LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
1.10 Literature Review
1.10.5 Offensive Cultural Practices
The biggest challenge in South Africa is lack of understanding and tolerance of each other's culture. People easily attach their own meaning to another group of people actions or deeds without enquiring from the people concerned. Instead many read book written by authors who themselves perhaps did not have a clue of the concerned
culture. One of the most sensitive and always misunderstood cultural practices is the slaughtering of animals (cattle. sheep or goats) in the suburbs formally reserved for the White population only.
Another problem and challenge that we see in the 'new South Africa' is where one's cultural practices becoming offensive to another. With many people of 'colour' moving into affluent suburbs like Sandton. Umhlanga Rocks has some form of multicultural problems and challenges. For example, Hindus celebrate a festival called 'Oiwali' (festival of lights) once a year.
This festival is celebrated by lighting of fireworks and firecrackers. which is quite noisy. This scares pets and other animals. As a consequence of living among people of other cultures who may not like the noise of tirecrackers. a problem is created. Sometimes one"s culture may be entwined in their religious believes. The use of religious poles (jhunda) in hont yards of homes among Hindus could be offensive to people of other cultures. Some may complain that the bamboo poles and tlags spoil the appearance of their suburb. Another example of multicultural problems in the 'new South Africa' is the slaughtering of animals in ancestral worship among cel1ain groups of people in the AfI"ican culture. This may be offensive to people of other cultures, who may complain that animals must be slaughtered in an abattoir. Multiculturalism in schools and churches in the 'new South Africa' has also its own challenges and problems (Varathan 2003:27).
What Varathan has explained above is the main challenge of the new democratic South Africa. the challenge of one's culture or cultural practices becoming an offense to another cultural group. It would be better perhaps to simply call these "challenges" rather than
"problems" as Varathan calls them. These challenges are found in the neighborhoods. in business offices or boardrooms. in almost all the sporting codes (as vve often hear on the news about perceived racial issues in rugby). in educational institutions. from pre- primary to the university level. educators have to deal with learners of different cultures.
in churches the pastor has to help by comforting. counseling. solemnizing marriages.
sometimes racial mix-marriage. conduct funerals of people from different cultures.
These different people of different cultures exist alongside each other. This is multiculturalism. This study is therefore a contribution to this debate and the urgent and demanding need for multiculturalism in the local churches or South Africa. Looking
back to the past state of the church in South Africa. there is no one who can deny that there is a need for transformation in the church in South Africa. Such action will be an attempt to bring about patience. tolerance and recognition of other people's culture. no matter how they differ from our own. Through the practice of multiculturalism, with its challenges, equity. justice and equality will be ensured not only in the church but also in society in general. The embracing of other people' s cultures in the church especially the local churches, because that is where members of different cultures come together daily rather than. their denominational headquarters or ecumenical conference that meet once in a while. requires openness. willingness and commitment to understand others and to change one's presuppositions and ingrained prejudice. We do not need to be like each other but to understand each other. The call of multiculturalism has nothing to do with 'sameness' but with ·oneness·. In other words it is about the togetherness of the people of God. This will require a major paradigm shift from church leaders. pastors of local churches as well as denominational leaders, and church members as well. without whom the leadership cannot achieve multiculturalism.
The church has to accept all people of different cultures as God's children. There is no excuse for the church to be mono-culture. Haslem made a insightful comment when he said that, for Christians the most fundamental and subversive value is that all people are of equal worth. for all are children of the same God. in the same human family - ditlicult though it is to believe at times. That means that we must continually be seeking rightness and justice in human relationships. both individual and corporate (Haslem 2000: 125). If all people are of equal value and are all children of one and the same God. the church has a challenge to treat them with dignity and offer them the same treatment in spite of their different cultures. This would need the leaders of the church in South Africa, as well as the members. to be equipped and prepared for the challenge of multiculturalism. hence the need for this research. This is necessarv because \\'e share a past which discouraoed
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the toleration or acceptance of our differences. These differences \\ere used to divide us, but now we can learn to see them as a means of complementin o one another and seeinoc c one another as God's children - in spite of or even because of our differences.
