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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, JANUARY 4, 1985
American civil rights leaders, politicians and religious leaders demon
strate nearly every day in front of the South African embassy in Washing
ton, D.C. and at consular offices across the country. If ever there was a
"made for TV" production, these demonstrations are. Yet they are effec
tive, as James J. Kilpatrick noted in his December 22 syndicated column:
A little after 3 o'clock every weekday afternoon, 30 or 40
marchers assemble near the Embassy of South Africa. For an hour
they walk in a tidy minuet. At 4:30, the three honorees of the
afternoon step politely through the police lines. They approach
the embassy's door and symbolically seek entrance. Finally they
link arms and accept an escort to waiting police sedans. A few
minutes later, after the TV crews have departed, the demonstra
tion dissolves••••
These are demonstrations carefully geared to a society tha �.
�
fast food. They are as thick as a sheet of newsprint, �phem:-::_....,
s the image on a TV screen, but they have been marve ously
e ective.
They•••have prompted the President to speak more
forcefully to this issue than he ever has spoken before. The
producers and stage managers have much credit coming to them.
An article in the December 31, 1984 issue of THE NEW YORKER was highly
favorable of the demonstrations, specifically noting that clergymen are
particularly active in this protest action:
Herbert Daughtry, chairman of the National Black United Front,
stood on a wastebasket to make some announcements through a bull
horn: twenty-five ministers from New Haven would be coming to New
York on Saturday to face arrest; a clergy-organizing breakfast
would take place the next morning at Union Theological Seminary;
those wishing to break the law, peacefully, should � to �
Brooklyn church on Sunday night for training. Then Daughtry read
the list of those to be arrested that day--thirty-seven.
These clergymen are engaged in politics, pure and simple, though they no
doubt believe they, in their own goodness, are doing God service. They
overlook many scriptural passages concerning living and preaching a
peaceful life, concerning respect for constituted authority. They reason
they are obeying some "higher moral code." The result is disobedience,
strife, and confusion. Yet, Philippians 2:3 counsels "Let nothing be done
through strife or vainglory." Also note James 3:16: "For where envying and
strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." Envy is perhaps the
most underrated factor in international relations. It is the root cause of
strife and warfare (James 4:1). There are those in South Africa who covet
the power to control the nation's fabulous wealth.
In a curious twist, many people who urge the Reagan Administration to slam
the door shut on all contacts with South Africa and instead impose harsh
trade sanctions, are the same ones who want Mr. Reagan to take a much softer
line on the Soviet Union and to rush into arms talks. Columnist Patrick
Buchanan, in his December 7 syndicated column, discusses the issues that
animate what he calls the "hive."
Half the Congressional Black Caucus has now been handcuffed out
on Massachusetts Avenue, yet, almost to a man, these gentlemen