Some Christian perceptions of social justice in a transforming South Africa

SUMMARY

In this article I want to examine the adequacy of the policies of a few selected South African church groups on socio‐political transformation. In order to do this, I will first examine the role of religion in identifying injustice in South Africa‐and then the contribution that religion makes to facilitate and nurture dialogue and deliberation. The different kinds of strategies for the transformation of injustice into justice that are rejected or sanctioned and encouraged will also be scrutinized, as well as the extent to which religious viewpoints contribute to a general consensus on principles of justice for the new South Africa of the future. I will examine these issues with reference to four important policy documents — concerned mainly with issues of social justice —released by various groups of Christians in the last few years. These documents are Kerk en Samelewing (K & S)(1986 & 1990) which represents mainstream Afrikaner religious thought, The Kairos Document (KD)(1986) and The Road to Damascus (RTD)(1989) which represent the way that black Christians supportive of democratic opposition groups think, and A Relevant Pentecostal Witness (RPW)(1989) which is representative of how the traditionally apolitical Pentecostal black Christians have become politicized in South Africa today. Reference is also made to the important Rustenburg Declaration, a document released in 1990 by the most representative meeting of church leaders ever held in South Africa.