Sarah questions things done in the name of religion

If I am going to be completely honest, this blog entry might offend some people.  It is not my intent to do so, but any time I have expressed thoughts similar to these I have insulted at least someone.  So I apologize in advance.

I was considering writing something along these lines for a while, and just now while reading Biko by Donald Woods (a biography on the founder of Black Consciousness, Steve Biko), I was inspired to finally take a stab at it.  I have been brought up in a nonreligious family; my mom was brought up Catholic, my dad Jewish.  I never went to church (except for a few times with friends when I was much younger), I was never baptized, and I never had a bat mitzvah.  Up until just recently I have been hesitant to use the term Atheist to describe myself, but I stand by making my personal decisions based on a moral compass distinct from religion or God in any traditional sense.  This information should give at least a little bit of background concerning where my biases stand.  That being said, I can also admit that these characteristics make me far from an expert; I know very little about religion in terms of specifics.  But from my standpoint, in my opinion, I have seen more bad come from religion than good.  This is not to say I believe all those who are religious are bad.  Actually, far from it.  I have tried relentlessly when discussing these thoughts with others to explain I can truly appreciate the framework and basic moral principles of religion.  Sometimes this is not heard, but in this case I hope it is.  I do not judge those who are religious simply based on their beliefs; I judge them based on what they do with those beliefs.

Anyways, in Biko Woods includes an interview between Steve Biko and Bernard Zylstra.  Zylstra asks Steve, “How does Christianity fit in with Black Consciousness?”  This immediately caught my eye.  If one is to equate Black Consciousness with the black revolution in South Africa, and then draws another parallel from the black revolution in South Africa to the new South Africa that is emerging today, then how does Christianity fit in with South Africa now?

Biko goes on to explain what I have been questioning, albeit my thought process was much vaguer and lacking concrete facts.  Biko says, “We blacks cannot forget the fact that Christianity in Africa is tied up with the entire colonial process.”  The white man converted Africans.  We landed on their continent, and not only “saved” them in the name of God, but changed their entire culture simultaneously.  Christianity was not linked to God or Jesus, but to Western culture.  “When an African became Christian, as a rule he or she was expected to drop traditional garb and dress like a Westerner,” Biko explained.  He then goes on to address a question in modern-day Africa far too radical for me to ask with any sort of validity (the interview, and thus ‘modern day’ was 1977): Does the necessary decolonization of Africa also require the de-Christianization of Africa?  In my opinion, the “westernized” package of Christianity has brought a good deal of evil into South Africa.

Last week at Thandokhulu, I experienced a good amount of intolerance directed towards homosexuals.  I sat in on a Life Orientation class, which is similar to health class in the U.S.  Or at least in theory.  I listened to the teacher give a slightly bigoted, but mostly kindhearted description of homosexuality and its acceptance amongst Africans.  “Older people find homosexuality to be taboo, and they don’t really want anything to do with it.  The younger generation generally doesn’t mind,” she explained simply.  I kept scanning the room as she talked, prepared for the type of narrow-mindedness others have witnessed and described to me concerning such subjects.  Sure enough, there it was.  “Do you agree?” the teacher asked.  “No, miss,” said a young boy in the back of the room.  “I don’t think the younger generation likes them either.  Me, I don’t like the gays.”  Immediately, a few others raised their hands in agreement.  The teacher reassured them, without any hesitation, that their fears were “natural.”  She went on to say that sometimes, even if we don’t like an aspect of someone we love, we need to “look past it” and love them anyways.

That same day I sat in on 12th grade oral presentations.  The learners were allowed to pick their own topics, which ranged from gangs, violence in the schools, low Matric scores, etc.  Sure enough, another boy stood up and presented to the class his theory on the cause of homosexuality, as well as some solutions we should all invest in.  As flabbergasted as I was, I was not able to follow the entire presentation.  I do recall some of the causes being absent parents and neglecting parents, as well as outside influence.  I believe the example he used for the latter was when “kids see their teachers touching and stuff, they want to try it, too.”  The presentation was met with indifference; no surprised murmurs, a polite, half-hearted round of applause at the end, and an average mark from the teacher.

I think of examples like these all the time, and they are not exclusive to South Africa.  I think of one of my students in my 11th grade class who is my age, repeating the grade for the third time.  She has no family, a baby, and is currently living with a boyfriend who is not the father of her baby, who helps “sometimes,” as one teacher put it to me.  This girl’s best friend goes to SCC (Student Christian Community) during break, where she is most certainly not welcome.  I went to a meeting one day to watch, and ignorantly asked if she was coming along.  Averting her eyes, she mumbled, “No, I don’t really go to those.”  Her teachers are disappointed when she doesn’t show up to school or when she hands her work in late.  She is completely and utterly shunned, and I really do not think she will pass. So I find myself asking, just as I did in the states, what constitutes a sin?  Who constitutes a sin?  What has religion really done for South Africa?  I know much of the anti-apartheid resistance was centered around the church and religion, but so was Apartheid itself.  So much of the justification for Apartheid was propagated in terms of God’s will for us to be separated.  I have simply had enough of intolerance shielded behind the façade of a “merciful God.”