Cyberjournal for Pentecostal-Charismatic Research

INTRODUCTION

The Pentecostal outpouring of the Spirit in South Africa was no different from the outpouring in the United States. Racism in the Pentecostal movement in South Africa is not restricted to the apartheid era (i.e. after 1948 when the National Party gained power and introduced political apartheid). Only six months after the initial outpouring of the Holy Spirit in 1908, the executive council of the Apostolic Faith Mission (AFM) decided "that the baptism of natives shall in future take place after the baptism of white people"⁽⁷⁾. A few months later it was decided to separate the baptism of white and black people completely.⁽⁸⁾ From then onwards the AFM, the biggest and oldest Pentecostal movement in South Africa, moved towards separate congregations for white and black.

Before considering the way in which the AFM reacted to the policy of apartheid, it is necessary to establish if the church played any role whatsoever in the formation of apartheid.

JOHN LAKE

John Lake's position on racial issues is somewhat dubious. He is both praised as the proclaimer of a non-racial historical Pentecostal gospel⁽⁹⁾, and the father of segregation policy in South Africa.⁽¹⁰⁾

There seems to be an amount of truth in both views. Gordon Lindsay wrote a book on the life of John Lake, based on interviews with the latter. According to one of these oral traditions, Lake was the brain behind the segregation laws of the Union of South Africa. Lake gained influence with the prime minister, genl. Louis Botha, after he had assisted him during a national crisis. General Botha later invited Lake to address the parliament on the racial issue.

I outlined a native policy and submitted it to the Government. On receipt of this I was invited to come to Cape Town and address the Parliament on this issue. I did so - something remarkable for an American in a foreign country. I framed the policy in harmony with our American policy involving the Indian tribes, having as an example the mistakes of the United States and other nations in regard to their handling of the native nations. This policy, as outlined by me was practically adopted by the Boer party in toto.⁽¹¹⁾

De Wet concludes from this that Lake was a proponent of racial segregation⁽¹²⁾. However, a more balanced view would be that Lake supported political segregation, but not necessarily church segregation. There is ample evidence that Lake did not conduct segregated meetings. He started his ministry in Johannesburg in a black Zionist church in Doornfontein. At Lake's second meeting, the first whites already attended.⁽¹³⁾ When Elias Letwaba, the well-known black Pentecostal leader, attended the Bree Street Tabernacle, a predominant white church, for the first time, Lake defended him against racist white attendants, even kissing Letwaba in front of the whole congregation. Lake immediately invited Letwaba to join him on a mission to Bloemfontein, a conservative white city in South Africa.⁽¹⁴⁾

Lake was paternalistic, and possibly even a proponent of political segregation, but he was not a racist. In one of his early letters to the Upper Room Mission in Los Angeles, Lake complained that the Afrikaner has, like the Southerner, a strong prejudice against blacks, but added that God is changing the hearts of many white workers and caused them "to love the natives".⁽¹⁵⁾

It is very important to make a clear distinction between racial segregation and apartheid. Without trying to justify segregation as a policy, there is no evidence that the early governments of the Union of South Africa saw segregation as an all-embracing ideology of separation. Although many discriminatory laws were implemented during the segregation years in South Africa, amongst them the hated Natives Lands Act of 1913, which restricted black farmers to certain scheduled areas, the segregation policies never intended to separate blacks and whites in the way that the later ideology of apartheid did.

One has to agree with De Wet that "never in his wildest dreams would Lake have foreseen that the practical arrangement he advocated would change into the rigid apartheid ideology".⁽¹⁶⁾ But unfortunately this typical Western paternalism, very popular even amongst early Pentecostal missionaries,⁽¹⁷⁾ laid the foundation for the AFM to plug into many apartheid laws when it was implemented since 1948.

CHURCH POLICY OF THE AFM

The decision to separate the children of God at the waters of baptism was like a light sea breeze that soon became a hurricane. Long before the National Party gained power and implemented it's policy of apartheid or separate development, the AFM, like the Dutch Reformed Church, had separate congregations and later separate churches for the different races (although the AFM never called it ethnic churches but ethnic sections of one church).

At first sight it might be possible to presume that the AFM, like the Dutch Reformed Church, played a prominent role in the formation of apartheid. However, the facts points in another direction.

THE AFM BEFORE 1948

De Wet makes the following comment on the racial attitudes of the Pentecostal pioneers of South Africa:

Driven by their feelings of white supremacy, the early white leaders followed closely a policy of paternalism.⁽¹⁸⁾

He goes on to show that there were no blacks amongst the first appointed elders (blacks were later appointed as elders in the Native work), only a white could be appointed a superintendent of the so-called "native work", the Native Council that governed the "Native work" from 1910 consisted of three white leaders and three black leaders and the white church was called the mother church, despite the fact that the Pentecostal revival actually started in a black church. De Wet points out in mitigation of the racial attitudes of the pioneers, that many of these paternalistic actions were taken to meet the expectations of the government. Black churches were only recognized by the state if they were under white control.⁽¹⁹⁾

The AFM laid the foundation for racism in the church when they decided to separate the baptism of blacks and whites. I. Burger, historian of the AFM and presently president of the "single section" (formerly known as the white section), sees a socio-political reason for this decision:

..during the first few months White and non-White (sic) were even baptised together.at the end of 1908 some Afrikaans speaking brothers came on the executive council. The fact that they understood the history and the nature of the racial feelings in South Africa better, possibly contributed to the gradual separation of the races.⁽²⁰⁾ (translation NH)

However, whenever an ideological decision is made in the church, it is very difficult to control its progress. Neither the pioneers nor Burger tried to give a theological reason for the separation or even question its validity. It is possibly correct to conclude that the pioneers deviated from non-racialism because of white racist pressure rather than theological conviction.

The decisions of 1908 to separate the baptism of blacks and whites took its cause and at an executive council meeting of 1917 it was decided that "White, Coloured and Native peoples have their separate places of worshipFurther that in the case of certain worthy coloured families attending at the Central Tabernacle the matter be left in the hands of the Spiritual Committee".⁽²¹⁾ The term worthy coloured families are not defined. At the same meeting it was also decided "that we do not teach or encourage social equality between Whites and Natives".⁽²²⁾

Examples of this paternalistic and sometimes blatant racism of the AFM pioneers can be multiplied. Even a man with the stature of David du Plessis contributed to the growing alienation between blacks and whites by making the different "sections" autonomous and gave them their own separate constitutions in the thirties.⁽²³⁾

However, there is also ample evidence that the AFM was initially against ideological apartheid and even took an open stand against political racism and an over-emphasis on Afrikaner-Nationalism, cornerstones of ideological apartheid. David du Plessis states that when he implemented segregation in the church, he never expected that segregation would grow into hard apartheid.⁽²⁴⁾

Although politics was not high on the agenda between 1920 and 1948, the political sentiments in the church favored the more liberal ruling United Party to the right wing National Party. When GR Wessels, who later became vice-president and Nationalist senator, was elected on the executive council in 1927, he was the only pro-Nationalist on the council.⁽²⁵⁾ Burger points out that the tension between AFM and the three Afrikaans Reformed churches was not without political overtones.⁽²⁶⁾ The Dutch Reformed Church and the other two smaller Reformed churches, were very closely linked to the ideals and aspirations of the Afrikaner and therefore also to the National Party. This approach was unacceptable to the AFM with its strong English constituency, American history and its apolitical stance. It resulted in tension between the "political right wing churches" and the "apolitical", but more politically liberal AFM.

