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Any
thoughts? ... Tell us what you think here |
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| Archbishop
Desmond Tutu has played an enormous role in
one of the most intriguing dramas of history.
Born into a social system that treated him
as sub-human, he rose to become the first
black Anglican Bishop of Johannesburg in 1985,
and the first black Archbishop of Cape Town
in 1986, making him the leader of the Anglican
Church in South Africa. He won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1984 (though his own country would
not recognise the award), was a leader in
the fight against the evil of apartheid, and
is one of the most well known human rights
activists and public figures in the world.
His name is synonymous with forgiveness, justice
and compassion, and he has lead and inspired
millions in his country and around the world
to take reconciliation seriously. |
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| God’s
Chairos Time: |
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| Freedom
and liberty lose out by default
when good people are not vigilant. |
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Racial tension
between blacks and whites has been a part
of South Africa’s history since the
first white settlers arrived in the 17th century.
In 1948 things went from bad to ugly when
the all-white National Government officially
imposed a racist system of government called
apartheid. Apartheid was an evil system which
categorised people based on their skin colour,
and denied blacks and “coloureds”
the same rights as whites. Unless you were
white, you could not vote, you could be relocated
without warning, and you had to use separate
and inferior facilities. If you stood up for
yourself, you could be imprisoned, tortured,
and killed. Often families would never know
what happened to their loved ones, as the
bodies of the protesters would be buried or
burnt or fed to crocodiles. Apartheid was,
at its heart, a denial of the sanctity of
all human life.
The brutality of the apartheid regime made
the struggle against it a worldwide cause.
In 1990, finally bowing to internal and international
pressure (much of it the result of Tutu’s
untiring work), the South African government
released Nelson Mandela from jail, and the
apparatus of bigotry began to fall apart.
In the 1994 elections, something happened
that no one in their wildest dream could have
imagined only a decade before: Nelson Mandela,
a political prisoner for 27 years, was elected
President in South Africa’s first multi-racial
election. Here was a moment full of promise,
when the world sat up and took notice.
A disturbing problem lingered though: how
would South Africa deal with its bloody past?
Would they follow the example of Nuremberg
and arrest and imprison all the people who
had been involved in the apartheid system,
risking a backlash from the white people who
still controlled much of the economy and the
military? Or would they follow Chile’s
recent example and choose to simply wash over
their history and go on as if nothing had
happened? Either way the country was in danger
of erupting into more bloodshed, and all the
good that had been done could have been wiped
out.
Incredibly, South Africa took a third path,
a revolutionary path heavily influenced by
God’s grace operating through Archbishop
Desmond Tutu. In 1995 Mandela asked Tutu to
chair the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
(TRC). This commission would examine unsolved
cases of brutality since the year 1948, would
invite people to confess their crimes, and
then would decide whether or not to grant
amnesty – that is, forgiveness for their
crimes. This was an unprecedented move, full
of risk, but full of God’s wisdom as
well. The process was designed to help bring
healing to the country through public confession,
repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation.
It was in this capacity that Tutu truly seized
the moment and helped a powerful revolution
take shape. |
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| Charisma: |
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| Each
one of us is a God-carrier, God’s
viceroy, God’s representative...to
treat one such person as if he
or she were less than this is
veritably blasphemous. It is like
spitting in the face of God. That
is what filled some of us with
such a passionate commitment to
fight for justice and freedom…we
were fired by our biblical faith.
The Bible turned out to be the
most subversive thing around in
a situation of injustice and oppression. |
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In order for
the TRC to be accepted by the victims, those
seeking forgiveness, and the rest of the world,
it had to be lead by someone whose honesty,
fairness, commitment to justice, and mercy
were beyond question. In other words, they
needed someone who was trying to live as much
as possible in the spirit of Jesus. Desmond
Tutu, though far from perfect, was still the
best choice for this role.
Tutu has all the charm and warmth that the
world calls “charisma”. He is
an eloquent speaker and is phenomenally gifted
at relating to people regardless of their
background. His high-pitched laugh is also
famous, as even in the dark moments Tutu was
still enjoying fullness of life. He is an
outspoken critic of hatred and intolerance
wherever he finds it, and has supporters all
over the world. He has access to virtually
every world leader and has been called into
places like Rwanda, Northern Ireland, and
Israel to teach on forgiveness and reconciliation.
