A critical examination of theological approaches to the problem of race relations by white people in some Christian churches in South Africa

Abstract

In South Africa white leaders in some Christian Churches have encouraged and supported the government policy of segregation which separates black people from white in most areas of life. However, white leaders in some other Christian Churches have been loud in their condemnation of this policy and have called for an integrated society where people of different racial groups might live together in harmony and mutual acceptance. If all these churchmen adhere to the one Christian faith, why have they apparently taken such opposite approaches to the problem of race relations; and on what scriptural and theological grounds have they based their approaches? After tracing developing patterns of race relations in southern Africa since the time white and black peoples first met there, this study examines theological arguments on this issue that have been made by assemblies, commissions and white leaders in one of the Dutch Reformed Churches on the one hand, and in the Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic Churches on the other. Then, having made some assessment of these approaches, it examines the sociological and theological factors that have given rise to them, and to the actual ordering of race relations in those Churches. Thus throwing light on some of the complexities of the racial issue in South Africa as it is faced by Christian Churches, the study concludes with some comments on several factors that require attention from churchmen who wish to help bring in a new order of race relations in that country.