Abstract
Prophetic mission praxis is increasingly becoming difficult in the democratic South Africa. This article unearths and analyses the prophetic role played by faith communities in South Africa during the apartheid regime. It focuses on different approaches adopted by each of the major faith communities in response to apartheid. The author categorises the role of faith communities into three viz; those that supported apartheid, those that rejected it and those that adopted what he refers to as 'quiet diplomacy' with regards to apartheid. Apart from Christian faith communities, the author also analyses the role played by other faith communities such as Islam and African Traditional Religions. Having this in mind, the author looks at the current situation with regards to the prophetic role of faith communities in the democratic South Africa and thereafter proposes a way forward for a relevant prophetic mission praxis.
Highlights
To sum up the above rejections of apartheid, the very 1990 General Synod made a unanimous declaration on the official position of the DRC on apartheid: The Dutch Reformed Church states that the handling of apartheid as a political and social system of injustice for most people and empowers one group above others, cannot be acceptable on the basis of Christian ethics because it is in conflict with the principle of neighbourly love and endangers the humanity of all involved
The meeting took place on 13 August 1963 with an aim to; “meet together to try to work out the implications of the Kingdom of God for the people of the country” (Randall 1982:28; cf 2.4.2; see Heaney 2004:82). This purpose is further outlined by Kistner (1995:41) : “To draw attention to the injustice and disruption caused by the apartheid system in South African society and in the churches
This article revealed an interesting scenario with regards to the reaction of faith communities to apartheid
Summary
Since 1948, the synods, conferences, and assemblies of the churches have protested against every piece of legislation they have considered unjust...The churches have spoken against race classification; the forced removal of population groups due to the Group Areas Act; the Immorality Act and Mixed Marriages Act, designed to preserve racial purity; the various education acts which have created separate kinds of education along ethnic lines; job reservations... (De Gruchy 1986:88). De Gruchy (1986:58) referring to Christian communities writes that “some regard racial separation as scriptural, some as blatantly unscriptural, and others as pragmatically necessary but not ideal.”. Notable examples are the late Drr Nico Smith and Beyers Naudé. Another figure in the same category is Prof Willem Saayman, an Afrikaner whose Afrikaans accent, according to Kgatla (in Karecki 2002:46) “testifies to this fact because his ‘r’ sounds are prominently pronounced” and who, according to Botha (in Saayman 2007:vii), was so trusted that he was elected ANC chairperson of the Pretoria branch at some stage. The reactions were marked by divides among faith communities with regards to the approaches to fight this system. This article attempts to outline and analyse the dynamics of these divides with regards to faith communities’ approach to apartheid and how this could be a lesson in post-apartheid SA and beyond
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