The fact that we are all of equal worth means that we share some similarities within our different cultures. Kraft agrees when he says that beneath the vast array of differences between human cultures lies an equally impressive substratum of basic human similarity.
The Scriptures as well as the behavioral sciences assume this similarity (Kraft 1979:81).
We may have different cultures but we all have the same basic needs because we are all children of the same God. The ditferences of our cultures are just the results of different groups of people, at different places and at different times trying to meet the same basic needs. There is a need in the church today to change and start to see all people regardless of the colour of their skin and culture as children of the same Father. God the creator of us all. Such a paradigm shift must be approached positively. even though it has otten proved confusing to Christians strongly intluenced by the preceding evolutionary tradition that saw western culture as the end product of a long development towards ·the perfect culture'. Seeing the aborigines and the Hottentots as possessors of traditions just as long as our own. rather than as example of 'stunted growth' in a process that was intended to make them like us. enables us to better appreciate God's concern for and fairness to all people, not simply Westerns. Such a view. fUl1her. helps us to recognize that Christianity is considerably more than merely the 'tribal religion' of vvestern culture - as many of our critics contend (Kraft 1979:82).
If we do not make the necessary adjustment in the local churches now. Christianity will be looked as a "White man's religion". since almost everything in the church today is interpreted and measured by the western way of understanding. Perhaps the fact that any form of discrimination contravenes South Africa's constitution is another catalyst to position the church to truly impact the society with the gospel. The church in South Africa. particularly at local level should see the coming of people of different colours and cultures as God given opportunity to demonstrate His love for all people. an opportunity.
the church cannot afford to miss. McAfee Brown calls this special time ..the kairos".
The theological word kairos (like so many other theological words) is simply the transliteration of a Greek word for ..time" a very special kind of time. It is usually
contrasted with another transliterated Greek word for time. "chronos··. from which we derive several familiar English words such as "chronology" and "chronological".
Chronos stands for ordinary time. "clock-time". the succession of moments by means of which we divide our lives into seconds. minutes. hours. days. months. years. decades.
centauries. eons. Itis a tidy word. "vhen \,ve ask. "What time is it?" we can be assured of clear-cut answers: "like twenty-one minutes past eleven:' or "Just time for the six o'clock news:' or "He ran the hundred yard dash in 9.6 seconds" (McAfee Brown 1990:2-3).
Church leaders and their members. especially so. in South Africa need to recognise this special time provided by God. This is not the "chronos" but the "kairos" of God for his people. the Church. The church cannot afford to sleep through this time. Multicultural churches are going to be the answer during this time provided by God for us. The church should take advantage of this time, the kairos. We cannot afford to have churches divided today simply because of cultural reasons. Monoculture local churches were only fit for the apartheid period. the chronos.
Things are not so tidy when we examine kairos. The word is u ed in the Bible to refer to a "right" time, a "special" time. when momentous things are happening or about to happen. in response to which we must make decisions that are likely to have tar-reaching consequences. A kairos. then. is a time of opportunity demanding a response: God offers us a new set of possibilities and we have to accept or decline (McAfee Brown 1990:3).
Many churches would agree that this is a right time and a special time - II'the church responds to a kairos in a positive way. regardless of the pains of adjustment that needs to be done. great things are going to happen. Never before in the history of South Africa have we witnessed people of different cultures living in the same neighborhood. working in the same office. playing the same sport. going to the same school. attending the same church as we are experiencing in this century. This can only be a God-given special time.
It is for the church to respond by embracing this time of opportunities. This is the
opp011unity to learn from other cultures as they learn from us. It is an opportunity for local churches to grow by drawing members across colour line and culture. This opportunity is for the churches to be for and of all nations. colour. language. and culture.
This is the time to prove to the world that we are what Desmond Tutu once called us. the
"rainbow nation". Multiculturalism and cultural diversity offers the local churches of South Africa great opportunities to learn and to grow at the same time.