Narinig ko po kung paanong si Bishop Desmond Tutu, na ama ng kalayaan ng black natives ng South Africa—kasama ni Nelson Mandela—ay nag-rebuke lovingly ng white leadership ng Dutch Reformed Church. Ang Dutch Reformed Church ay pro-apartheid, at si Bishop Tutu na pinuno ng South African Anglican church ay anti-apartheid. Ang apartheid policy po ay na-impose ng white Dutch colonizers sa South Africa from 1948 to 1994. Sa policy na ito, ang mga natives na itim ay second-class lamang at superior ang mga karapatan ng mga puting mananakop. By the way po, kamamatay lang po ni Bishop Desmond Tutu nitong December 26 lang sa edad na 90.

Nanggaling po ang kwentong ito mula kay Gary Haugen, ang founder ng International Justice Mission, ang number one organization fighting modern-day slavery. Nandoon po ako sa Washington, D.C. noong February 2019, isa ako sa 4,000 plus guests ng US National Prayer Breakfast. Nandoon po si President Donald Trump at ang mga senador at congressmen ng Republican at Democratic Party. Marami rin pong international leaders na dumalo.

Ito po ang ibinahagi ng keynote speaker na si Gary Haugen, na words ni Bishop Desmond Tutu:

Gary Haugen: “I met another man who is living in a violently divided nation, on the edge of catastrophic despair. After I graduated from college, I went to serve as an intern with Bishop Desmond Tutu, and other church leaders in South Africa who were trying to find a way out of the apocalyptic bloodbath that decades of non yielding apartheid, oppression seemed to be making inevitable martial law had been declared in the country.

Nelson Mandela was still in prison and 1000s of black South Africans were dying in the violence. But in the midst of that crisis, in a nation where 80% of black and white Christians actually went to church on Sunday, a dozen of the country’s most powerful church leaders gathered in a little room. It was an historic moment, because for the first time in half a century, the leaders of the most powerful white church, the Dutch Reformed Church, were in the room. And by some grace, I got to be a fly on the wall and watch a man who did not give up and doing good.

After much heated but unhelpful back and forth, it was bishop to dues chance to speak, he turned to his stiffening white Afrikaner church leaders. And he said this:

“Friends, I thank God that he sent you white brothers to our country. So long ago, you brought hospitals and I was born in a missionary hospital. You brought schools and I was educated in a missionary school. But most of all, I thank God for you white brothers, because you brought us the Word of God. But now my brothers I must open the Word of God and show you where your apartheid system is a sin.”

They stayed in the room and they listened. And a year later, these Dutch Reformed Church leaders led their denomination to declare apartheid a heresy. They tore out the moral and theological underpinnings that had supported a religious people in oppression. For half a century, white South Africans eventually surrendered their terrified survivalist grip on power.

Nelson Mandela walked from his prison and the apartheid system was swept by Almighty God into the dustbin of history. In the many decades that have passed, I frequently need encouragement to not give up in trying to do good. After my brutal experience as the director of the UN’s genocide investigation in Rwanda in 1994, some friends and I helped launch something we called International Justice Mission (IJM) to help protect the poorest from violence.

And in over 20 years, IJM’s teams in the developing world have brought rescue to more than 49,000 individual clients who are suffering brutal slavery and violence. But every day, violence fights back and we grow weary. In fact not long ago, three of our number were murdered. While they were trying to stop the reign of terror of an abusive police gang, who are carrying out a Reign of Terror amongst the poor in Nairobi, Kenya. My brothers were eventually pulled from a river in plastic bags.”

——–

Isang heart-to-heart talk ang kailangang maganap sa mga Christian leaders, kagaya ng madibdibang usapang nangyari between the black-led Anglican church leading the fight to end apartheid and the white Dutch reformed church supporting it. After a year of discussions, the white Dutch Reformed Church called on the government to end the system that oppressed black people in their native land. Ganun din dapat ang mangyari sa Pilipinas—mag-usap ang church leaders kung bakit ganun na lang na ang Kristiyanismo o ang mga organisasyon nito ay ginagamit upang yurakan ang dignidad ng mga tao at i-justify ang pagnanakaw ng mga makapangyarihan. Ito ang kailangan upang ma-align tayo sa malinaw na tawag para sa katarungan at katuwiran, mga pundasyon ng kaharian ng Diyos!

Ito rin po ang pwedeng sample kung paano ang flock mag-lovingly appreciate and at the same time, point the needed correction for leaders in the church.

Nawa’y ipanalangin nating lahat na mangyari ito sa lalong madaling panahon.