitimacy of possessing votes, houses, food, clothes, and the material things of life which are part of the Good News promised by the prophets and Jesus(9) , but in putting the love of such perquisites of power before our God, our community and ourselves. Bishop Manas Buthelezi saw the danger in the past:
“In the course of its struggle for existence within the political dynamics of the time, the church got trapped in the political establishment and became the servant of the power of the state instead of that of the Gospel.... In hindsight we can now blame the church for having taken twenty centuries before exercising any effective vigilance to halt the development.” (10)
The danger in these days of transition is that people will attempt to re-colonise religion, to take us back to the period when religion was not the focus of a God who liberated all the people, but a tribal idol who cared for the people of Blood River, the English, the capitalists, the denominations, the blacks, the whites, or the Christians.
Theology in the context of transition can empower us to build on the vast religious roots of our people, and let faith be free and flourish in the liberated territory.
3. The theology of a gospel that empowers justice.
Like all the prophets, the peasant Micah was concerned that the society of Israel had become so corrupt that it would be destroyed, and he spells out the behaviour that God requires to stem the rot: “to act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God.” (11) The good news of Jesus that the power of God is present in the human community to empower precisely this underlies our pursuit of justice.
Essentially the struggle was for justice: human rights, land, education, health, ecology, opportunity are at the heart of it, and need the spotlight of theological reflection to fall on them all.
One of the strongest themes that emerged in past decades was a theology that empowered the poor not because the affluent were kind, but because the poor were human. In the struggle we had "the courage to outgrow the charity mentality and see that at the bottom of all relations between rich and poor there is a problem of justice,” to use the words of Dom Helder Camara.
Speaking of the necessity of “a courageous theology” at the Black Renaissance Convention Dr Mans Buthelezi said that the black man was “waiting for a theology that wrestles with the question of the restoration and distribution of power ... The Bible teaches that man was given the right to share in the fruits of the garden of Eden. God continually produces his gifts of life and places them at the disposal of man whom he created. Man was not created for poverty. Poverty is a creation of the greed of man who gobbles not only what bclongs to hlm but also what belongs to others ... There is a cry for a theology that wrestles with these questions and tries to find answers.” (12)
Transforming
It was during our struggle that the whole world began to see that Christianity was not about preserving the wealth and weight of the West, but about transforming the oppressed. “The recovery, in our time, of the bias of the gospel to the materially poor is a momentous theological and pastoral event, a profound challenge … To be poor is to suffer not just lack, but an injustice that has a structural basis in the society within which one lives,” wrote Dr J Cochrane. (13)
We also saw that this injustice was often supported by affluent Christians who had to face a rebirth of insight and values like Nichodemus. “The study of social and economic injustice has now, beyond doubt, revealed that there are Christians who support and benefit from such unjust social structures as the current global economic order, transnational corporations, and Apartheid. Is the church's commitment to removing the root cause of social and economlc injustice strong enough to lead to a common Christian struggle for dismantling such structures of injustice?” asked Dr Sibusiso Bengu. (14)
People are poor because economic systems make them poor and direct riches to the affluent. Economies are designed to benefit the “haves” in direct defiance of the Gospel which brings good news to the “have nots.” We are assured in scripture, and our own prophets have endorsed it, that societies cannot survive if they ignore the gospel call to provide first for the needs of the poor. All the prophets say that the society that is unjust will be destroyed – temple, nation and city.
What did we learn from Sanctions? The first thing, said Frank Chikane to the Convocation in 1988, was that the priority in the country and the West was not to get rid of black suffering, but “how businesses can continue to keep up their privileges and benefit from the system.” (15) Yet we discovered that powerful political and economic systems are vulnerable, that affluent Christians (including those in the West) do listen and respond, and that the agenda of the poor can be heeded. It does not matter how strong the economic system seems to be, nor how many guns defend it: if such systems ignore the scriptural imperative to put the poor first those systems are unsustainable. God has a sanction against them: the theology was right and it worked.