PL le Roux, who succeeded Lake as president in November 1913 and remained in that capacity until April 1943, fought a long battle against Afrikaner-Nationalism, Nazism and other right wing movements, in the columns of The Comforter/Die Trooster, official publication of the church.

Shortly after the centenary festivals of the Afrikaner occupation of the northern parts of southern Africa, the so-called Ox Wagon Trek Centenary, Le Roux wrote an article in which he compared the rising Afrikaner-Nationalism and white racism with Fascism and Nazism, which he called "the spirit of the time".⁽²⁷⁾ Possibly a reference to the spirit of the anti-christ. Le Roux rejected the hero worship of the festivals and pointed out that God received no honor. On the contrary the remembrance of white military victories and white occupation of the land, caused racism and anti-Semitism, which is not of God, but the spirit of the time and the anti-christ.⁽²⁸⁾ He even hinted that the former Dutch Reformed minister and the prominent leader in the National Party, who became the prime minister in 1948, Dr. D.F. Malan, was the false prophet of Revelation 13.

The enemy knows that in our country he has to deal with a religious nation and he proves his cunning by using former ministers, who are still using their religious titles, but advancing (anti-semitism and nationalism). Is it not remarkable that the anti-christ uses people with a religious background? However, he will only use it (religion) to achieve his Satanic end. We read that the first beast (dictator) will destroy the second beast (head of a worldly church) after the latter has made a statue for him and when the people will worship him.⁽²⁹⁾ (translation NH)

The influence of Le Roux and like-minded pioneers prevented the AFM in its early years from accepting ideological white racism, anti-Semitism and the theology of the Afrikaner as an elected nation. However, their paternalism and reluctance to take an explicit stand against racism, laid the foundation for later ideological influence upon the AFM.

THE AFM AFTER 1948

The change in the political attitude of the AFM coincided, and was strongly influenced by the rise of a group of young pastors, commonly known as the New Order. Their main objective was to rid the AFM of its sectarian image and to make the church more acceptable for the Afrikaner community. Although the AFM still had a strong English speaking contingent, the New Order concentrated mainly on the Afrikaners. The New Order wanted to change the church on two fronts: they wanted to bring the liturgy and worship of the church more in line with Reformed liturgy, and they wanted to link the church closely to Afrikaner culture.⁽³⁰⁾

One of the first victories of the New Order was on the cultural front when the workers council decided in 1946 to celebrate the Day of Covenant with Christmas and Good Friday as a day of thanks and a Sabbath.⁽³¹⁾ The Day of the Covenant was an important symbol of the rising Afrikaner-Nationalism. It celebrates a victory of a small band of Afrikaner settlers in Natal over a mighty Zulu army, as an act of God. Because of its nationalistic and political undertones, the AFM never celebrated it before 1946.

Two years later the workers council decided to encourage members to participate in the election of school committees.⁽³²⁾ Later assembly boards were encouraged to affiliate with Afrikaner cultural bodies.⁽³³⁾

During the fifties, the AFM, like many other international Pentecostal bodies, also forsake pacifism in practice, although it was never scrapped or repelled from the old minutes.⁽³⁴⁾ In many of the assemblies where New Order pastors ministered, the liturgy also underwent radical changes.⁽³⁵⁾

The election of GR Wessels as a Nationalist senator in 1955, gave the good intentions of the "New Order" a fatal blow. His election was both politically and spiritually controversial. The National Party gained power in 1948 with the election promise to implement "apartheid". One of their first aims was to remove the so-called coloureds⁽³⁶⁾ from the common voter's roll. The removal could only be done by changing the constitution of the Union of South Africa and to change the specific article, a two-thirds majority was needed in a joint sitting of both Houses of Parliament. After several unsuccessful attempts to change the constitution, the National Party decided to extend the senate to give them the necessary majority. GR Wessels was one of the new appointed senators.⁽³⁷⁾ By allowing their vice-president to become a senator in this controversial senate, the AFM actively became a partner in the process of taking away the political rights of the coloured community, many of them members of the AFM and other Pentecostal churches.

From a spiritual perspective it was also an extraordinary decision by the AFM to allow a pastor to become a politician while keeping his pastoral credentials and staying on as vice-president. This led to tension in the AFM and eventually to the breakaway of a substantial part of the church, who formed the Pentecostal Protestant Church.⁽³⁸⁾

The heartbroken stories of the influence of apartheid on the people come from the assemblies. In the early fifties the general secretary sent a circular to all assemblies, both white and so-called coloured, asking them to see to it that white members worshiping in so-called coloured assemblies should be encouraged to join white assemblies, since joint worship were not the policy of the government (it was the time of the implementation of the Group Areas Act and the hated Separate Amenities Act) and neither socially acceptable.⁽³⁹⁾

The letter was met with considerable resistance from some of the white workers in so-called coloured assemblies. A white sister pastoring a so-called coloured church with her husband, raised the issue at a district council meeting in the Western Cape and said she would never resign from her church.⁽⁴⁰⁾

After a while most of the whites left (a few full time workers being the exceptions). The spirit of the letter soon got its own momentum and coloured believers worshiping in white congregations became the target. Goodwood, today one of the biggest assemblies in the so-called single or white section, is a good example of how apartheid was enforced in the assemblies.

At a special church board meeting on Friday July, 20, 1956, the colour issue was recorded for the first time in the minutes.⁽⁴¹⁾ A so-called coloured sister wrote a letter requesting an audience with the church board. She felt that she was pushed aside by the assembly because of her colour.

it was decided that we notify sister Willemse officially that she is no longer a member of this assembly, and as far as the colour issue is concerned, it was she who raised the idea, which was never mentioned by the pastor or the church board.⁽⁴²⁾

It must be mentioned that pastor JA Wort, presently a senior executive member of the AFM of S.A., single section, who was present as an elder at the meeting, told me that he remembers the case and that the sister's colour did not play a role in their decision. At that time, he points out, there were several other so-called coloured families in the assembly.⁽⁴³⁾ I have no reason to reject Wort's version of the meeting. It was nevertheless the first recorded action against a so-called coloured and the decision undoubtedly set the pace for further action.