But Tutu’s charisma is not just a nice
personality trait. He sees his life and work
as ultimately religious, and his connection
with Jesus Christ was the only thing that
brought him through the harrowing years of
apartheid and the soul-wrenching responsibility
of granting forgiveness and amnesty to people
guilty of the most horrific atrocities.
Speaking about the TRC, Tutu affirms that
he and the other members of the commission
“were being sustained by the love and
prayers of many around the world….Whatever
we may have achieved is due in large measure
to this cloud of witnesses surrounding us
and upholding us….what we were being
asked to undertake was profoundly religious
and spiritual, and consequently spiritual
resources were appropriately brought to bear
on tour task.” |
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| Conviction: |
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| During
the dark days of the struggle,
when the morale of our people
was often low in the face of rampant
evil, I used to say: ‘This
is a moral universe – the
upholders of apartheid have already
lost.’ I also used to appeal
to our white fellow South Africans:
‘We are being nice to you.
Join the winning side.’ |
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The conviction
of Tutu, his followers, and millions around
the world to see the end of apartheid was
very deep. Tutu says this: “I doubt
that any other cause has evoked the same
passion and dedication as the anti-apartheid
cause and I doubt that any other country
has been prayed for by so many people so
intensely and for so long as my motherland.
In a sense, if a miracle had to happen anywhere,
then South Africa would have been the obvious
candidate.”
There was a solid conviction that the denial
of human sanctity was dead wrong. But Tutu
displayed an equally powerful conviction
that the only road to freedom was that of
truth and forgiveness.
Tutu describes one moment during the hearings
he chaired, when after hearing the testimony
of a group of men who had murdered and then
barbequed the body of a young black man,
he wanted to simply declare that these men
were monsters. But he could not do it. He
understood that the same monster lives in
every single one of us, that everyone has
the capacity for great evil. But he also
clung to the belief that everyone also has
the capacity for great good, and that the
good is ultimately stronger. And to forgive
someone of their crimes against you not
only released them into a place where they
can experience good again, but also release
the victim from hatred they were carrying
around with them.
Tutu himself was amazed at how this conviction
for forgiveness played itself out: “People
who by rights should have been filled with
bitterness because of the untold and unnecessary
suffering they had endured….were to
demonstrate a remarkable generosity of spirit,
an almost unprecedented magnanimity in their
willingness to forgive those who had tormented
them so.” |
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| Consequences: |
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| There
must be moments when God has beheld
the nobility of His human creatures,
their compassion and generosity
to others; when God has looked
at the integrity and courage of
those who have stood up to tyrants,
who have been willing to die for
their faith. When God has looked
at the exploits of a Francis of
Assisi, a Mother Theresa, a Martin
Luther King Jr., an Albert Schweitzer,
a Nelson Mandela, He has said,
‘No, it was worth taking
the risk. They have vindicated
my faith in them.’ |
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The Truth and
Reconciliation Commission faced enormous practical
challenges and significant opposition to its
goals. The peaceful future of South Africa
depended on the successful operation of the
TRC, on its fairness, its justice, its wisdom
and its mercy. There were many hitches and
close calls along the way, but the fact that
the process was completed with no bloodshed
or riots is in itself a miracle.
Tutu himself could not believe how South Africans
by and large accepted the idea of forgiveness,
and actually made it work on a practical level.
South Africa still has many problems to address,
but, by the grace of God, it has now incredibly
become a model to the world for how to deal
with historic hatred. Tutu has traveled to
Israel, Northern Ireland and Rwanda, among
other places, to talk about how ancient divisions
can only be overcome through repentance and
reconciliation.
It is simply too early to determine how much
of an impact this revolution will have, but
we can see some of the first fruits already.
Ten years after a mass genocide that killed
millions of Rwandans, the Rwandan government
has instituted a policy of truth and forgiveness
much like South Africa’s process to
welcome back the killers and reintegrate them
into society. |
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| We
can only pray that this revolution of
forgiveness will take root in the hearts
and minds of people all over the world,
and that we will begin to see this move
of God impacting the messiest, most
impossible problems this world has to
offer. |
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