seminary, I could not associate them with unacceptable things. I thought they are the mature people. But that was a different case altogether.
J: So you found them even doing some unacceptable things.
P: Yes.
(P 10.2; Pene; 362; 41-50) ________
L: No, Ntate, it wasn‘t. You know what, when [laugh] I first received the call, if I can put it in that way…
J: Yeah.
L: … I thought that the seminary is something that is a holy place but when I first get there, unh-uh, it wasn‘t like that. That is the people that I found there, I don‘t know if I‘m mistaken to say that, they appear not to be Christians because some of the things that they did were – what? – different from what I had been expecting. I thought I‘m going to get a holy people there but it wasn‘t like that, Ntate. For an example, there were – some of the people that I attended school with and some that I found there jealous to some of the things that other people do successfully. Maybe you will ask me those things that happened to be of that kind [pause] – what? – yes, there were jealousy among my colleagues for the first time when I get there.
(P 7.2; Lieta; 295; 66-77) ________
L: Before I came there I expected to live – how can I put it? – a very very very holy, heavenly angelic life. That is no negative thinking – only positive thinking.
No negative people – only positive people. So everything I expected should be down to the line, so to the line, on the line. Neither left nor right. So it was totally, it was opposite to what I had expected – uh, anticipated.
J: Opposite?
L: Yeah, opposite.
(P 2.1; Lejaha; 179; 87-93) ________
L: Before I came to seminary I thought this place was pious, but I found out it was different from what I expected.
J: Pious?
L: Yes, a holy place.
J: What happens in a holy place?
L: Neighbour care [pause] respect [pause] humility [pause] sympathy.
J: Did you find these things at seminary?
L: Not much.
J: What else did you expect?
L: The main thing was that it would be a pious place. Regarding courses, it was more than I expected. I thought it would be Bible only, but there are many other things, and I appreciate that.
J: Should MTS be a pious place?
L: Yes, it should be.
J: Why?
L: Because it‘s a place where ministers are trained. Ministers should be pious because they serve among God‘s people. If people see that they aren‘t faithful, they‘ll have difficulty gaining converts.
J: Anything else?
L: That is all. The things I listed are the fruits of piety. I thought the place would be a caring place.
(S 1.1; Lieketseng; 1; 10-30) ________
M: No. When I came here – first came here – I think this place is the holy place. But I always tell other people that when you get here you can take your luggage and go back because the life we live here. Here you don‘t expect that you can meet somebody who drinks, who smokes but we have those people here.
J: Hmm.
M: Here we need some people who like someone‘s women here, but when you are preparing yourself to come here, you don‘t think of such things.
J: Um, hmm.
M: But when you arrive here, you meet them.
J: Who like some people‘s women, did you say?
M: Yeah.
J: OK. Yeah. Now why did you think this would be a holy place?
M: You know, we think this place is the holy place, Ntate Jeff, because here is where people are trained to be the God messenger – the people who tell people about God.
J: Um, hmm.
M: So we said that somebody came here through his or her decision that, ―I‘m going to work for God.‖ They think this place can be a holy place.
J: Mmm…
M: But it‘s not like that.
(S 6.2-6.3; Mopheme; 76-77; 74-92) ________
R: First I thought that to be here I‘m going to meet people who are so holy and I thought that this place it would be like in heaven, in small heaven sorry to say [unclear] but unfortunately I have found that it‘s just the same as life in the villages and it is worse.
J: Worse?
R: Yes.
J: I want to come back to that, but when you say you expected it to be like a small heaven, why did you expect that?
R: Because I thought that the people who are here are the people who are, who received the spirit of God and being able to be controlled by the Holy Spirit because I think if a person receives the Holy Spirit and accepts to the Holy Spirit to control him or herself, always he or she is going to be good when speaking to other people but that is not what I have got here.
(S 9.1-9.2; Rose; 126-127; 36-47)
90
________Before coming to Morija Theological Seminary I was expecting to find the holy place as the people were talking about it, I thought that things I am going to find here are holy things and also the people who live here are also holy people (TS1 student essay #1).
________
Oh! One can expect to see and meet holy people at the M.T.S. who are very peaceful and always happy. . . (TS1 student essay #3).
The students‘ and former students‘ expectations were naive, of course, in many ways. I would have been surprised to find MTS resembling the ―pious,‖ ―holy,‖ ―small heaven‖ in some of the student and pastor descriptions.100 I was, however, interested in the ways in which, and the extent to which, the seminary failed to meet the students‘ expectations – especially because I had found life at the seminary to be different than I had expected. I had seen a pattern of interpersonal relationships and behaviours that seemed especially divisive, and wondered what the students saw.
