Beyers Naudé – Humanity and Responsibility
One of the great respected spiritual leaders in South Africa was Beyers Naudé. One of our big busy streets in our province in Gauteng is named after him.
He was a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church, and initially was a supporter of Apartheid policy, until the famous Sharpeville Massacre in 1960 caused him to look more closely into the Bible’s teachings on segregation. He concluded that Apartheid was not condoned in the Bible, and subsequently resigned from the church, preaching in his last sermon that “we must show greater loyalty to God than to man”.
From then he was very outspoken against Apartheid, and was actually ‘banned’ by the government, which meant he was essentially under police surveillance. But he was nonetheless appointed as secretary general of the South African Council of Churches, and had a big impact on the ANC when they were still committed to good.
Discover Shared Humanity
The quote I want to share from Naudé is this: “You can never be fully human unless you've discovered the humanity in other human beings. Don't close your eyes to the injustices of your own country by trying to solve the injustices of another country. That's an evasion of Christian responsibility.”
In a time when people in this country very much opposed each other based on nothing more than race, these were radical words. For a white person to discover humanity in a black person, or vice-versa, was quite an unusual idea. There was very much a demonizing of other racial groups, in all directions, and sadly there is still a lot of this in our country today.
Of course, in Jesus’ day there was something similar going on between Jews and Gentiles, and between Jews and Samaritans. There was much demonizing of ‘other’ groups, and the early church was quite clear that in Christ all people were equal – Paul said “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Galatians 3:28 NIV11)
Here’s a question: are you able to discover true humanity – a real person in whom God works and whom God loves – in somebody who is a different race or culture to you?
Embrace Christian Responsibility
Now Naudé also said something else here which caught my attention. He said that it is “an evasion of Christian responsibility” to close your eyes to the injustices in your own country. That’s quite a convicting statement isn’t it? Think of it: why has God placed you where you are right now? Isn’t it to work for justice and peace and salvation where you are?
Could it be that we have often evaded our Christian responsibility by running away from it, or getting all caught up in the affairs of other places instead of being a beacon of light and working for change and transformation where he has placed us?
Naudé’s words have stuck with me since I read them. For one thing, I will vote tomorrow and be sure to play my small part in that sense. But more than that, I want to take responsibility here and work for good, for godliness, for compassion, for transformation in Jesus’ name, and not evade responsibility.
Let’s see all people as worthy of respect, discovering humanity in the faces of our different neighbours. And let’s take responsibility and do our part to bring a difference wherever it is God has placed us.
