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The
church as seen by a young layman
by Steve Biko
(published in Frank Talk, September 1987)
I am aware that today I am addressing myself to a group of people with
whom I differ in two respects:
Firstly. I am a layman talking to a group of religious ministers.
Secondly, I am a young man talking to fairly elderly people.
These are perhaps the two aspects that brought me here, An attempt to
close the generation gap is always fundamental in the re-examination
of any hitherto orthodox situation which seems to be fast becoming obsolete
in the minds of young people. Also important, is the need to make common
the concept of religion, especially Christianity, understanding of which
is fast becoming the monopoly of so-called theologians. For this reason
I am going to deal with the topic in a lay fashion.
To my mind religion can be defined as an attempt by man to relate to
a supreme being or force to which he ascribes all creation. Our particular
mode at this moment is Christianity. It is not quite clear just how important
it is for the various religions that exist in this world to be uniform.
One thing is certain though, that all: religions have got similar characteristics:
1. They form man's moral conscience; in other words, embodied within
each religion is a set of moral stipulations that govern the spiritual
well-being of a particular people within a given context.
2. They all attempt to explain the origin and destiny of man. All are
agreed that man in the human form is a transient being in the world;
alt agree about man's origin as being from some force, the precise nature
of which is defined differently. Where religions tend to differ is in
the enunciation of the destiny of men,
3. All religions claim or almost claim a monopoly on truth about the
nature of the supreme being, and about the way to identify with his original
intention about men.
Each religion is highly ritualistic. Through years of practice, the religion
develops a certain pattern and procedure that in later years becomes
inseparable from the central message of that religion.
If one takes religion as nothing else but what it is - i.e. a social institution
attempting to explain what cannot be scientifically known about the origin
and destiny of man, then from the beginning we can see the necessity
of religion. All societies and indeed all individuals, ancient or modern,
young or old identify themselves with a particular religion and when
none is existent, they develop one. In most cases religion is intricately
intertwined with the rest of cultural traits of society. In a sense this
makes the religion part and parcel of the behavioural pattern of that
society and makes the people bound by the limits of that religion through
a strong identification with it. Where people are subjected to a religion
that is removed from their cultural make-up, then elements of disgruntlement
begin to be noted and sometimes-open defiance is soon displayed.
Hence one can make the claim that most religions are specific and where
they fait to observe the requirements of specificity then they must be
sufficiently adaptable to convey relevant messages to different people
in different situations. For indeed each religion has a message for the
people amongst whom it is operative. These are perhaps some of the things
that never were uppermost in the minds of the people who brought Christianity
into South Africa; Whereas Christianity had gone through rigorous cultural
adaptation from ancient Judea through Rome, through London, through Brussels
and Lisbon, somehow when it landed in the Cape, it was made to took fairly
rigid. Christianity was made the central point of a culture which brought
with it new styles of clothing, new customs, new forms of etiquette,
new medical approaches, and perhaps new armaments. The people amongst
whom Christianity was spread had to cast away their indigenous clothing,
their customs, their beliefs, which were all described as being pagan
and barbaric.
Usage
of the spear became a hall-mark of savagery. All too soon the people
were
divided into two camps - the converted (amagqabhoka) and the
pagans (amaqaba). The difference in clothing between these two groups
made what otherwise could have been merely a religious difference actually
become at times internecine warfare- Stripped of the core of their being
and estranged from each other because of their differences the African
people became a playground for colonialists. It has always been the pattern
throughout history that whosoever brings the new order knows it best
and is therefore the perpetual teacher of those to whom the new order
is being brought. If the white missionaries were "right" about
their God in the eyes of the people, then the African people could only
accept whatever these new know-all tutors had to say about life. The
acceptance of the colonialist- tainted version of Christianity marked
the turning point in the resistance of African people.
The
Church and its operation in modern-day South Africa has therefore to
be looked
at in terms of the way it was introduced in this country.
Even at this late stage, one notes the appalling irrelevance of the interpretation
given to the Scriptures. In a country teeming with injustice and fanatically
committed to the practice of oppression, intolerance and blatant cruelty
because of racial bigotry; in a country where all black people are made
to feel the unwanted step-children of a God whose presence they cannot
feel; in a country where father and son, mother and daughter alike develop
daily into neurotics through sheer inability to relate the present to
the future because of a completely engulfing sense of destitution, the
Church further adds to their insecurity by its inward-directed definition
of the concept of sin and its encouragement of the "mea culpa" attitude.
Stern-faced ministers stand on pulpits every Sunday to heap loads of
blame on black people in townships for their thieving, house-breaking,
stabbing, murdering, adultery etc. No one ever attempts to relate alt
these vices to poverty, unemployment, overcrowding, lack of schooling
and migratory labour. No one wants to completely condone abhorrent behaviour,
but it frequently is necessary for us to analyse situations a little
bit deeper than the surface suggests.
Because the white missionary described black people as thieves, lazy,
sex-hungry etc., and because he equated all that was valuable with whiteness,
our Churches through our ministers see all these vices I have mentioned
above not as manifestations of the cruelty and injustice which we are
subjected to by the white man but inevitable proof that after all the
white man was right when he described us as savages. Thus if Christianity
in its introduction was corrupted by the inclusion of aspects which made
it the ideal religion for the colonisation of people, nowadays in its
interpretation it is the ideal religion for the maintenance of the subjugation
of the same people.