On Sept. 7, 1956 it was decided to seek the face of the Lord for guidance on the colour issue.⁽⁴⁴⁾ The minutes does not tell us what the result of their seeking God's face was, but at the board meeting of Feb. 10, 1958, a brother was instructed to "find out if brother W. van Blerk was white or not" and two other brothers were appointed "to tell him that his children are no longer welcome in the Sunday School".⁽⁴⁵⁾ Brother van Blerk was at one time vice-chairman of the church board.⁽⁴⁶⁾

The pastor during these dramatic changes was a former policeman, PN Visser. He built the small assembly into a big, vibrant Pentecostal work, but he also advertised his meetings in the papers "for whites only". Some of the members of those day believe that it was his apartheid policies that filled the church, ⁽⁴⁷⁾ while others believe that the growth was the result of Visser's evangelistic ability.⁽⁴⁸⁾

This pattern was followed in several other assemblies. To my knowledge, Potchefstroom⁽⁴⁹⁾ and Oudtshoorn⁽⁵⁰⁾ were among the assemblies who soon followed the example of Goodwood.

Du Plessis and the probably most of the New Order were undoubtedly sincere in their idealism to make the AFM more acceptable to society. However, they were not mere opportunists. It is clear that at least some of them fiercely believed in the apartheid ideology. GR Wessels published a magazine during the fifties in which he attempted to influence Christians to participate in politics. This magazine propagated apartheid in its crudest form.⁽⁵¹⁾

The attempts of the New Order were not without success. The AFM was invited to conduct short devotions on the radio, the church gained a good image in the white society and it built good relations with the government.

But the price was very high. Du Plessis laments the close relations that developed between the church and the National Party, which he feels is paralyzing the church today.⁽⁵²⁾ He has confessed his own participation in this process at several occasions.⁽⁵³⁾

Although GR Wessels resigned as vice-president in 1969 and since then pastors were not allowed to participate in party politics, the bond between the AFM and the National Party remained strong, though more informal.

Since 1974 the executive council of the single or white section are trying to unify the former ethnic sections, but the attempts have always failed in the white workers councils, where many laymen and several pastors cannot rid themselves from the unpentecostal ideology⁽⁵⁴⁾ proclaimed to them in the fifties. One of my church board members told me that as a boy in the fifties his pastor told him apartheid was in the Bible, later he was told it is not in the Bible, but God is completely satisfied with it. But he was unable to cross the border I expected from him - to see apartheid as sin.⁽⁵⁵⁾

In black South Africa the AFM has lost tremendous credibility over the years. It was only when the black churches stood up against church and political apartheid in the late seventies that it regained credibility. The fact that the three ethnic sections for Africans, so-called coloureds and Indians unified in 1990 to form a non-racial church, known as the composite section, gave the church a lot of momentum.

Throughout the years of Verwoerdian apartheid, the AFM never raised its voice against the crude oppression of the vast majority of the people. The forced removals of 3,5 million people, the banning of hundreds, if not thousands, without a chance to defend themselves, the detentions of thousands without trial and the vulgar implementation of the dehumanizing Mixed Marriages Act and art. 16 of the Immorality Act, never even raised an eyebrow amongst white Pentecostals. On the contrary, there are, as we have seen, indications that the white section of the AFM actively supported the system.

The executive council even encourage assemblies to join one of the academic thought tanks of apartheid, the South African Bureau of Racial Affairs (SABRA) and Justus du Plessis, representative of the AFM at SABRA, raised an alarm on behalf of the church after two Afrikaner liberals, Nic Olivier and Japie Basson, had been elected on the board.⁽⁵⁶⁾ In reply the secretary of SABRA thanked the AFM for its strong support of the "recognition and elaboration of the principle of separate development of the different nations in South Africa". (translation NH)⁽⁵⁷⁾

The clearest sign of the church's insensitive political approach of those years is to be found in the new constitution of 1961, which stated that members are white baptized members, while the church also has "non-white (sic), that is Indian, coloured and Bantu followers".⁽⁵⁸⁾

It was only when the era of reform started in South Africa that the AFM took a second look at itself.

THE AFM AND THE PROCESS OF REFORM

It is generally accepted that the Afrikaans-speaking churches in South Africa only changed their racial attitudes after the National Party had decided to follow the path of reform. However, the situation is much more complicated. Reform in the AFM started in 1974 when the AFM office bearers met the executive council of the so-called coloured church in Bloemfontein. At that historical meeting both parties decided that a united church is the only option for the future.⁽⁵⁹⁾ The Erica Theron Commission that was appointed by the government to investigate the social and political future of the so-called coloured people, only brought out their report in the second half of 1976, while the white workers council of the AFM decided already in March 1976 in principle to become one with the so-called coloured church.⁽⁶⁰⁾

In the following years there was always a close link between the reform of the government and the reform agenda of the AFM. When prime minister Vorster decided to include the Indians in his reform program, the AFM did not hesitate to follow. Between 1977 and 1985 the white section and several joint commissions made several unity proposals closely related to the tricameral ideas of government,⁽⁶¹⁾ which were constantly rejected by the so-called coloured workers council.⁽⁶²⁾ However, the AFM decided long before the government (in 1986) that blacks must form an integral part of any future solution.

It seems closer to the truth to accept that the reform process played an important role in the development of a racial policy in the AFM, but that the AFM, possibly also other churches, were sometimes moving faster than the government, i.e. there were cross-fertilisation.

One of the positive aspects of the years of reform was that the AFM white section officially recognized blacks, coloureds and Indians as members.⁽⁶³⁾ The full implications of this decision have never been tested, but it possibly means that all the sections should have an equal share in the legal personality which were administered by the white section until the implementation of the new constitution of 1991.⁽⁶⁴⁾ In 1983 the white section also decided to open its membership to all races.⁽⁶⁵⁾

The first meaningful movement towards structural unity took place in 1986 when all the sections of the AFM accepted a Declaration of Intent in which the church clearly rejected apartheid:

The AFM of S.A. affirms its acceptance of the Biblical principles of unity;

The AFM of S.A. rejects a system of apartheid based on racial discrimination as a principle in the Kingdom of God and the structures of the church;

The AFM of S.A. accepts the principle that the church should function as a single structure, based on the mentioned principles;

The AFM of S.A. agrees that worship and membership of the church should be based on spontaneous grouping of believers. ⁽⁶⁶⁾

In Sept. 1990 the three black sections (coloured, African and Indian) gave expression to the declaration by merging. The unity is still very artificial since all the former sections of the composite section still function, though with limited powers, while presbiterium consisting of the office bearers of each church, is responsible for the joint administration of the composite section. In April 1991 the workers council of the white or single section accepted a new constitution, allowing corporate administration of the legal personality by the single and composite sections. It also reaffirmed its intention to create a single structure for the whole church.

