Special Hearings — Faith Community Hearings — 1997-11-17

REV HOLLNESS: Archbishop and Commissioners, I'll try to be a brief Baptist   confining myself to four minutes. My task is to summarise briefly what the Baptist   Union of Southern Africa did ...[no sound] We certainly didn't do enough, we   were too pietistic and theoretical and we didn't do justice to our own Baptist   heritage which is rich in it's prophetic witness to society.
Compared to some, our contribution is modest but nevertheless it should not   be overlooked. Many individual Baptists actively opposed apartheid, others exercised   a ministry of caring and compassion. Some local congregations protested against   iniquitous practices such as forced removals, in one instance by standing in   front of the bulldozers and on another by symbolically planting orange trees.
Baptists were prominent in opposing and in fact changing the law relating to   military conscription. Whilst principle was often not converted into practice,   the Baptist Union consistently and frequently expressed it's rejection of apartheid   through assembly pronouncement, correspondence and delegations to the government.   Apartheid was rejected on both theological and compassionate grounds, it was   sinful and immoral and hurtful, not to mention unworkable.
I quote a few examples to illustrate our Baptist Union position over the past   half century. The 1948 assembly condemned - quote 
Social and economic injustice of early apartheid and the breaking of solemn   pledges given to the non-european people of the Union. The 1949 assembly condemned   the economic and political repression of the apartheid system and urged the   government not to remove coloured voters from the voters role and to repeal   the Mixed Marriages Act.
The Baptist Union rejected so-called Bantu education and would not operate   it's mission schools within this system. In 1957, the Baptist Union threatened   civil disobedience when the government tried unsuccessfully to enforce segregated   church worship.
The 1985 assembly authorised a letter to the State President, which declared   unequivocally that apartheid is an evil which needs to be repented of and urged   it's immediate dismantling. It also called - quote
On the basis of true christian justice for universal franchise, one national   education system, the abolition of influx control and the dom pass, equal pay   for equal work, the accountability of the South African Defence Force and police   forces, the termination of the state of emergency and of detention without trial,   the removal of the group areas act and the release of political prisoners and   the return of political exiles.
Our assembly resolutions were defective in several ways, notably in their caution,   limited focus and theoretical nature. They were however, a sincere attempt to   relate biblical principles to South African society. Assembly resolutions did   not put all the blame on government policies, many recognised the weaknesses   in our own denominational structures and practice. 
The 1991 assembly agreed that even though we can't bear all the blame for apartheid,   we can't ignore our part in it - it was sinful, hurtful and wrong. The assembly   confessed that as Baptists, we too have been guilty. We have sinned in our attitudes   and in our actions, for this we humbly repent. We acknowledge that true repentance   will go beyond mere words and will manifest itself in a change of attitude and   in positive action.
Then followed a commitment to be involved in the process of building a new   nation. This assembly therefore urges the Baptist Union and all it's constituent   churches to exercise a constituent prophetic ministry and to work for the creation   of a new society, based on the biblical principles of respect, justice and righteousness.   We shall seek - by precept and by practice, to bring about a moral and spiritual   reformation in all aspects of our community life. 
Commissioners, it is in this spirit and with this commitment that we appear   before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, thank you.