I did not share my opinions about these issues of campus life during the interviews. Nor did I share them openly over the course of the research. I hoped that I might, through listening and observing, gain insight into how and why the atmosphere of theological education at MTS had developed and was developing. I was not the only expatriate instructor to notice these patterns. In an April, 2007 report to the MTS Board, entitled, ―Some reflections on my time at Morija Theological Seminary,‖
Rev. Josh Hooker, who taught New Testament at MTS for the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 academic years, wrote:
What surprised me when I arrived at MTS was that the Seminary was not the loving and joyful place of learning that I had expected, but one where students appeared fearful and suspicious. Students were cautious about what they said in front of other students for fear that it would be reported to the administration. They were visibly wary when talking to me outside of the classroom. Some students told me that they were afraid of those in authority over them. This was in marked contrast to my own formative years at college and Seminary; first a degree in Chemistry, then a degree in Biblical and Cross-cultural studies and later a Masters in Theology. In particular, my years in Seminary were memorable not simply because of the subject matter being studied, but also for the privilege of being in a loving (and multi-cultural) Christian community.
Dr. Stefan Fischer, who taught at MTS from 1997 to 2001, in a document entitled,
―Report about the years 1997-2001,‖ wrote the following after his departure from the seminary:
100 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in Life Together, expressed strong opinions regarding such expectations for Christian (and especially seminary) community:
Those who want more than what Christ has established between us do not want Christian community. They are looking for some extraordinary experiences of community that were denied them elsewhere. Such people are bringing confused and tainted desires into the Christian community. Precisely at this point Christian community is most often threatened from the very outset by the greatest danger, the danger of internal poisoning, the danger of confusing Christian community with some wishful image of pious community, the danger of blending the devout heart‘s natural desire for community with the spiritual reality of Christian community (2005, 34-35).
The Church of Christ is a holy church. We should by all means try to live up to God‘s standard. We can live on the promise of Jesus, that he will build his church. In the four years in Lesotho I have seen that and I believe that God wants to extent [sic]
his kingdom and bless his church.
The training of future pastors is very important for the LEC but instead of upgrading the seminary is downgrading. It could do better, if the problems mentioned in this report are taken seriously and the structural problems are addressed. For this the new governance proposal could be of great help. Even the best structure can be misused.
Persons misusing their office at the MTS have to be made responsible. The repeated reference to the Director in this report points to a structural problem as well as to the one of his personality. A structural and personal change is necessary. To address both is of vital importance for the academic and spiritual development of the seminary. Also the communication between the EC and the Board of the MTS is not at its best. A clear sharing of responsibilities would help that developments are not delaying unnecessary [sic].101
Reverend P.M. Moshoeshoe – a Mosotho, L.E.C. pastor, MTS faculty member, and my research assistant – reflected on campus life and interactions in this way:
M: And, I should say by, in 1988 when I had come home – I had gone to MTS for orientation courses – and in 1990 when I actually came to school, it was fine.
But there is this one thing that I will always remember about our first week at the seminary – or I should even say the first time I met the director – was this: he said,
―Well, it‘s OK, thank you for being here. It is good that we took…started to be happy together before we begin to fight.‖ Well, I understood that to mean, it means
101 Dr. Fischer was extremely outspoken about his perceptions during his tenure at MTS, and was, in the end, dismissed from the faculty. A letter produced in a ―Special Staff Meeting‖ at which only Basotho instructors were in attendance, dated 19 March, 2001, and written by Rev. B. M. Kometsi, on behalf of Basotho members of the MTS faculty (A. M. Moseme, A. S. Ncholu, A. N. Moreke, and B. M. Kometsi) after an incident in which TS5 students approached the administration of the seminary to complain about the way in which Dr. Fischer was responding to a campus conflict, states the position of Dr. Fischer‘s Basotho colleagues:
We are so sorry about this. Our disappointment of Stefan‟s seemingly irreversible conduct comes because we all hoped that he would bring valuable contribution and diversity to the very life of the Seminary, but only the contrary. More serious damage of spoiling students is already taking shape. We are afraid that we are training future pastors whom the Church will hardly control tomorrow.
We, therefore, under this [sic] circumstances, do recommend that Dr. Fischer should be stopped at once from teaching and interfering with student affairs. Should the L.E.C. take this matter seriously and adhere to the above recommendation, the Seminary would be saved from total destruction. (Italics and bold type appear in the original.)
Note the clear concern and fear that perhaps future pastors might not be controllable by the Church. As will be discussed later in this thesis presentation, the notion that the seminary produces graduates who can be controlled is an important aspect of the way in which the seminary fulfills its role within the LEC. This is echoed by Rev. P.M. Moshoeshoe in my interview with him about MTS and the LEC:
Yeah. You know, I don‘t know because, you know, at MTS you could say what is really being done is to prepare as servants of the church, not really focusing on ‗we want this person to be a free Christian leader, someone who can make vital decisions that will be, that will bring a better sense of the empire of God in this life. We are – our school is preparing someone who will obey the authorities of the church, who will understand that it is good to spend all their time within the church not thinking about anything outside that (O 2.25;
Moshoeshoe; 664; 1013-1018).
LEC pastors, at their ordination ceremonies, promise to, ―. . . subject myself to the authority of the Seboka of the Lesotho Evangelical Church and its Committee‖ (LEC Constitution 16.189). Sesotho version: ―. . . ke tla
‗ne ke lumele ho busoa ke (literally, ―agree to be ruled by‖) Seboka sa Kereke ea Evangeli Lesotho, le Komiti ea sona. . . .‖