With the help of the political reform of Pres. FW de Klerk the AFM will possibly rid itself of the church structures closely related to the political ideology of apartheid. But I predict that it will take many years to change the hearts of its members, both the whites with their superiority complex, still poisoned by the ideology of apartheid, and the blacks, whose pain of many years have often turned into hatred⁽⁶⁷⁾ and other ideological alliances at worst, or to a desire to gain power in the church after all their years of powerlessness.⁽⁶⁸⁾

"BLOOD ON OUR HANDS, HOPE FOR THE FUTURE"

The almost tragic history of the single section of the AFM of S.A. serves as a warning for any Pentecostal church where people are flirting with ideology, no matter how good their intentions may be. This includes churches where support for liberation movements (many times not without good reasons), are once again paralyzing the prophetic witness of the church.⁽⁶⁹⁾ The saying "he who rides a tiger can't get off" is applicable here. Anyone toying with ideological forces, are selling out the church and its values. This is equally true of white Afrikaners trying to improve their image or black oppressed Pentecostals with a burning desire to liberate the oppressed and deliver the poor, plugging into a theology using Marxist analysis.⁽⁷⁰⁾

However, this is not a good time for white South Africans to point to the growing ideological actions of our black brothers and sisters. We can only earn the right to play a positive and critical role in the future of a non-racial southern Africa if we are willing to walk the path of repentance, the acceptance of our corporate guilt in creating this monster, not hiding behind our good intentions. The road will be painful (we are already experiencing it in Namibia). Only when white Pentecostals will be prepared to cross the borders to their black brothers and sisters, not matter how big the risks may be, we shall be able to find our future in God and forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

EPILOGUE: THE INTERNATIONAL PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT AND APARTHEID

The international Pentecostal movement cannot escape co-responsibility the tragedies of the South African Pentecostals. Their reluctance to get involved in the affairs of the big Pentecostal churches, their inability to understand that an insult to the dignity of a human being anywhere is an insult to the dignity of all human beings everywhere, and at worst, their support of apartheid both in their own churches and in South Africa, had an influence on the conduct of South African Pentecostal churches. Perhaps the AFM and other traditional Pentecostal churches would have taken a second look at their involvement had there been at least some form of resistance from the international community.

Those international Pentecostals and charismatics who were prepared to speak out against apartheid were always a very small minority, almost non-existent. Hollenweger once called the Apostolic Faith Mission of South Africa (AFM) the most reactionary Pentecostal movement in the world,⁽⁷¹⁾ while Bryn Jones, British church leader, recently said the AFM is doing evangelistic work for the Muslims in South Africa because of it's racial division.⁽⁷²⁾

It is not surprising that international charismatics are somewhat embarrassed by Spirit-filled South Africans who support apartheid in one way or the other. What is surprising, is the fact that South African Pentecostals have escaped the international isolation of the other South African churches with a strong Afrikaner contingent.

The other so-called white South African denominations came under fierce attacks from their related international denominations for their support of apartheid. The Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) is a good example of continued isolation over the last fifty years. In 1941 the DRC left the Christian Council of South Africa and in 1960, after the Cottesloe conference,⁽⁷³⁾ the DRC left the World Council of Churches. In 1978 the relationship between the DRC and the Reformed Church of the Netherlands was terminated, in 1982 both the Schweiz Reformierte Kirche and the Reformierten Bund of Germany cut their ties with the DRC. The biggest blow to their international ecumenical relations came when the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) declared a status confessionis⁽⁷⁴⁾ on apartheid and suspended the membership of DRC in 1982. Two years later the Reformed Ecumenical Synod (RES), followed in the footsteps of the WARC by declaring a status confessionis on apartheid and gave the DRC two years to get its house in order.

The AFM never had these pressures from the international world. On the contrary, in 1955 GR Wessles, vice-president of the AFM of S.A., was one of the key speakers at the International Pentecostal Conference in Stockholm.⁽⁷⁵⁾ However, in the same year pastor Wessels was also elected as a National Party member of the extended senate on the South African Parliament with the blessing of the AFM.

The international Pentecostal community, however remained silent. According to Hollenweger there were some delegates in Stockholm who were disturbed by Wessels' involvement in politics, but the issue was never raised in the open sessions because "we did not want to quench the Spirit".⁽⁷⁶⁾

At the height of the State of Security in the last few months of the PW Botha government in 1988, while the international community were fighting apartheid, the prominent American charismatic leader from CBN Network, Pat Robertson visited South Africa and told the nation on the TV that he is impressed by reform program of the South African government.⁽⁷⁷⁾

Throughout the years of sport, political, economical, religious and cultural isolation, which crippled the whole South African society, the traditional Pentecostal churches maintained good relationships with the international Pentecostal community. ⁽⁷⁸⁾ Simultaneously, almost all the other streams of the Christian churches either cut ties with their South African counterpart, or placed them under pressure to distance themselves from the policies of apartheid.

Finally, I want to make a few observations about the reasons for the international Pentecostals not crossing the borders.

THE PENTECOSTAL IMAGE

Pentecostals are not known for their social involvement, at least not in the first world. If one speaks of the Pentecostal movement, one thinks of their zeal for evangelism, their enthusiasm and their emphasis on the baptism in the Spirit with the initial evidence of speaking in tongues.

First world Pentecostals often tend to be conservative, both in their theology and their politics. In the United States the Pentecostals form the backbone of the so-called Religious Right and in South Africa the right wing religious movement Church Alliance of South Africa (CASA) was founded mainly by Pentecostals.

Tinney blames white Pentecostalism for the bad image of the movement.⁽⁷⁹⁾ According to him certain "tongue-speaking" denominations that have had more access to wealth and the mass media gave the movement an exclusivist, narrow theological, racial and cultural image.

Tinney touches a sensitive nerve in Pentecostalism. Firstly, he maintains that the wealthy Western Pentecostal movement is not "Pentecostal" in the historical sense of the word, but merely a "tongues movement". Secondly, Tinney denies the predominant white Pentecostal movement of the USA and Western Europe the right to call themselves the Pentecostal movement or the authentic representatives of it. Leonard Lovett blames the white Pentecostal historians for neglecting and ignoring the role blacks played in the early history of the movement.

