wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] South African Presbyterian chides Americans for

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Note #8784 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

05337
June 23, 2005

Truth telling

South African Presbyterian says Americans must stop believing leaders' lies

by John Sniffen

ABIQUIU, NM -- A South African theologian who thanks Americans for saving his
life and giving him a seminary education says the United States -- of which
he also is a citizen -- should stop accepting lies from its leaders.

	The Rev. Maake Masango, a professor of practical theology at the
University of Pretoria, told participants in the Presbyterian Peacemaking
Conference this week that the United States needs to be honest with itself
about its global behavior. He also said that Americans need to do a better
job of raising their children and should be more responsible with their
plentiful resources.

	He praised the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) General Assembly for its
vote last year to initiate limited divestment from companies profiting from
the violence in Israel/Palestine -- but criticized the invasion and
occupation of Iraq and other U.S. responses to the terrorist attacks of Sept.
11, 2001.

	Masango praised the PC(USA) for its decision "to divest from
Jerusalem," which he said "is destroying God's people." He said the
Assembly's action and the resulting criticism from some American Jews and
conservative Presbyterians "at least made the 'frozen chosen' start talking
truthfully" about the situation.

	"What if you were a Middle Eastern father or mother, and your home
was about to be bulldozed, or perhaps your children killed? Are their names
in your hearts?" Masango asked. "It was divestment that helped South Africa
be free.  It was this church that helped us to be free.

	"I have come to thank you."

	Masango is a member of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which
has worked to heal the scars caused by apartheid in South Africa.

	Regarding the invasion of Iraq, he asked Americans to stop accepting
what they are told to believe, without seeking out the facts.

	"If Iraq were selling oranges, the United States would not have gone
in there, " he said, suggesting that the reason for the invasion is that "you
use 60 percent of the world's oil."

	Masango, who is a minister and a past moderator of the Presbyterian
Church of South Africa, said he was in Geneva, Switzerland, with the Rev.
Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the General Assembly, on Sept. 11,
2001, attending a World Council of Churches event.

	"When the towers fell, tears were running down our faces," Masango
said. "I called home and called the moderator of our church. I asked him to
send two of our folks to go and weep with Presbyterian Church in the U.S. --
two mothers who lost children in the bad days. But the U.S. embassy would not
give them visas. So we called for our church to weep for you from home.

	"When the towers fell down, the whole Christian church fell down, for
there were human beings in there."

	The invasion of Iraq was not the correct response to the terrorist
attacks, he said.

	"Is it possible to see Jesus in your enemy?" he asked. " What type of
prayers did you say for your children when they went to Iraq?  'Help them to
destroy the terrorists? And help us recover the oil?'"

	"In Iraq they pray to get rid of the Americans," he aid.

	The God of all who hears these prayers "loves humanity and hurts when
people hurt," said Masango.

	"You are ruled by fear," he said. "I understand you have to be safe,
but teach your sons and daughters ... to love the people of God. ... Not
everybody is a terrorist."

	When his life was in danger in South Africa, American Presbyterians
helped get Masango out of his native land and bring him to the United States,
where he studied at Columbia Theological Seminary in Decatur, GA.

	"I love you. You have made me what I am," he said. "I would have been
killed. You educated me, you loved me and you healed me to love God's people.
My duty, however, is that we should stand and talk about the emperor who is
naked."

	Regarding the raising of children, he noted the strength of his own
extended family: "The only way that we survived the oppression of apartheid
was that our parents taught us how to pray."

	However, "in America the family is collapsing," he said, and parents
are letting the children be raised by television - "No wonder they behave
like wild animals."

	He also said Americans waste resources held precious by people
elsewhere. "You are a blessed country, but are careless one," he said. "You
feed the garbage can more than you feed the people."

John Sniffen is associate editor for Presbyterians Today magazine.

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