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

REV HOFFMEISTER: So, I think the submission will therefore focus on the experience   of our church prior to 1987 and also subsequent to that. We as representatives   are deeply aware of our constituency that we represent, people that have suffered   and experienced a great deal of suffering, people like Fenus Mapetu, Simon Lukwe,   Gideon Makanja and the late John Darries, the late Reverend Kumalo, Mahola etc.   And we therefore are deeply thankful to the Commission for granting us the privilege   to place before this ...[indistinct], the experience of Black Baptists in this   country.
I want to elude briefly to the struggle of Black Baptists against apartheid   in this country. The struggle for Black Baptists against apartheid was a struggle   within the church, it was also a struggle to justify one's fight against that   system to a church that was providing the moral, spiritual support for that   system. The struggle meant challenging the import ...[indistinct] theological   framework labelled as "Conservative Evangelical".
This framework had an inherent arrogance that gave itself the right to declare   that it discovered absolute truth all on it's own, it refused to accept the   european cultural, social or political framework within this theology was formed.   This led to a debilitating separatist ...[indistinct] mentality fuelled by such   concepts as the remnant who were prosecutors and custodians of God's truth and   values. 
I just want to highlight some of the effects of this theology
It ...[indistinct] life for Black christians between secular and spiritual   and so it made us as Black christians, to separate our faith experience with   our life experience. I mention for example, personally as a theological student   while studying theology in the 1980's, living within a stones throw away from   St Barnabus where many historical resolutions were taken by people like yourself   Sir, Doctor Boesak, Naude and Chikane, and how that I could not reconcile those   historic developments with theology. That that event did not inform my theology   because it was politics and it was separate from my reality.
And so we live the kind of dichotomised life that was reflected in statements   like "You can rather send a man to heaven hungry than to send him to hell   with a full stomach". Students at college - you know institutions, were   victimised for taking part in simple marches like Pollsmoor, to call for the   freedom of our President today, as well as also observing alternative holidays   in those days like June the 16th. This was a dichotomy - it was also a dichotomy,   it was also a theology that made Black Baptist to embrace the fears of Whites.
I refer to our submission to similar experience in the United States where   the great leader Malcolm X talked about two kinds of Black people and those   times, the house slave and the field slave and how that house slave developed   and ethos, an experience to associate life his life experience with the master   so that when the master was sick, he felt the same pain as the master felt and   said "Master, we are sick".
And in some ways we have as Black Baptists - when there was liberation in our   country or also significant processes, we were deprived by our theology to enter   into those experiences because inheriting that theology was the same fears of   White people. The difficult thing for us therefore as Black Baptists, was not   that we faced the threat of communism or the threat of liberation theology but   the pain of our experience is that our oppression came from our sisters and   brothers.
We place ...[indistinct] on record however, even though we have not participated   as we should have as Black Baptists in the struggle for liberation, we thank   God for our international Baptist community, particularly our African/American   Baptist community who made a major contribution to our liberation. We thank   God for people like Jesse Jackson, Senator Bill Grey, Charles Adams, W Smith,   Wyate Walker, Clifford Jones, Jerry Sanders and even Leon Sullivan, for formulating   the Sullivan principles.
The Baptist World Alliance exerted continued pressure on the apartheid government   even though they did not do enough. Individuals, such as Keith Clemmence, the   present General Secretary of the European Council of Churches as well as Pierre   ...[indistinct] a Norwegian church person, the American Baptist Churches in   their fight for disinvestemnt was the forefront of this campaign.
In 1987, when we separated from the Baptist Union, we had to go on a journey   to discover our rich Baptist heritage of liberation and freedom, we had to embrace   people like Doctor Martin Luther King Junior and also the great President Doctor   Jimmy Carter. ...[indistinct] the true Baptists have a reputation of being troublemakers   - if fighting for freedom, is considered making trouble and yes, Baptists have   a history of non-conformance.
Baptists were amongst the first free church type who refused to acknowledge   the King and Queen, ...[indistinct] or any other secular person, as the head   of the church and for this killed and martyred. And today we accept - it is   with deep sadness that we regret that we, both Black and White Baptists have   betrayed our ancestors and have not pursued the freedom fight with the kind   of vigour and commitment demanded by our own tradition.
We have all been responsible for selling out our ancestors and defrocking our   heritage of it's radical socio-political edge, allowing apartheid ideology to   co-opt and relegate Baptist theology to racial exclusive church bench on a Sunday   morning. 
We want to note Sir, that we have had Baptists - we had to make choices and   that we as a Baptist community disowned by our practices, those who were conscripts,   those who suffered in Robben Island, those were in exile. And in 1977, when   we were still part of the Baptist Union that reflected our ethos, it was the   100 years celebration of the Baptist Union of Southern Africa and at that time,   to open that occasion the then State President, the Honourable Doctor Jim Fouche   was asked to come.
At that same assembly it was announced that Steve Biko had died and would be   buried that same Saturday. A resolution was taken that we should not express   ourselves in any way, on the death of Steve Biko as that had no consequence   to us. That demonstrated to us our ...[indistinct] as Baptists at that particular   time. 
We have amongst our ranks ordinary pastors like Pastor Lukwe, who - all he   did was make the hall of his church available to the United Democratic Front   at that time and was threatened by fellow Baptists to stop that kind of action.   He was imprisoned, his wife came home and found that they were evicted from   their manse, only because they made the hall of the church available to that   community.
We have people like Gideon Makanje that was arrested and that was interrogated   by fellow Baptists. We have the late John Darries coming from a Baptist World   Alliance Meeting and taken from the aircraft at Jan Smuts and taken to John   Vorster Square for interrogation. We have a Baptist Missionary on the role of   the Baptist Union, arrested in Zambia because he was found to be involved with   dubious activities with the South African Defence Force. 
The Baptist Union, the Baptists in general have embraced the military establishment,   they've elected people that were in high office of the South African Defence   Force, to the highest position of leadership. In 1989, the Baptists showed their   colours by holding the annual assembly in the barracks of the South African   Defence Force in Kimberly. 
For these things, we as Baptists today feel ashamed but God has given us a   second chance, God has given a vision called "Vision Jubilee 2010"   and God has given to us as Black Baptists, a promise that we believe he will   fulfil and it says "I will restore to you the years that the locust have   eaten".
We know that God is going to help us to work towards the economic reconstruction   of our country, to help us to re-educate theologically our constituency from   a process of dependency to liberation. He will help us also to develop programmes   of development, he will help us to develop leadership and to take our place   as a reconciled community.
Amidst all of this pain and suffering we have kept our hands out to our sisters   and brothers within the Baptist Union, to seek reconciliation on the basis of   truth and justice. We thank God that the atmosphere amongst us has increased   dramatically to make that possible. We thank God that we've committed ourselves   next year to a Baptist Truth and Reconciliation Commission where we can expose   our pain and ask those difficult questions - to seek forgiveness, repentance   and healing and restitution.
There is much work to be done but we make a promise that as sure as we are   seated here and we are sure that the promises that God has given to us, that   we will take up our place as a Baptist community in rebuilding our country,   in fighting poverty and developing the human resources of our people. 
We thank you for these moments even though we had to shorten it dramatically   to contribute to what we are saying. We thank God for your leadership Sir, for   the TRC and we thank God that we were able in a small way, to participate and   endorse in our assemblies the objectives of this Committee both by ourselves   and by our international partners. I thank you Sir.