It is unfortunate that the blatant omission of Seymour by some classical Pentecostal historians is so obvious and becomes a form of judgement on our ethnic and racial pride.⁽⁸⁰⁾

It is clear that even in the Western World there are two clearly distinguishable Pentecostal traditions, a prosperous white tradition, which is often seen and heard because of it's access to the mass media, and a black tradition, which is much more in the background. Generally speaking, the black tradition is much more critical of the status quo and does not have the same high rightist profile. MacRobert discerns another major difference between the black and the white Pentecostal traditions.

Element in the religion of Seymour, or other black Americans... cannot be fully understood without some consideration of their African origins and the conditions of slavery under wich a black understanding of Christianity was formed.⁽⁸¹⁾

Pentecostalism, the religion of William Seymour, emerged out of this "context of the brokeness" of black existence. However, mainline Pentecostalism, especially in the United States, have given the movement an image completely opposite to the original haven of the poor and oppressed.

The "visible" Pentecostal church has developed a middle class image and middle class values. Although there are also Pentecostals who do not have a conservative, middle class image, they often exist on the fringes of society, alienated from the power structures of society and without the channels and resources to make their position known. Gerloff makes an interesting observation regarding West Indian Pentecostals in Britain:

Similar to South Africa where a white majority dominates a Black majority of comparable size, and where indigenous churches have been long ignored and then considered Christian non-entities, religious discrimination has been added to racial prejudice.⁽⁸²⁾ (Italics mine).

The sympathizers of the oppressed in South Africa have always been in the Pentecostal movement, but never "visible" enough to be heard in the international Pentecostal conferences and church councils. The majority of black Pentecostals felt no less oppressed amongst the white middle class Pentecostal movement of America, Europe and Britain than the black Pentecostals of South Africa.

The growing Third World Pentecostal Movement might have been an instrument of solidarity, but even today they are not completely liberated from the bondages of religious oppression in their own countries. Gerloff points out that young radical theologians in the Carribean are often completely unaware of the existence of the vibrant Pentecostal movement,⁽⁸³⁾ while the Jamaica Council of Churches did not even know anything about the major Pentecostal movements, let alone having fellowship with them.⁽⁸⁴⁾

THE SINS OF PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT

"People living in glass houses should not throw stones", is an old Afrikaans expression, quite applicable to the international Pentecostal movement. Tinney argues that Pentecostals define themselves in exclusivistic racial and cultural terms,⁽⁸⁵⁾ while MacRobert accuses Pentecostalism of being historically and institutionally racist.⁽⁸⁶⁾

One of the most striking elements of the Pentecostal revival was the fact that black and white worshiped together in one assembly amidst segregated America. Alexander Boddy wrote of this experience:

It was something very extraordinary, that white pastors from the south was prepared to go to Los Angeles to the Negroes to have fellowship with them and to receive through their prayers and intercessions the blessing of the Spirit. And it was still more wonderful that these white pastors went back to the South and reported to the members of their congregations that they had been together with Negroes, that they had prayed in one Spirit and received the same blessing as they.⁽⁸⁷⁾

Frank Bartleman, one of the early associates of the Asuza Street Revival, states that "the color line has been washed away in the blood".⁽⁸⁸⁾ Hollenweger sees this racial breakthrough as the most important aspect of the Pentecostal revival.⁽⁸⁹⁾

According to MacRobert the experience of slavery and oppression was not only part of the context of Seymour and the early black Pentecostals, but an integral part of their religion. The slaves, stripped of their culture, social bonds and roots, separated from their homelands and their family ties destroyed, had only one sphere of life where they could really be themselves: their religion. Although the Pentecostal movement was born some forty years after the abolition of slavery, the devastating effects of the system was still felt by the children of former slaves. Slaves were free, but definitely not equal to their former masters.

Black people rejected European distortion of Christianity which generally supported slavery and segregation, and took up a Christian faith with which they could identify through their sufferings and their desire for human dignity and freedom.⁽⁹⁰⁾

The white Pentecostals were often in no better position than the sons and daughters of former slaves. Anderson points out that the early Pentecostal movement drew its following almost exclusively from the working class and impoverished, unemployed of urban America.

Vast differences in race, national origin, language, religion, created physical distance between these urban dwellers. Yet, they share at least some things in common... most lived in similar social circumstances and were to some degree excluded from full admittance into the mainstream of middle-class urban society.⁽⁹¹⁾

William Seymour, pastor of the Azusa Street Mission, the birthplace of the modern movement, saw the non-racial spirit of the early years and the unity of the body of Christ as the outstanding sign of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.⁽⁹²⁾

Unfortunately, the white Pentecostals in the United States could not resist the power of severe racism.⁽⁹³⁾ Between 1906 and 1911 all the white Pentecostal leaders left Seymour.⁽⁹⁴⁾

Their rationalisations for doing so varied as did the time of their leaving, but ultimately the whites split away from Seymour and their black religious origins, and Seymour's dream of equality and interracial fellowship was left in tatters.⁽⁹⁵⁾

The non-racial Spirit was never recaptured in the Pentecostal movement. When the Assemblies of God was formed at a camp meeting in Hot Springs, Arkansas, only one black minister, GT Haywood, turned up.⁽⁹⁶⁾ After 1914 the Church of God in Christ became the spiritual home for most of the black Pentecostals in the United States, while the Assemblies of God was an almost exclusive white movement. MacRobert points out that all the major Pentecostal churches in the United States were either racially exclusive or the black works were placed in a separate section under white control.⁽⁹⁷⁾ The Church of God (Cleveland, Tenn.) only abolished its separate "coloured assembly" in 1966.⁽⁹⁸⁾

Even in Britain with its open society and fierce anti-racist laws, the tendency in the Pentecostal movement has always been towards racially exclusivist churches. Gerloff points out that after their migration to Britain, most West Indians have tended to form their own groups, mainly Pentecostal, Holiness or Sabbatarian movements, rather than joining British churches.⁽⁹⁹⁾

In a recent edition of Wort und Geist, publication several German and Swiss Pentecostal movements, two articles were published on South Africa, one being an interview with Dr. Isak Burger, president of the AFM, single section, the other an article by a German missionary, Armin Reichenbach.⁽¹⁰⁰⁾

A sub-heading of the interview creates the impression that the article wants to set the "false" international record of South Africa straight: "Was nie in der Presse steht" - What the press does not say. However the article does not touch the subject of the international press campaign against South Africa - apartheid. Neither does the interviewer take the well-known issue of church apartheid up with Dr. Burger. The logical conclusion that any uninformed reader would make by comparing the sub-heading with the content, is that the interviewer is telling us in a land with such beautiful Pentecostals, the press reports must be wrong or even a fake.

The second article is even worse. Apartheid is openly defended. The author states that the reason for the polemic around South Africa lies in the country's strategic importance, that apartheid exists all over the world and that it is unavoidable. He says it is a political lie that whites in South Africa oppress blacks. The whites, he says, are much further developed than the blacks and communism (for him obviously the only alternative to apartheid) will bring famine over the country. He also states that most of the violence in the country is black-on-black violence and if a black government would take over, a civil war will break out between the black tribes.

