A Message to the People of South Africa

A Message to the People of South Africa was a Christian theological statement opposing apartheid, published in 1968 by the Theological Commission of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), with the involvement of the Christian Institute of Southern Africa.

The statement argued that racial separation was incompatible with the Gospel and that Christians owed their primary allegiance to Christ, rather than to a racial, ethnic or political group. Unlike earlier church statements that had principally criticised the implementation of apartheid, the Message challenged its underlying theological and ideological premises. It became an important statement of Christian opposition to apartheid and contributed to the establishment of the Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society (SPRO-CAS) in 1969.

Background and preparation

During the 1960s, South African churches faced growing pressure to respond to the theological claims used to justify apartheid. The Cottesloe Consultation of 1960 had criticised a number of apartheid policies, but its findings were repudiated by the white Dutch Reformed churches after intervention by Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd. The Christian Institute, founded in 1963 under the directorship of Beyers Naudé, subsequently became an important centre for ecumenical opposition to racial segregation within both society and the churches.

In February 1968, the Christian Council of South Africa organised a national consultation on the theme of church and society. A further conference in May considered what participants described as contemporary "pseudo-gospels": political and social ideologies that demanded a degree of allegiance incompatible with Christian faith. During the same period, the Christian Council was reorganised as the South African Council of Churches.

The SACC's Theological Commission prepared the Message in cooperation with theologians associated with the Christian Institute. Its principal drafters were John Davies, Ben Engelbrecht and Calvin Cook. The completed document comprised six pages and was organised around ten theological affirmations concerning the Gospel, human unity and the obligations of the Christian church. It was released at a press conference on 24 September 1968.

Content

The central argument of the Message was that the Gospel proclaimed the reconciliation and unity of humanity in Christ. It therefore rejected the idea that Christians could regard racial or ethnic separation as divinely ordained. According to the statement, "separation is the most complete refusal of the truth" because it denied the unity brought about through Christ.

The statement called on Christians to consider whether their "first loyalty" was to Christ or to a racial group, nation or political ideology. It described apartheid not merely as an unsuccessful or unjust policy, but as a competing belief system that offered its followers a false form of salvation through racial security, political power and material privilege.

The Message maintained that Christian reconciliation had consequences for the whole of life and could not be confined to private spirituality or worship. The kingdom of God, it argued, required Christians to oppose social arrangements that denied human fellowship and prevented people from sharing equally in political, economic and communal life.

It also criticised the churches themselves. The document acknowledged that Christian institutions often reproduced the racial divisions of South African society through segregated congregations, racially divided denominations and unequal access to authority. Churches could not credibly condemn apartheid in the state while accepting similar patterns within their own structures.

An authorised summary subsequently described the document as an appeal to South African Christians to recognise that the Gospel stood against racial separation.

Reception

The statement attracted immediate criticism from the South African government. Prime Minister John Vorster accused church leaders of using religion for political purposes and warned clergy against turning their pulpits into political platforms. He called on them to "cut it out immediately".

Twelve leaders associated with the SACC and Christian Institute responded in an open letter. They rejected the assertion that the Message represented party politics and maintained that Christians were obliged to address policies that contradicted their understanding of the Gospel. They reaffirmed their view that apartheid was contrary to God's intention for humanity.

Responses from the churches were mixed. Some clergy, congregations and ecumenical organisations welcomed the statement, while others questioned either its theological reasoning or the legitimacy of ecclesiastical involvement in political questions. The executive of the Baptist Union, for example, rejected much of the document's theological argument. The statement did not produce the unified confessional movement against apartheid that some of its supporters had hoped for.

Public discussion of the document was also partly overshadowed by the contemporaneous controversy over the exclusion of England cricketer Basil D'Oliveira from a proposed tour of South Africa.

Legacy

The Message was later regarded as a significant development in South African public theology because it rejected apartheid as a principle, rather than limiting criticism to particular laws or abuses. In its submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the SACC described the statement as a direct challenge to the theological foundations of Afrikaner nationalism.

One criticism of the statement was that, although it rejected apartheid, it did not provide a sufficiently detailed social and economic alternative. In response, the SACC and Christian Institute launched the Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society in March 1969. SPRO-CAS brought together researchers, theologians and community leaders to investigate South African society and develop practical alternatives to apartheid in fields including politics, economics, law, education and social welfare.

The document has been compared with the 1934 Barmen Declaration, in which German Christians rejected the ideological control of the church under Nazi Germany. Scholars have also identified continuities between the Message and later South African theological statements, particularly the 1985 Kairos Document, which similarly distinguished Christian faith from political theologies that legitimised oppression.

The fiftieth anniversary of the document in 2018 prompted renewed scholarly consideration of its place in the history of Christianity and opposition to apartheid.

See also

• Belhar Confession
• Cottesloe Consultation
• Christian Institute of Southern Africa
• Kairos Document
• South African Council of Churches
• Study Project on Christianity in Apartheid Society

Further reading

External links

• Authorised summary at South African History Online
• History of the South African Council of Churches