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April/May
2002
The
new Centre for Public Theology at Stellenbosch University is 'to further
the cause of Dr Beyers Naude.'
Dear
Friends,
On 19.4.2002
Die Burger reported that a new Centre for Public Theology is being established
at the University of Stellenbosch and named in honour of the Liberation
Theologian Dr Christiaan Beyers Naudé. All "documents, photos,
videos and newspaper cuttings concerning Naudé's life" are
to be housed there some donated by the Netherlands and some, it is hoped,
by IDASA. Prof. Chris Brink, the new Rektor, together with Professors
Danie Louw, Dean of the Faculty of Theology, and Russel Botman, Director
of the new Beyers Naudé Centre, travelled up to Johannesburg to
"say thank you" to Dr Beyers Naudé for allow-ing the
university to "link his name to the new Centre." Prof. Brink
reportedly told him that through the new Centre "Stellenbosch wants
to try and purposefully take part in the discussions in the land."
Prof Louw added that "Theology has a debt of honour to help repair
the damage which Apartheid has done to society." Hence, the centre
would be used "for research about questions which will help build
the future." He assured Dr Beyers Naudé: "We want to
further the cause for which you have stood, in an academic-scientific
manner." Prof Botman then said that "the Centre would interact
with other disciplines and spheres of society to determine the central
and critical questions which must be studied." Only one thing still
needs to be discussed, namely whether "the South African Council
of Churches' Parliamentary Office" could do its "research"
at the Centre for matters it wished to put before Parliament.
Dr Christiaan
Frederick Beyers Naudé is an old Stellenbosch student. The son
of a distinguished Dutch Reformed minister, he received an MA degree in
languages and another in theology in 1939. For 20 years he served as a
Dutch Reformed minister and eventually district moderator. But in the
aftermath of Sharpe-ville (1960) he aligned himself with the World Council
of Churches' condemnation of apartheid and in 1963 founded the Christian
Institute (CI), which promoted an ever more radical Liberation Theology
until, in 1977, Naudé and the Institute were banned. He was defrocked
by the DRC for his inter-faith activities and joined the African Reformed
Church. In 1984 he succeeded Desmond Tutu as secretary-general of the
SA Council of Churches. Finally, in 1992, State President FW de Klerk
nominated him to take part in the constitutional talks. Though Dr Naudé
was not actually a member of the ANC, it is interesting to note that on
his 80th birthday on 23 May 1995 State President Nelson Mandela paid tribute
to him as "a hero of our people… standing in the tradition of
great Afrikaners and Patriots like Braam Fischer…" 1)
But who
was Braam Fischer? - He was the brilliant son of a distinguished Orange
Free State family. He became a leader in the South African Communist Party,
raised international support for its cause, and dedicated himself to the
"armed overthrow of the white state". In 1966 he was tried and
sentenced to life imprisonment and, in recognition of his work was afterwards
awarded the Lenin Peace Prize by Moscow. 2)
When a Dean
of the Dept of Theology of Stellenbosch University says to Dr Beyers Naudé:
"We want to further the cause for which you have stood," what
cause does he mean? - Dr Naudé's cause was Libera-tion Theology,
i.e. the misuse of the Christian religion for Marxist revolutionary purposes.
The best-known examples of this "theology" are the "Kairos
Document" and "The Road to Damascus," both signed by Dr
Naudé. The former is a call to the S.A. churches to get involved
in political violence, and the second was an attack on all churches who
refused to do so. Rachel Tingle of the Christian Studies Centre, London,
reported: "[The Kairos Document] was published in September 1985
and presented to the world by the then General Secretary of the SACC,
Dr Beyers Naudé, at a press conference at the World Council of
Churches' headquarters in Geneva." 3) Both documents were mass-translated
and mass-circulated and used most successfully in the international political,
religious, psychological, and economic war against South Africa. - In
Biblical terms "Kairos" means "the moment of divine grace"
as in Galatians 4:4-5: "When the fulness of the time was come, God
sent forth his Son… to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons." But in Liberation Theology
"Kairos" means the moment which the Church must seize for political
action. In the Kairos Document the Christian concepts: Love, Sin, Salvation,
Recon-ciliation, Justice and Peace were given a political interpretation.
Kairos summaries were distributed at universities, schools, church youth
clubs etc. Kairos training events taught the youth to understand and practise
the Bible in terms of political activism. - In 1991, Dr John Kane-Berman,
Director of the SA Institute of Race Relations, who himself stood out
against apartheid, blamed the Liberation Theologians for having "helped
to legitimate violence as an instrument of liberation." He said:
"Black people in the townships are reaping a whirlwind of violence
that the churches have helped to sow." 4)
Further,
in March 1986 a book of liturgies for Good Friday and Easter Sunday was
published. The aim of one Easter sermon was "to see the uprising
of the people as the resurrection of Christ in South Africa today."
