A Crossroads for Afrikaners’ Church : Will Dutch Reformed Confess to Sin of Justifying Apartheid?

CAPE TOWN —  Blacks in South Africa usually talk of the Dutch Reformed Church as the National Party at prayer, and not without good reason. The vast majority of civil servants (white politicians) and members of the security forces belong to that church. As far as access to and influence over policy-makers are concerned, the Dutch Reformed Church is the most dominant in South Africa.

Its membership comprises nearly 40% of the total white population, mostly Afrikaners. Its dominant position within the white society becomes clear when one compares its membership with that of the Anglican Church, which has the second-largest white membership in South Africa--roughly 10%. White Roman Catholics represent about 9%, and white Presbyterians less than 3%.

Members of the Christian churches, or Christian movements, represented about 76% of South Africa’s total population--blacks, whites, Coloreds, Asians--according to the 1980 census, the most recent figures available. The membership of the different nonwhite branches of the Dutch Reformed Church represents 14% of South Africa’s total population, second only to the so-called independent churches--a loose grouping of black religious movements.

Seen from a political point of view, the Dutch Reformed Church played a major role in giving moral support to the ideology of apartheid. During the 1940s, and especially since the National Party came to power in 1948, a theology of apartheid was developed to justify the party’s racial policies. These policies eventually led to its split from the mother church in Holland in 1974, and the suspension of its membership from the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1982.

The main tenets of this theology were that ethnic groups--such as the Afrikaner--were a creation of God, who willed their existence. Ethnic groups have a God-given right to preserve their identity, remain exclusive and determine their own destiny. This is one of the reasons why the Dutch Reformed Church put pressure on the government to promulgate, for example, the act against mixed marriages that was abolished recently.

For many years a close alliance existed between the church and the government, strengthened by the fact that those in hierarchal positions within the church had strong personal links with members of the cabinet. In the case of the Vorster brothers, Balthazar J. Vorster served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1979 and Gakobus (Koot) Vorster was the chairman of the Dutch Reformed Church.

In recent years several factors have played a role in the strong resistance against the theology of apartheid that has emerged within the church among the new generation of theologians. One major factor was the strong stand that the Dutch Reformed Missionary Church, which was created for Coloreds, took against the policy of apartheid and the church’s theological support of it. Younger members of the church, disillusioned about the way it dealt with issues such as social justice and racism, started to take seriously the voice of the missionary church and other black theologians.

It caused a stir among the church hierarchy, mainly manned by the old guard. In fact, a fairly heated debate is now raging between members of the old guard and the new generation of theologians on the question: Should the Dutch Reformed Church openly confess its sins, asking forgiveness from blacks for its justification of apartheid?

Members of the old guard, and their support group, find themselves at present in a serious dilemma. On the one hand, they are not in a position to ignore a question that is being debated by the new generation of intellectuals within the church: Can any serious Christian remain a member of a church that endorsed apartheid and is not prepared to confess its mistakes? Some of those asking this very fundamental question already have left the fold.

On the other hand, the old guard is under pressure not to rock the political boat. The Dutch Reformed Church, which has many members who belong to the reactionary Conservative Party, now is regarded as the one and only institution that can preserve Afrikaner unity. But the explosive split in the Afrikaner National Party has proved such unity to be a myth.

A crucial meeting of the Dutch Reformed Church’s general synod will take place Oct. 14-25 in Cape Town. One of the main purposes of the meeting will be to discuss the adoption of a revised policy statement on “race, people and nation,” as well as issues of social justice.

The meeting and the issues confronting the Dutch Reformed Church will prove to be its crossroads. If the synod, in order to preserve Afrikaner unity within the church, settles for a watered-down compromise, it will not only become irrelevant to the process of reconciliation but will also trigger even more serious problems of conscience among its members who denounce the theology of apartheid.