Journal: Conspectus
Volume: CONSPECTUS 25:1 (Mar 2018)
Article: Evangelicals And Social Justice: Towards An Alternative Evangelical Community
Author: Godfrey Harold

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Evangelicals And Social Justice:
Towards An Alternative Evangelical Community

Godfrey Harold

Keywords

Alternative Community, Evangelicals, Reconciliatory, Compassion, Love

About The Author1

Harold Godfrey

BTh (Hons), BCSc (Hons), MBS (NT), University of Zululand; MRE, DTh, Trinity Graduate School of Apologetic and Theology; PhD, University of Western Cape. He is a Senior Lecturer at Cape Town Baptist Seminary and Research Associate at the University of Pretoria; Adjunct faculty at B.H. Carol Theological Institute (USA); and Professor of Theology at BHCTI.

This article: https://www.sats.edu.za/harold-evangelicals-and-social-justice

Abstract

The God of the Bible is unquestionably a God of justice and compassion. Christians have differences as to how human government and the church should bring about a just social order. Evangelicalism, amongst the many religious voices in South Africa, advocate separation between Church and State. Many Evangelicals understand the social engagement of ‘doing justice’ as inextricably linked to the loss of sound doctrine, spiritual dynamism, and a watering-down of the Gospel. Therefore, within Evangelicalism, right doctrine takes precedence over right action. This focus created a dysfunctional understanding of the world and how one engages it. De Gruchy (1986:33) protested the church’s complicity with the apartheid government. What could have led most Evangelical churches to turn a blind eye to the murder and dehumanisation of the masses in South Africa (emphasis mine)? He concludes that it because of unbiblical privatisation of piety, which separated prayer and the struggle for justice. Evangelicalism had become dangerously individualistic and ‘otherworldly’ spiritual.

This article is an attempt to call Evangelicals in South not to abandon their prophetic mandate, and a call to creative action for

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an ascetic/privatised spirituality. Therefore, encouraging Evangelicals in South Africa to act against systems that assault or dehumanise the Imago Dei in a pluralistic and democratic South Africa, by becoming an alternative community. Using B.S. McNeil’s work ‘Road Map to Reconciliation’, recommendation will be made to help the Evangelicals to become an Alternative community.

1. Introduction

In 1994, South Africa emerged from a State of legislated racial separateness known as Apartheid into a democratic State, when the African National Congress was elected to power by the majority. During the apartheid era, the Ev...