Consumer Christianity vs. Woolworths

This post may offend some people, so read on at your own risk.

Woolworths, a South African  retailer pulled a variety of, so called, ‘Christian Magazines’ from their shelves, citing poor sales performance as their reason for doing so. The response of some Christians should be categorised as nothing short of a tantrum. Amid threats of boycotts by the ‘Christian’ community, and only God knows what else Woolworths hastily re-stocked their shelves just in time to avert the battle of Armageddon, but not quickly enough to avert a major PR crisis. (Read media reports here and here).

Some thoughts:

Christian Consumer magazines (or Christian consumer anything else for that matter). Why do these magazines exist? Why do Christians buy them? What is the role/place of Christian consumer media?

Discrimination against Christians in South Africa. If you assume that this was intentional discrimination against Christians  then go read John 15:18 and visit www.persecution.org

Christian activism. Should Christians be pleased that the results of their ‘activism’ returns magazines made by Christians, for Christians (in LSM 7-10) back to a single retailer’s shelves? Might it not be more in line with the mission of Jesus that Christian rhetoric and activism advocate the assistance of the poor, the healing of the broken hearted, etc?

Mandela, Malema and reason to hope

So last night I ran out of firelighters and was forced to resort to the old fashioned means of fire lighting... newspaper and twigs.

So as I unfold the Sunday Independent (that I picked up at the airport to help me navigate the check-in queues with an American friend who looked more like a merekat in the Kalahari than a seasoned traveller) I find a picture of Madiba on his birthday.

To my surprise, then shock and ultimately my horror I recognize the little man standing to his right… Not even in my wildest nightmare would I expect to find what I did. There in that grainy feel found only in newspaper photos is none other than South Africa's most notorious agent provocateur - Julius Malema.

So I'm faced with a choice.

Either I go down that well practiced neural pathway that leads me to the conclusion that South Africa really has gone to the dogs, and that Madiba, now 92, is too senile to realize that Africa's next Idi amin is standing next to him.

Or to an alternative possibility, some may even fall it a place of hope. Richard Branson said:

“…my recipe for success has always been to understand my limitations and to surround myself with talented and brilliant people that can pick up where I leave off.”

Perhaps the fact that Malema is hanging around the current international symbol of reconciliation means he may yet be able to change his racist and divisive ways and adopt Mandela's deep rooted spirit of reconciliation. Wishful think perhaps, but futures unimagined are futures impossible.

I think I will choose hope. My life has been changed, my future altered, my experience could also become Malema’s experience.

PS. In case you are interested in whether I  got my family fire going? Me and mine, by contrast to many of my fellow South African's, slept warm and for that I am grateful and on this am in agreement with Malema. There is still much to be done to make the hope of the rainbow nation a practical reality in the lives of the majority of South Africans.

Amandla ku’Jesu!

In my previous post I mourned the lack of justice in South Africa, it now seems their may yet be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

This news article caught my attention Malema guilty of hate speech

Martin Luther King is quoted as having said that:

“The moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

My prayer remains that the work of those great souls who have laboured to see the Freedom Charter embodied in our nation will be honoured by those who come after them.

Amandla ku’Jesu!

‘for my names sake…’

The first rainbow was given as a  sign of promise, hope and renewal (Gen 9:12-17). I guess these sentiments were the the intention of those who dubbed South Africa as the rainbow nation. Sadly, the rainbow nation is proving to be less promising, hopeful or colourful than we all hoped it could be.

To be honest I want to leave…

Not because i don’t like the country, on the contrary I think it is one of the best possible places (in the world) to live. Rather, my desire to leave is fuelled by the daily mockery that is made of human rights, free speech and democracy.

I am appalled that our government whose God given responsibility is to restrain sin, disorder and violence and protect the poor, weak and vulnerable are the very ones who promote sin, disorder and violence at the expense of the poor, weak and vulnerable.

In the words of the Hebrew prophet Habakkuk I call out to God:

How long, O LORD, must I call for help? But you do not listen! "Violence!" I cry, but you do not come to save. Must I forever see this sin and misery all around me? Wherever I look, I see destruction and violence. I am surrounded by people who love to argue and fight. The law has become paralyzed and useless, and there is no justice given in the courts. The wicked far outnumber the righteous, and justice is perverted with bribes and trickery. (Habakkuk 1:2-4 NLT)

My desperate longing for integrity and justice remains unfilled, my prayers seem unanswered… Many echo Job’s wife sentiments “Are you still holding on to your integrity? Curse God and die!” I cannot. While my resolve to stay the course and endure hardship and suffering for His name sake may falter. My faith in His character will not.

"The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,  maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation."
(Exodus 34:6-7 TNIV)

His words of encouragement to me:

“I am concerned for you and will look on you with favour… This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake… but for the sake of my holy name…” (Ezekiel 36:9, 22 TNIV)