Most of these statements are debatable, while some of them are the typical racist jargon of the far right in South Africa. Articles like that does not help the oppressed black Pentecostals, neither does it help progressive church leaders like Isak Burger who is doing his best to lead his church out of the isolated ruins of apartheid into a Pentecostal experience of unity. But it does say something of racial attitudes still persistent amongst European Pentecostals.

Racism played (and is still playing) a role not only in South Africa, but virtually in all Pentecostal churches all over the world. The fact that the big role players at the International Pentecostal Conference and its organizers were often part of predominant segregated churches, made it very difficult to raise a voice against apartheid, while maintaining racist practices.

THE LOW PROFILE OF THE BLACK PENTECOSTALS

As we have already seen, black Pentecostals did not have the same exposure to the international world - and to a great extent still do not have access to the International Pentecostal Conference and other international platforms.

Frank Chikane, member of the Committee for Dogmatics, Ethics and Liturgy of the composite section and Japie Lapoorta, vice-president of the composite section, were the first black leaders who gained an international audience to state their case.

But it is also true that meaningful criticism against church apartheid in the AFM emerged only in the late seventies amongst that so-called coloured section. In the fifties the coloured section even supported GR Wessels move to become a Nationalist senator - despite the fact that it costed them their vote.⁽¹⁰¹⁾ There was also protest from a so-called coloured pastor when it became known that a colleague had baptised a white lady.⁽¹⁰²⁾ This does not mean that there was no protest against church apartheid. As far back as 1955 there were voices asking for a coloured overseer to replace the white missionary,⁽¹⁰³⁾ but these requests were strongly opposed in the district council and always rejected by the white workers council.

It is only since the formation of the composite section in 1990 that all the black members of the AFM are condemning apartheid with one voice. It is only in the last ten years - in the case of the African section, only the last six or seven years - that young progressive leaders replaced the older leaders who were very loyal to the white section.⁽¹⁰⁴⁾

The conservative black leaders made it very difficult for the international community to take up their cause while they were not interested in it.

CONCLUSION

There are possibly many more reasons why European and other international Pentecostals turned a blind eye to apartheid. Some reasons might be good, others mere excuses for our lack of concern. It is not my intention to go into all the reasons. This is just a small epilogue "lest anyone should boast!" We all stand guilty before God: the liberals and conservatives, Africans and Europeans, whites and even blacks. May the Holy Spirit guide the Pentecostal movement through repentance and confession to cross the racial borders once again! May the Spirit of Azusa Street be revived amongst us! And may the colour line (and also the cultural and ideological lines) be washed away in the blood!

PS. Thank God for those who cared enough not to mind their own business, but to make apartheid their business, amongst them charismatic leader Bryn Jones and Walter Hollenweger, member of the Reformed Church, but from our ranks and at heart a Pentecostal. His writings play a major role in the thinking of progressive Pentecostals in southern Africa, as is evident from The Relevant Pentecostal Witness.

1. J. Deotis Roberts, BLACK THEOLOGY IN DIALOGUE, (The Westminister Press, Philadelphia, 1987), p. 59.

2. B. Breytenbach, SKUINSKYK, in Die Suid-Afrikaan, No. 33 (DSA Publications, Cape Town, July/July 1991), p.3.

3. ibid.

4. The Apostolic Faith Mission of Namibia was founded on January, 19, 1991. It was actually a unification of three sections, the so-called black, white and coloured sections, formerly linked with similar sections in South Africa.

5. P. Dunaiski, PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Windhoek, March 1991. The white delegates were especially disturbed by the results of the elections. Despite the presence of adequate white leadership, no white was elected in one of the key positions of president, vice-president or secretary. Both the vice-president and the secretary are assistant pastors in their assemblies. In a private conversation, Dunaisky, a pastor in the AFM, but also a prominent member of SWAPO, the ruling party in Namibia, told me that the election was a compromise between the non-racialists and a strong Pan Africanist group who wanted to keep whites out of the executive council completely. As a compromise they decided to keep whites from the three important positions, but elect a white minister as treasurer and allow one more white on the executive council.

6. F. Lawrence, PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Windhoek, January 25, 1991. Freddie Lawrence is a pastor-cum-civil servant. When I shared the discomfort of the whites about the election with him, his comment was that the whites were in power long enough and they must accept that they have lost it forever. "The whites will get no sympathy from us," was his final words.

7. I. Burger, GELOOFSGESKIEDENIS VAN DIE APOSTOLIESE GELOOFSENDING VAN SUID-AFRIKA. 1908-1958, (Gospel Publishers, Johannesburg, 1987), p. 175.

8. ibid.

9. W. Burton, WHEN GOD MAKES A PASTOR, (Victory Press, London, 1934), p. 30 ff.

10. I. Burger, op. Cit., p. 151.

11. G. Lindsay, JOHN LAKE - APOSTLE TO AFRICA, (Christ for the Nations, Dallas, 1981), pp. 35-36. Lake's speech could not be traced in the minutes of parliament. It is possible that Lake addressed a select committee. See B. Sundkler, ZULU ZION, (Oxford University Press, London, 1976), p. 54.

12. C. de Wet, THE APOSTOLIC FAITH MISSION IN AFRICA: 1908-1980. A CASE STUDY IN CHURCH GROWTH IN A SEGREGATED SOCIETY, (Unpublished PH.D. dissertation, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, 1989), p. 158 f.

13. I. Burger, op. cit., p. 167.

14. W. Burton, op. cit., p. 52 ff.

15. Quoted in I. Burger, op. cit., p. 422 ff.

16. C. de Wet, op. Cit., p. 160.

17. See W. Burton, op. cit., p. 1 ff.

18. C. de Wet, op. cit., p. 161.

19. ibid., p. 162 - 163.

20. I. Burger, op. cit., p. 176.

21. MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE COUNCIL OF THE AFM OF S.A., July 7, 1917, (AFM Archives, Lyndhurst), pp. 35 - 35.

22. ibid.

23. D. du Plessis and B. Slosser, A MAN CALLED MR. PENTECOST, (Logos Int., Plainfield, New Jersey, 1977), p. 112.

24. ibid.

25. Personal interview between Burger and Wessels, quoted in I. Burger, op. cit., p. 325.

26. ibid.

27. P. le Roux, DIE GEES VAN DIE TYD EN DIE GEES VAN GOD, in Trooster, (Bethlehem, South Africa, Feb. 1939), pp. 6-7.

28. ibid., p. 7.

29. ibid., p. 7.