In the Black Consciousness period, Barney Pityana quoted James NgugI with enthusiasm: “I believe the Church could return to (or learn lessons from) the primitive communism of the early Christian church of Peter and Paul, and the
communalism of the traditional African society …”(16)
The theme is that although our country seems set on a course of economic disaster, if we set out to respond to the Gospel priorities we shall discover the methodology to empower the hungry, the thlrsty, the naked, the homeless, the sick, the lonely, and the oppressed. (17) No one suggests it will be easy: it is clearly a godly task: but that way alone leads to enpowerment and progress.
The Good News of the empowerment of the oppressed also requires a theology of democracy. “The vote” has been a major focus all through the struggle and has not yet been achieved, although no serious theologian denies it. What has failed to take our attention has been the form and quality of dcmocracy, the theological understanding of God-in-the-people. The word was coined after scriptural times, but the principle of government, the voice and responsibility of the community, the indwelling of the Spirit of God amongst humans to guide and empower them, the proclamation of God's ruling power on Earth: these are all there, but we have neglected our task here. Are we to go to the polls with no theological guidance on principles (not policies) or power (not persons)? What is the word of the God who exerts power through powerlessness? What does it mean that Christ is known in community? (18)
Much of the input we need in this period of transition we must expect to receive through the empowerment of women. Women were not the only ones who suffered the injustice of their exclusion: the whole human community was impoverished. “Feminism is about a different consciousness, a radically transformed perspective which questions our social, cultural, political and religious traditions and calls for structural change in these spheres .. A femInist liberation view also believes there is no valid dichotomy between the private and public areas of life. In fact, their maintenance as separate spheres assists in perpetuating domination and control because of ex-cessive preoccupation with personal morality at the expense of a social conscience, leading to the failure of a sufficient theoretical foundation for social and gender justice,” writes Dr Denise Ackermann. (19) “For the church to become a liberation community a process of democratisation will have to take place which allows all to minister according to their gifts, coupled with a gospel understanding of authority as a service which is vested in the comniunlty as a whoIe.” (20)
4. A theology to empower Evangelism in our context
One of the clear conclusions many appear to have reached during the 25 years of the SACC involvement in the struggle, was that although personal evangelism continued to be a crucial element of the Gospel, our inherited methods of offering Christ to the people needed examination in the context of South Africa today.
At the 1988 Convocation Frank Chikane had said that “the awakening of the social conscience and a knowledge of truth are central to evangelisation, and essential elements for preachlng, liturgy, catechetics, and Christian formation - indeed, for church work and witness as a whole.” (21)
During the transition some seem anxious to revive a 19th century theology as the remedy for 20th century people, which has all the trappings of a pseudo-gospel and calls for earnest consideration by all Christians.
There is crying need for the message of Jesus Christ.
In the aftermath of apartheid many people are lost and need the good news of a saviour who offers them a personal rebirth. Some have been reared on notions which they now know were heretical; some hid from God in individualistic religion or traditionalist cul-de-sacs; others rejcted a false pseudo-gospel but never heard the new one. Many respectable people In our society are riddled with corruption, avarice, immoraIity, pride and fear. Violent actions betray our brutal spirits. We are sinners who need to be born again.
In the aftermath of apartheid we are a nation of wounded people who need healing. We need a way to expiate the horrors we have inflicted upon one another. So much blood has flowed that fear and resentment is high; the rich and the poor, the elites and the masses, the workers and the jobless still vie with each other.
Damaged, Divided
The church has beeen damaged and divided by the struggle, people are shattered and confused, and society comes into the transition limping and stained from the depravations of apartheid. We need the good news of a healthy life of reconciliation and tolerance.
In the aftermath of apartheid we know that the racist laws are gone but the desire to exploit remains. Hunger, poverty, ignorance and disease are more widespread, the rich are richer and the poor are poorer than they were 25 years ago. The struggle continues to restore to our society what was lost in the years of oppression and exploitation, to experience a new era of God's ruling power in all our affairs, and discover a new social, political and economic dispensation.
