Evening star., 1953-11-29
The Week in Religion
By RELIGIOUS News Service


South Africa are viewing with
satisfaction the results of an
interdenominational race rela-
tionS conference that may have
provided the key to Christian
unity on that country's touchy
racial problem.
The conference was held at
Pretoria. Called by the Federal
Missionary Council of the Dutch
Reformed Church. it was at
tended by $50 delegates from
the major Protestant denomi-
nations and missionary societies
in South Africa.
High officials of several de-
nominations have long opposed
the governments strict racial
segregation policy. And, as was
expected, Anglican. Methodist,
Congregational and other Pro-
testant churchmen spoke out
vigorously at the meeting against
this discrimination.
But the surprise Of the three
day sessions-and the chief rea-
son the conference has assumed
great Importance IN South At
rican eyes-was that a number
of leading Dutch Reformed
clergymen joined in the criti-
cism.
Until the Pretoria meeting, the
Dutch Reformed Church was
thought to be virtually unani-
nous in it's conviction that seq
regation was proper and justi-
fable.
Segregation had been acclaimed
again and again from Dutch
Reformed pulpits, and South
Africans had come to regard the
church of the dominant Afri-
kander people as virtual ally
of Prime Minister Daniel F.
Malan'S regime.
But the Pretoria meeting dem
onstrated that a considerable
group within the denomination
shared the anti-discrimination
views of other Protestants.
Some Dutch Reformed clergy
men expressed support for segre-
cation, but attacks by such men
as DR.. B. B. Keet of the Stellen-
bosch Theological Seminary did
not go unnoticed.
do we think that color preju-
dice is not a sin?" DR.. Keet
asked. He added that the time
had come "for the church, in
accordance with the demands of
the Gospel, to lead the state in
the direction of unity"
DR.. Keet urged the delegates
to "persevere in prayer that God
will bring about a change of
heart so we may be freed from
the unreasonable. not to say un-
Christian, color and race senti-
ment from which we all suffer"
The theologian did not direct
all of his fire at the government.
He also attacked the church sys-
tenn OF maintaining separate
congregations for whites and
colored.
Support for DR.. Keet's posi-
ton came from an editor of
kerkbode, the Dutch Reformed
Church magazine, who called
upon whites to cultivate an atti-
tude of understanding ward
whites.
The Kerkbode spokesman also
criticized as ''untenable" the
Afrikander view that missionary
work to natives should involve
the building of churches but not
of schools.
The church." he said, must
be followed by school, hos
pital, a university and an indi-
vidual cultural pattern.
"The burning question in our
country is not whether the white
man will in the long run be able
to hold his own against the pre-
pO1Qerance OF nOn-WhiteS, but
whether he will be equal to his
own task and calling-that ct
spreading the word of Cod,
South Africans feel they have
good reason for optimism be-
cause the Pretoria meeting was
only a preliminary to a larger
conference scheduled for next
year.
The 1854 meeting, which has
been set by the Federal Mission
ary Council to discuss THE Ap-
pllcation of Christian Principles
in a Multi-Racial Society,"" will
be inter-racial. All established
churches in South Africa have
been invited to send one white
and one non-White representa-
tive. The Pretoria session was
all white.
But despite such efforts toward
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