wfn.org | South African clergyman calls former bishop's comments 'bizarre'

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

March 4,1999 News Media Contact: Linda Bloom* (212) 870-3803* New York {119}
By United Methodist News Service
"Bizarre" statements by a former presiding bishop of the Methodist Church of
Southern Africa are an embarrassment to the denomination, according to a
South African clergyman.
The Rev. Peter Storey, who served as bishop for that church's central
district from 1984 to 1997, is critical of a Feb. 8 statement issued by
Stanley Mogoba to South Africa's media. In it, Mogoba endorsed amputating
the limbs of criminals as a method of deterring crime.
Mogoba, who received the 1996 World Methodist Council Peace Award, is now
president of the Pan Africanist Congress, a parliamentary political party.
Bishop Mvume Dandala, the current presiding bishop, released his own
statement following Mogoba's public comments. 
"Our stance as a church has always been clear," Dandala's statement began.
"We reject violence as a way of trying to solve problems. We believe that
violence generates violence; that it generates only violence; and that it
generates violence in ever-spiraling intensity.
"Our world history of a thousand years of brutal punishment of beheading,
dismemberment and torture contributed to making some nations into predators
themselves. We are deeply grateful that South Africa has at last reached a
place where human rights are protected in a Constitution."
Mogoba had just been elected for another three-year term as presiding bishop
when he announced in December 1996 his intention of running for leader of
the Pan Africanist Congress, said Storey, who is on sabbatical in Nashville,
Tenn.
"Some of us made it very clear to him that we would not tolerate our leader
standing for that position without first resigning as leader of our church,"
Storey added. After debate, Mogoba was allowed to retire rather than resign.
Since then, Mogoba has served in parliament "and frankly has had very little
influence and made very little impact until this bizarre statement," Storey
said.
The first act of South Africa's new constitutional court was to strike down
the death penalty, Storey noted. In the panic about the crime wave,
politicians might be tempted to call for a return to capital punishment, he
added.
"He (Mogoba) may have thought he was saying something with some political
attraction, but he does seem to have lost a lot of compassion and
intelligence since entering party politics," Storey said. "I am sad for him
but angry that the church has been embarrassed in this way."
Dandala called Mogoba's suggestions "symptomatic" of the panic aroused by
the high levels of crime and gratuitous violence in South Africa. 
But the church believes in "positive and creative alternatives" to combat
crime and violence. Among the proposals in Dandala's statement were:
	Shifting the emphasis from punishment to rehabilitation.
	Sentencing first offenders to appropriate community service work.
	Implementing a massive educational effort "to empower people to take
more responsibility in reporting criminal behavior."
	Having churches develop political education programs offering
nonviolent responses to conflict situations.
	Instituting a voluntary year of public service for young adults to
assist law enforcement agencies in administrative work.
	Calling on Methodists to volunteer in police stations and community
policing forums. 

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