This is the Mission of God which fires our vision, to which we witness, and the Christ who does these things is the empowerment of evangelism. The Gospel empowers because Christ lives in our context.
5. Prophets of Hope in the continuing struggle
No survey of the theological insights we gained during the years of peril can be complete without recording that God kept our hope alive through prophets. Poets, politicians, and preachers appeared who helped disarm our fears and keep our eye on victory. Some became famous household names, some had great local Influence, others are long since buried, but between them they passed on a torch that gave life and light during the nightmare. Viva!
Our theology of Hope is linked to the men and women of vision who the people of God have always needed and always been given: what we need to survive this transition today is prophets.
Dr Beyers Naude, then General Secretary of the SACC, once said that the churches should be much more aware of “the need to obtain for themselves a vision of a future South Africa, of a political, economic and social system which would be more in accordance with the demands of justice and love of the gospel ... The lack of clarity In this regard within the churches, the disunity within our own ranks of what we understand the demands of the gospel to be, and the lack of preparation in study, research and guidance of the thoughts of our membership regarding the future of our country is something we should .. seek to rectify as soon as possible.” (22)
Charles Vllla-Vicencio lists the demands the church should make for the new South Africa, but admits it is “little more than romantic rhetoric, if not grounded in a progressive cultural renaissance which sustains the nation in its quest for renewal. The goals can only be considered options to the extent that society is inspired by ideals, and can only be attained through a culture that allows this process to happen.” (23)
The 1988 Convocation, working with the smell of tear gas in the air, said a similar thing: “The task of mobilising the church at the grassroots level lies ahead of us, and without this mobilisation, education and organisation, the gains made at the Convocation will be completely lost.” (24)
Whilst it is true that there are kairos times when the moment seems ripe for society to make a great step forward, our experience in the struggle of God, not only now but for thousands of years, is that God sends prophets. These are the catalysts who give us the ideals, the vision, the courage,to turn the dreams and rhetoric and culture into reality. Very seldom do prophets appear on the scene as leaders of religlous or political movements, though they may become them. More usually, they are ordinary people who have a trust in the power of God amongst us to transcend our problems, a vision of the future that sees the dawn beyond the darkest night, and the willingness to stick their necks out.
You maybe?
Speaking at the Baptist Convention the Rev Caesar Molebatsi spoke of the delights of being on the mountain top to see the glory of the Lord:
“From the top you see the beauty of the valleys,
the marvellous vineyards of God.
But there is no fruit on the mountain top.
It is time to go back down into the valley where the fruit grows.” (25)
NOTES
1. Exodus 16:3 [back]
2. J Davies, ibid, p12 [back]
3. Arend van Leeuwen Christianity in World History [back]
4. Galatians 3:27 [back]
5. Church Action in the South African Crisis ibid p 16 [back]
6. D Tutu, On Trial, ibid [back]
7. At a meeting in Cape Town 1986 [back]
8. 1 Peter 4:17 [back]
9. Luke 4 [back]
10. Church Action in the South African Crisis, ibid p13 [back]
11. Micah 6:8 [back]
12. Black Renaissance Convention, Ravan press, 1975 p23 [back]
13. J Cochrane, In Word and Deed, Cluster Publications 1991, p61 [back]
14. S Bengu, Mirror or Model? Lutheran World Ministries 1984, p78 [back]
15. Church Action in the South African Crisis, ibid p168 [back]
16. Black Theology, ibid p42 [back]
17. Matthew 25.31ff [back]
18. But see The Road to Democracy, ICT 1993 [back]
19. In Word and Deed, ibid p107 [back]
20. Ibid [back]
21. See note 14 [back]
22. In Word and Deed, ibid p123 [back]
23. Charles Villa-Vicencio, A Theology of Reconstruction, David Philip 1992 p251 [back]
24. Church Action in the South African Crisis, ibid p162 [back]
25. Barkly West national Awareness Workshop, ibid p68 [back]
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