It must also be noted that the Church in South Africa as everywhere
else has been spoilt by bureaucracy. No more is it just only an expression
of the sum total of people's religious feelings, it has become in fact
highly institutionalised not as one unit but as several powerful units,
differing perhaps not so much on scriptural interpretations as in institutional
aims. It has become inconceivable to think of South Africa without a
Roman Catholic church or a Methodist Church or an Anglican Church etc.
in spite of the fact that the average Methodist from the street hardly
knows how he differs from an Anglican or Congregationaltst.
This bureaucracy and institutionalisation tends to make the Church removed
from important priorities and to concentrate on secondary and tertiary
functions like structures and finance etc. And because of this, the Church
has become very irrelevant and in fact an "ivory tower" as
some people refer to it.
Going hand in hand with the bureaucratisation and institutionalisation
of the Church is a special brand of a problem, which also makes the Church
extremely irrelevant - the concentration of that bureaucracy and institutionalisation
in the hands of white people. It is a known fact that, barring the Afrikaans
Churches most of the Churches have 70, 80 or 90% of their membership
within the black world. It is also a known fact that most of the Churches
have 70, 80, or 90% of controlling power in white hands. It is still
a known fact that white people simply don't know black people, and in
most cases do not have the interests of black people at heart.
Therefore it can be reasonably concluded that either the black people's
Churches are governed by a small non-sympathetic foreign minority or
that too many black people are patronizing foreign Churches. Which of
these two it is, is not quite clear, but let us assume that it is, the
former, since the majority of the people in this country are black people
in that case therefore, black people who are Christians are not only
conniving at the hitherto irrelevant nature of Christianity as spelt
out by the Churches, but they also allow a non-sympathetic minority which
is not interested in making Christianity relevant to people remain in
control of the workings of the Churches. This is an untenable situation
which if allowed to continue much longer will deplete from the already
thinning crowds that go to Church on Sunday.
Then too, the tendency by Christians to make interpretation of religion
a specialist job, results in general apathy in a world, which is fast
departing from identification with mysticism. Young people nowadays would
like to feel that they can interpret Christianity and extract from it
messages relevant to them and their situation without being stopped by
orthodox limitations. This is why the Catholic Church with its dozens
o' dogmas either has to adjust fast to a changing world or risk the chance
of losing the young constituency. In various aspects, this applies to
all Churches in the Christian world.
Before looking at suggested changes within the Church, let me then summarise
what I regard as my major criticisms of it:
- It makes Christianity too much of a "turn the other cheek" religion
whilst addressing itself to a destitute people.
- It is stunted with bureaucracy and institutionalisation.
- It manifests in its structures a tacit acceptance of the system i.e. "white
equals value".
- It is limited by loo much specialisation.
The most important area to which we should perhaps direct ourselves is
gaining the control that is rightfully ours within those Churches, in
order to do this, we must agree that in fact we have a common purpose,
a common goal, a common problem. Equally we should agree that through
living in a privileged society, and through being socialised in a corrupt
system, our white Christian counterparts though brothers in Christ have
not proved themselves brothers in South Africa, We must agree also that
tacitly or overtly, deliberately or unawares, white Christians within
the Churches are preventing the Church from assuming its natural character
in the South African context, and therefore preventing it from being
relevant to the black man's situation.
It has been said by many a black church man, that whites are in power
within the Churches, because the Churches are modelled on Western lines
which white people know best. In order to be able therefore to change
the Churches, we have first to gain ascendance over them in that white
model, then thereafter turn that model into one we cherish, we love;
we understand, and one that is relevant to us. I can only point out here
that it cannot be conceivable that all the white people in controlling
positions within the Church are elected by other while people. Obviously
some get into their positions because they caucus vote-wielding blacks
to put them in those positions. It is high time that black people learn
the highly tried method of caucusing to put other black people in control
of Churches in which black people have something at stake. Such elected
blacks will obviously have to function according to a mandate clearly
outlined by the same black caucus that put them in power.
The second area in which we must focus our attention is a thorough understanding
of what many people have hitherto scorned, namely Stack Theology. There
is a truth in the statement that many people can say one thing differently
because they took at it from different angles. Christianity can never
hope to remain abstract and removed from the people's environmental problems.
In order to be applicable to people, it must have meaning for them in
their given situation. If they are an oppressed people, it must have
something to say about their oppression.
Black Theology therefore is a situations interpretation of Christianity.
It seeks to relate the present-day black man to God within the given
context of the black man's suffering and his attempts to get out of it.
It shifts the emphasis of man's moral obligations from avoiding wronging
false authorities by not losing his, Reference Book, not stealing food
when hungry and not cheating police when he is caught, to being committed
to eradicating all cause for suffering as represented in the death of
children from starvation, outbreaks of epidemics in poor areas, or the
existence of thuggery and vandalism in townships.
In other words it shifts the emphasis from petty sins to major sins in
a society, thereby ceasing to teach the people to "suffer peacefully".
These are topics that black ministers of religion must begin to talk
about seriously if they are to save Christianity from falling foul with
black people particularly young black people. The time has come for our
own theologians to take up the cudgels of the fight by restoring a meaning
and direction in the black man's understanding of God. No nation can
win a battle without faith, and if our faith in our God is spoilt by
our having to see Him through the eyes of the same people we are fighting
against then there obviously begins to be something wrong in that relationship.
Finally, I would like to remind the black ministry, and indeed all black
people that God is not in the habit of coming down from heaven to solve
people's problems on earth.
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