30. See my article AGS QUO VADIS? In N. Horn and J. Louw, EEN KUDDE : EEN HERDER, (Ekklesia Publishers, Kuilsriver, 1987), pp. 75-85 for more detail on the ideals of the New Order. See also an article based on a conversation with JT du Plessis, younger brother of David du Plessis and a leading figure in the New Order: J. Theron, DIE INVLOED VAN DIE NEDERDUITSE GEREFORMEERDE KERK OP LIGURGIESE VERWIKKELINGE BINNE DIE APOSTOLIESE GELOOFSENDING VAN SUID-AFRIKA: DIE ROL VAN PAST JT DU PLESSIS, in Ned. Geref Teologiese Tydskrif, Vol. XXX, no. 3, July 3, 1989, pp. 301-311.

31. M. van der Spuy, DIE SPANNING TUSSEN VRYHEID EN FORMALISERING TEN OPSIGET VAN DIE LITURGIESE VERSKUIWINGE BINNE DIE APOSTOLIESE GELOOF SENDING VAN SUID-AFRIKA, (Unpublished MA thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria, 1985), p. 155.

32. ibid.

33. ibid., p. 156.

34. ibid., p. 156. See also I. Burger, op. cit., p. 310.

35. I took over the assembly of Krugersdorp Central from David and JT du Plessis' youngest brother, Eneas. Before me, JT du Plessis and his brother served in the assembly for more than thirty years. Members of the assembly often told me that no one clapped hands there for more than twenty years.

36. Under the race classification laws a distinction was made between blacks and so-called coloureds. People who were neither black nor white nor Asian were classified as "coloureds". It included amongst others Malaysian descendants and descendants from relationships and marriages between black and white.

37. I have dealt with this issue in more detail in an article, QUA VADIS AGS?, in op. cit., pp. 75-85.

38. See I. Burger, op., cit., pp. 324 ff.

39. A. Schoeman, CIRCULAR FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARY, (AFM Archives, Kuilsriver, date unreadable, probably between 1954 and 1955).

40. MINUTES OF THE WESTERN PENINSULA COLOURED DISTRICT COUNCIL, (AFM Archives Kuilsriver, date and page no. Unreadable, possible in 1954-55).

41. MINUTES OF THE AFM OF S.A., GOODWOOD, July 20, 1956, (AFM Archives, Lyndhurst), p. 75.

42. ibid.

43. J. Wort, PERSONAL TELEPHONE CONVERSATION, Windhoek/Kempton Park, May 31, 1991.

44. Op. cit.

45. ibid., p. 144.

46. J. Wort, op. cit.

47. K. du Toit, PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Windhoek, Sept. 1989.

48. JA Wort, op. cit. Wort points out that the growth started while there were still several coloured families in the assembly. He is convinced that the growth would have occurred even if the so-called coloureds did not leave the assembly.

49. U. Bezuidenhout, PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Krugersdorp, 1987.

50. V. Isaacs, PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Uitenhage, 1984.

51. G. Wessels, DIE BYBEL EN APARTHEID, in Die Ou Paaie, Jan.-March 1957, p. unknown. In this article he proclaimed separate races as an ordinance of God and defended the Mixed Marriages Acts as a Christian defense of civilization.

52. J. Theron, op. cit., p. 308.

53. See my article QUA VADIS AGS?, op. cit., pp. 75-85 for examples.

54. I have elaborated on all the dogmatic deviations from Pentecostal theology the AFM indulged in during the apartheid era, in my unpublished paper, A REFUTATION OF THE THEOLOGY OF APARTHEID, delivered at the International Missionary Conference of the AFM, Lyndhurst, Oct. 1985. The paper was distributed amongst the participants by the missionary dept., together with my other paper, THE PAINS OF APARTHEID, under the title A TIME FOR REPENTANCE, but it was never officially printed.

55. L. Basson, PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Windhoek, November 6, 1989.

56. J. du Plessis, LETTER TO SABRA, Aug. 1965, (AFM Archives, Lyndhurst).

57. G. van Niekerk, LETTER TO JT DU PLESSIS, Aug. 25, 1965, (AFM Archives, Lyndhurst).

58. PRIVATE LAW NO. 24 of 1961, articles 1 and 2 of the statutes.

59. J. Louw, PERSONAL NOTES, Nov. 14-15, 1977 (now in possession of the author, Windhoek, p.1)

60. J. du Plessis, LETTER TO THE SECRETARY, AFM OF S.A. COLOURED CHURCH, undated, possibly March/April, 1976. (Copy in possession of author.)

61. The Tricameral Parliament of South Africa consists of three separate houses for whites, so-called coloureds and Indians, each being represented proportionally. However, the majority party in the white house remains intact since the different houses votes separately, even during joint sessions. No provisions are made for black (African) participation.

62. See J. Louw, VERHOUDINGE: BLANK EN KLEURLINGE. 'N OORSIG?????????????? - as for some of these proposals.

63. CIRCULATED MINUTES OF THE WORKERS COUNCIL OF THE AFM OF S.A., 7-11 of April 1981, p.10.

64. G. Visagie and A. Visser, EX PARTE JOINT UNITY COMMISSION. Legal opinion on Private Act no. 4 of 1961 as amended by Act no. 4 of 1970, (Copy in possession of author).

65. See my article HET DIE AGS IN 1983 DIE STEM VAN GOD GEHOOR?, in N. Horn and J. Louw, op. cit., pp. 35-52 for an emotional description of this workers council.

66. CIRCULATED MINUTES OF THE SEVENTY SEVENTH WORKERS COUNCIL OF THE AFM OF S.A, at Lyndhurst, March 1986, pp. 6-7.

67. See the book by C. Loodewyk, LOVE IN A HATE SITUATION, (Christian Publishing Services, Tulsa, Oklahoma 1987) for a description of such an experience.

68. This was my experience in Namibia where the first workers council (Jan. 1991) of the united AFM of Namibia was marked by a strong rejection of white leadership. Although one has no problem to understand this reaction from a sociological perspective, it does not contribute to reconciliation on the normalization of the church.

69. F. Joseph, PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Windhoek, Sept. 1990. Past. Joseph, presently president of the AFM of Namibia, had a very close relationship with SWAPO during the years when the party was not allowed in Namibia. He saw it as his Christian duty to take up the just cause of SWAPO and to speak on their behalf while they were forbidden to speak for themselves. However, when the atrocities of the SWAPO detentions came to the light, he refused to criticize it. Unlike the Council of Churches of Namibia, he defended the appointment of Simon Hawala, who was in charge of the SWAPO camps, as head of the Namibian army.