5) Insurrection was thus blasphemously equated with Resurrection, perverting
the very heart of our religion. One prominent Liberation Theologian, the
Most Rev. Bill Burnett, a former Archbishop of Cape Town and officer of
the SACC, realised how wrong this was. He admitted: "We have fiddled
the Scriptures for ideological ends, and it may be we must bear some responsibility
for the awful breakdown of authority and random killings among young people,
including policemen. We too need to repent. Bad government is better than
no government and the terrible consequences of anarchy that must follow
the breakdown of authority. This is a terrible thing to have done. In
the light of… the carnage that ensued, we may need to look into our
own hearts, and to repent of our failure in leadership." 6) Liberation
Theology played a significant part in the demise of the Government of
Separate Development and the establishment of the Government of National
Unity. It also laid the spiritual foundations for the new South African
Constitution. Frank Chikane, the then SACC general secretary, had advised
the upcoming authorities: "The only viable option is a constitutionally
secular state where religion will be entirely independent of the state
and will operate completely unaided by the state…" 7) Hence,
in 1996, South Africa moved from being a covenant nation to a secular
state. It removed God from its constitution, though 70% of its people
were Christian and totally opposed to it. In those days Klaus Vaqué
wrote: "The attack against South Africa is not limited to the strategic
minerals and the control of the Cape route. It is also a satanic, end-time
attack on one of the last strong bastions of Christianity which stands
in the way of the Marxist 'New World Order' and its pseudo world church."
8) Liberation Theologians have encouraged the South African government
to promote the inter-faith and multi-religious paganism which now dominates
public life and is taught in our schools. Past President Nelson Mandela
praised Dr Beyers Naudé for this, saying at his 80th birthday party:
"We decided that we are going to live together. The Church, the Mosque,
the Temple and Synagogue, in short, all people of faith are to play their
part. Oom Bey and Tannie Ilse paved the way…" 9)
Let Bishop
Bill Burnett, who repented of this religion, explain: "The Scriptures
handed down to us begin with the affirmation: 'In the beginning God created
the Heaven and the Earth,'" he said. "In the fullness of time,
He gave us a Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord, to deliver us from darkness
into His light, and to lead us into all Truth. This truth is not man's
truth, but God's Truth. But now we are confronted with another 'truth'
called contextual or liberation Theology, which says 'In the beginning,
Man!' Here it is not God, but man, who determines what is to be done.
This is Humanism and not Theology at all. What we see now is the Cuckoo's
Nest syndrome - the false has neatly ensconced itself within the Church
and has been nurtured to such an extent that it is now replacing the true
teaching of the Church." 10)
What we
see at our academic institutions, and now in Stellenbosch in the establishment
of the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, is the Cuckoo's
Nest Syndrome, the false neatly ensconcing itself within the academic
institutions of a once Christian nation. Stellenbosch University has stood
for Christ and Christi-anity for 136 years and brought forth many great
Christians who were a blessing to this country. In spite of its present
decline South Africa is still the leading nation in Africa because of
its Christian heritage. But its educated people are losing the pearl of
great price and do not remember the treasure in the field. It is a sad
thing when the teachers of a nation become blind, for God says: "Where
there is no vision, the people perish; but he that keepeth the law [of
God], happy is he." (Prov. 29:18)
May God bless you richly,
D. Scarborough.
Footnotes:
1. Speech by President Nelson Mandela at the Celebration of Beyers Naudé's
80th Birthday, 23.5.95, issued by the Office of the President.
2. Henry R. Pike, A History of Communism in South Africa, Christian Mission
International of SA, 1985.
3. R Tingle, Revolution or Reconciliation? The Struggle in the Church
in South Africa, Christian Studies Centre, London, 1992.
4. SAIRR Press Release, 4 February 1991, quoted in R Tingle, Revolution
or Reconciliation, op.cit.
5. Rev. AH Jeffree-James, Political Violence and the Churches, Supplement
of Protestant Reveille, 1993.
6. Bill Burnett, Open letter addressed to the Christian community, December
1990, quoted in Prot. Reveille, op. cit.
7. Dr Frank Chikane, Freedom of Religion in a New South Africa; Believers
in the Future - Proceedings of the National Inter-Faith Conference on
Religion-State Relations, 1991.
8. Klaus D Vaqué, Verrat an Südafrika, pp 222, Varama Publishers,
1988.
9. Speech by President Nelson Mandela…, op. cit.
10. Rt Rev. B.B. Burnett, formerly Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Foreword
to Rachel Tingle's book Revolution or…? Op. cit.
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