https://open.spotify.com/show/191SG1iIRUpFKy3PFzlRdZ?si=bbca512261dd43e9
After 2020, my friend Hayley and I began a podcast. We called it The Meeting Room after the group of women who were meeting each month to discuss racism in the SA context. The aim of the podcast was to have conversations that count especially in the post Apartheid SA context.
Sadly, we have struggled to maintain these podcasts of late but there are some really good interviews for you to dive into.
In the following posts, I am going to share some of the giants of our faith and those who have and continue to shape how we as followers of Christ are invited into the work of liberation and justice for all people. Little did I know the profound depth of this work that was and continues to happen in South Africa and indeed the world. Adam Russel Taylors article below, of which I have copied some of it and provided a link to all of it, fills in gaps AND speaks of some of the links between the USA and SA of which I have spoken in previous posts.
The legacy of this movement of God in South Africa is held in the icon of Desmond Tutu and I will write a post on his life and the beautiful foundation which anyone who comes to SA really should visit. However tis movement was bigger than one person and Tutu himself would assert that too. When I became a Christ follower, I entered into the church as an activist. It was the tail end of the viscous Apartheid regime. Yes, we were in the death throws but all powerful regimes in the throw of death behave most cruelly and viscously . South Africa was no different.
When I entered the church space, I looked around for fellow activists and found very few. This one dear friend is still my fellow sojourner. I love her dearly. I concluded that activism was outside of the church. This church was silent on injustice. I have learnt that these were the silent church's. They continue to remain silent, speaking out a prayer for Charlie Kirk- I kid you not- while saying absolutely nothing on the genocide of thousands of Palestinians. The but is, there were many who were not silent and are not even today. They raise the prophetic voice and call out an new prophetic imagination - the notion of which Walter Bruggerman was the creator of.
Be inspired fellow sojourner. This is deeply exciting.
The Kairos moment is now.
"I first learned about the theological concept of kairos while studying abroad in Cape Town, South Africa in 1996. South African faith leaders taught me that, as compared to chronos, or time as we know it and traditionally experience it, kairos moments are precipitated by times in which our current reality becomes so pernicious and fraudulent that God can create a moment of opportunity for propitious action and transformation. "
The word Kairos is a greek word and it means the right or critical time.
"We are not the first nation or the first Christians to face a kairos moment. In July 1985, South Africa was in an even deeper crisis. The apartheid government had declared a state of emergency and dramatically escalated mass detentions, repression, and state violence while cracking down on the media. Despite growing international opposition, the apartheid state was doubling down on its repression. Many church leaders in South Africa, especially in the Dutch Reformed Church, misused and weaponized the Bible to justify the apartheid system of racial separation and oppression. Meanwhile, many other Christians remained silent and complacent in the face of increasing repression, staying on the sidelines of the anti-apartheid struggle. "
What was the response of the church in SA?
A group of South African church leaders......
"In response, a group of South African church leaders, theologians, and Christian activists gathered to pen the Kairos Document, an open-ended document of faith-inspired resistance to apartheid. Its authors critiqued “state theology,” which they defined as Christianity that justifies “the status quo with its racism, capitalism, and totalitarianism” and “blesses injustice, canonizes the will of the powerful and reduces the poor to passivity, obedience, and apathy.” They also critiqued factions of the church who accepted the argument that the South African government’s repression was justified to maintain law and order, as well as those within the church who pleaded for racial reconciliation without first attending to injustice."
That was then. What of the now? We have several Kairos moments right now.
"I recently joined an intergenerational group of South African and global Christian leaders in Cape Town to mark the 40th anniversary of the Kairos Document and the inflection moment it created for Christians in South Africa and beyond to make a clearer choice between upholding the oppressive status quo or more actively and courageously working to end the system of apartheid. In the four decades since, this groundbreaking document also inspired similar documents from Christians in Central America, Europe, India, Kenya, Malawi, Palestine, and Zimbabwe who called their fellow Christians to take decisive action. While listening to the reflections from South African Christian leaders, I was deeply moved by just how many parallels there are between what they faced under apartheid in 1985 and what we in the U.S. face today amid growing authoritarianism."
Though the two nations and the struggles we face are not identical, I see echoes of South Africa as the MAGA movement and Trump administration stoke fears around crime, immigration, and public safety as a pretense to undermine the rule of law, consolidate power, seek vengeance on their perceived enemies, and squash dissent. The Kairos Document critiqued a government that “will not allow anyone to question what it has chosen to define as ‘law and order’” and demonized its opponents as “communists.” In a similar vein, the Trump administration regularly delegitimizes its opponents as “the radical Left” or “the lunatic Left.”
"And much like the authors of the Kairos Document, many of us today grapple with the unwillingness of American Christians to condemn the false gospel of Christian nationalism. This ideology fuels the MAGA movement with heretical ideas about American exceptionalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, and xenophobia, often alleging that the “true” or “real” Christians are those who must protect their faith by imposing their ideology on others."
"The biblical prophets knew something about what it means to identify and speak out in such moments. Prophets like Amos, the herdsman and sycamore-fig pruner, saw the oppression of the poorest members of society while the wealthy classes prospered. He witnessed people’s greed, their complacency, reliance on military might, social injustices, immorality, and shallow piety. And he spoke truth to power, condemning the injustice of the status quo while proclaiming a more righteous and hopeful alternative. He warned that “the prudent keep silent in such times, for the times are evil (5:13),” yet he was anything but prudent. He made it crystal clear that God demanded a radical change in the status quo:
Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. [...] Away with the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps. But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream! (5:14-15, 23-24).
"In our present moment, we need to model the prophetic witness of Amos in response to God’s kairos. Yet a new statement won’t be sufficient on its own. Putting prophetic ideas on paper gives language to what our hearts already know but may not have words for; statements can persuade those who have not yet thought deeply about these matters to reflect and repent. But statements have the most power when they motivate faithful and courageous action in those who truly hear and internalize them.
The South African Kairos Document ends with an emphasis on the “need to transform church activities” to bolster the struggle against apartheid.
"As important as political engagement will be in the next few years, we can’t expect politicians or political parties to save us. Instead, we must dig deeper in our faith, putting our ultimate trust in a God who, as our Lord and Liberator, can make all things new. Reversing our slide into authoritarianism will require faith-inspired courage to engage in greater nonviolent resistance, replacing the unjust status quo with the Beloved Community and its promise of an inclusive multiracial democracy that truly fulfills the promise of liberty and justice for all."