70. It is common knowledge that Pentecostals played a prominent role in the writing of the Kairos Document. F. Chikane, PERSONAL LETTER, (Johannesburg, May 1990). See the ICT on behalf of the Kairos theologians, THE KAIROS DOCUMENT. THE CHALLENGE TO THE CHURCH. A THEOLOGICAL COMMENT ON THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN SOUTH AFRICA, revised edition, (Skotaville Publishers, Johannesburg, 1986), pp. 17 f.

71. He used these words in presenting a paper, PRIORITIES IN PENTECOSTAL RESEARCH, at the Conference on Pentecostal and Charismatic Research in Europe, in Utrecht, June 1989. All the papers were later published by J. Jongeneel (ed.), EXPERIENCES OF THE SPIRIT (Peter Lang, Frankfurt 1991), pp. 7-22. This specific quote was omitted from the published paper.

72. During a leadership conference of the AFM of Namibia, Okahandja, Namibia, 17-18 January 1991.

73. The Cottesloe conference was convened by the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1960 shortly after the tragic clash between the police and black protesters who gathered in Sharpeville to burn their "pass books" in protest against race laws, especially the Influx Control Laws, that forced blacks to wear an identification book (pass) at all times. Twenty nine protesters were killed and many more wounded. The conference consisted of delegates from the English speaking member churches of the WCC, the Transvaal and Cape Synods of the DRC, delegates from the ultra conservative Hervormde Kerk. Surprisingly, the conference rejected and condemned many of the apartheid laws and regulations. For the full story see A. Luckhoff, COTTESLOE (Tafelberg, Cape Town, 1975).

74. Literally, the expression means a "state of confession". I have dealt with the meaning, theological history and significance of the phrase in my unpublished MA-thesis, "N VERGELYKENDE STUDIE VAN DIE BARMENVERKLARING EN DIE KONSEPBELYDENIS VAN DIE N.G. SENDINGKERK (University of Port Elizabeth, 1984), p. 117 f.

75. THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, NOT A GOAL BUT A GATEWAY, Quoted in H. Lederle, TREASURES OLD AND NEW, (Hendricksen Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts 1988), p. 29.

76. A comment he made on my paper, THE EXPERIENCE OF THE SPIRIT IN APARTHEID: THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE REDISCOVERY OF THE BLACK ROOTS OF PENTECOSTALISM FOR SOUTH AFRICAN THEOLOGY, Printed in J. Jongeneel, op. cit., 117-139, at the European Pentecostal and Charismatic Research Conference in Utrecht, 1989.

77. South African Broadcasting Corporation, News, October 1988.

78. This is not a plea for sanctions of any kind. On the contrary, my position has always been that in the long run, sanctions will not only destroy apartheid, but also the country. Namibia is still suffering under sanctions fifteen months after independence. I am merely making the point that despite strong international pressure, the Pentecostals did not open their mouths.

79. J. Tinney, EXCLUSIVIST TENDENCIES IN PENTECOSTAL SELF-DEFINITION: A CRITIQUE FROM BLACK THEOLOGY, Journal of Religious Thought 86/1, 1979, 32-45.

80. L. Lovett, BLACK ORIGINS OF THE PENTECOSTAL MOVEMENT, in V. Synan, (ed.), ASPECTS PENTECOSTAL-CHARISMATIC ORIGINS, (Plainfield, New York, Logos International, 1975), pp. 123-145.

81. I. MacRobert, THE BLACK ROOTS AND WHITE RACISM OF EARLY PENTECOSTALISM IN THE USA, (new York: St Martin's Press Inc. 1988), p.9.

82. R. Gerloff, HOPE OF REDEMPTION: THE RELIGIOUS, CULTURAL AND SOCIO-POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF ONENESS (APOSTOLIC) PENTECOSTALISM IN JAMAICA, in J. Jongeneel, (ed.) op. cit., (pp. 141-174), p.154.

83. ibid., p. 150.

84. ibid., p. 153.

85. J. Tinney, op. cit., pp. 32-33.

86. I. MacRobert, op. cit., pp.59-60.

87. Quoted in W. Hollenweger, THE PENTECOSTALS, (Augsburg Publishing House, Minnesota 1977) p. 24.

88. F. Bartleman, AZUSA STREET. THE ROOTS OF MODERN-DAY PENTECOST, (Logos International, Plainfield, 1980), p. 24.

89. W. Hollenweger, op. cit., p. 24.

90. I. MacRobert, op. cit., p. 29.

91. R. Anderson, VISION OF THE DISINHERITED, (Oxford University Press, New York, 1979), p. 122.

92. D. Nelson, FOR SUCH A TIME IS THIS. THE STORY OF BISHOP WILLIAM J. SEYMOUR AND THE AZUSA STREET REVIVAL. A SEARCH FOR PENTECOSTAL/CHARISMATIC ROOTS, (Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Birmingham, Birmingham 1981), p. 202.

93. See D. Nelson, op.cit., pp. 29 ff. For a sketch of the racial and socio-political context of William Seymour and Azusa Street.

94. For a detailed version of all the splits, see D. Nelson, op. cit., pp. 208 ff.

95. I. MacRobert, op. cit., p. 64.

96. L. Jones, THE BLACK PENTECOSTALS, in M. Hamilton (ed.), THE CHARISMATIC MOVEMENT, (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, Michigan 1975), p. 148

97. I. MacRobert, op. cit., pp. 64-67.

98. ibid., 121.

99. R. Gerloff, op. cit., p. 147.

100. Wort und Geist, No. 10, Oct. 1989

E. Studer, WAS NIE IN DER PRESSE STEHT: STARKE GEISTLICHES WACHSTUM IN SUDAFRIKA. EIN BEISPIEL: IE PFINGSTBWEGUNG p. 4-5; A. Reichenbach, SUDAFRIKA-EIN STRATEGISCH WICHTIGES LAND, p. 6.

101. MINUTES OF THE WEST PENINSULA COLOURED DISTRICT COUNCIL OF THE AFM OF S.A., May 18, 1957, (AFM Archives, Kuilsriver), p. 124.

102. ibid., p. 133.

103. ibid., p. 50 ff.

104. V. Pieterse, PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Johannesburg, May 23, 1991. According to Vivian Pieterse, for a long time vice-president of the black section of the AFM (he is a missionary), the well-known black leader, Richard Ngidi, often told young ordinants that the AFM believes in white leadership and if they don't accept it, they should leave the church.

C. Collins. PERSONAL CONVERSATION, Cape Town, August 18, 1989. Chris Collins, in life for many years member of the executive council of the so-called coloured section, told me shortly before his death that over the years he was prepared to endure the pains of apartheid in silence rather than to come in confrontation with the white section. He believed the Lord expected it from him and the so-called coloured section to "demonstrate the Spirit of Christ" to the white section. His biggest fear was that the black sections would alienate themselves from the white section.