South Africans, i love you. All of you.

i sat in a room this morning with a handful of people, some linked to the university who represented a collective called Disrupting Whiteness and some from the non-profit organisation called The Warehouse, and a handful of others. It felt like a room full of incredible people with huge potential for significant change in the future of our country and inspired a lot of hope.

But i was reminded once again, that we as a nation are sitting on a knife-point [a fact i think too many people are completely oblivious of] on the verge of a revolution which really could go either way. [One of those ways ends relatively well for the majority of us, one of those does not].

And Craig Stewart said something which really caught my attention. He pointed back to an earlier definition or understanding of the term Sodomy [related to the city of Sodom in the bible, which we are usually familiar of with its twin city buddy Gomorrah] which was something like this:

The people of Sodom pursued lives of careless ease and ignored the poor on their doorstep.

Does that sound like any white people you know?

What if we tweaked that just a little bit?

The [majority of] white people in South Africa pursued lives of careless ease and ignored the poor on their doorstep.

Or maybe a further different tweak?

The [majority of] white churches in South Africa pursued lives of careless ease and ignored the poor on their doorstep.

What if we are the definition of Sodomy?

What if i am?

Take a moment to focus on the two points in that statement, holding yourself up to a mirror, and if you are part of a faith community like a church, holding that up as well.

# PURSUING LIVES OF CARELESS EASE

Doesn’t that just define the majority of white South Africans?

# IGNORING THE POOR ON OUR DOORSTEP

i think it’s missing the word ‘plight’ – Ignoring the plight of the poor on our doorstep.

Breathe…

disarm bomb

At the start of the meeting, Craig talked about how this conversation about Race was a marathon and not a sprint.

But after speaking a little about Urgency in the face of growing discontent and anger in the black community, Nathan reframed the conversation, suggesting that actually the immense urgency meant that it was not a marathon after all.

Having given it a little more thought since this morning, i think i have a third way of looking at it.

MARATHON OR SPRINT? THE RED WIRE OR THE BLUE WIRE?

i think the work that needs to be done: the movement of the majority of white people [in terms of being conscientised], conversations and actions about reparation and land, active connection and engagement and conversation and friendship and sacrificial investment, and more is in fact a MARATHON worth of stuff.

But at the same time, i think we have closer to a SPRINT amount of time to do it in.

Which for many people who like to hold on to the ‘Didn’t it all happen in 1994 and isn’t racism finished and can’t we all just be friends?’ narrative is likely going to cause a lot of SURPRISE. 

Not only is it not finished… but in many cases, and to many extents, it hasn’t even hardly begun.

Another helpful analogy Craig gave was the idea of the SPIRIT and the LAW.

In 1994, the LAW was ended. But the Spirit for the most part remained. The spirit of racism and entitlement and white supremacy and ‘Us and Them’ and privilege and more lived on, in some places and people completely untouched, but in the majority of the country, maybe just largely untouched.

One of the biggest questions many of us are completely confused by [but grateful for] is how did we get this far without the explosion? How have black people been so accommodating and gracious and patient and sincere in seeking reconciliation and unity and stepping so completely towards us, when we have, for the most part, remained firmly where we were before, refusing to make the necessary steps towards them.

i do not understand it. And i think i am only beginning to glimpse just how much we have been given in this regard.

But i do strongly suspect that time is running out. We have a marathon of work to do, which so many people still seem completely oblivious to, and a sprint load of time to do it in.

WHAT THEN CAN WE DO?

Danai, a black women i met at the meeting today, asked us that question, ‘What is your response now that you know that the black voices are starting to get more and more dissatisfied and if you come to a time when you finally get white people to come to the table and they say, “We’re not interested any more. What took you so long?”

My response was that the way i see it, there is this incredible urgency which is growing daily and especially through the last year’s momentum-enducing events from Rhodes Must Fall through Fees Must Fall through Penny Sparrow and The Anti-Corruption March [or Zuma must fall march depending on your perspective] and it feels like we don’t necessarily have all the time we’d like to have to continue to work at getting enough people to the table. But also that that leaves me with two options: [1] To leave. To flee the country and go far far away as only a white privileged British-passport-bearing person can do so easily… or [2] Stay. Realise the Urgency. And hope against hope [and work with everything in us] that there somehow is enough time, that movement will pick up pace, that our friends of colour will somehow extend their grace and see that we are working to get there and that hundreds of years of brokenness [but particularly decades of violence] cannot even be patched up within twenty years.

i’m not leaving…

So there really is only one choice for me. i realise that maybe the kids gloves need to come off. That the shout needs to get louder. That the urgency has to be expressed more convincingly. That we need to get white people to the table faster. That we need to get the church to the table more fully. That this thing needs to take life and it needs to happen now.

The people of South Africa pursued lives of careless ease and ignored the poor on their doorstep.

It is time for us to seriously repent of the sin of SouthAfricany that for too long we have perpetuated. It is time for us to step out of our comfort and walk towards.

And just completely hope and pray that when we get there, those on the other side will still be willing to meet with us with open hands and hearts.

Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika. Before it’s too late.

[Edit: Craig Stewart reminded me that i had not put the Ezekiel reference in this post and so here it is with  some different translations:

The references to the sin of Sodom being related to our concern for the poor is from a passage in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 16.49 says…

“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy” NIV

“Sodom’s sins were pride, gluttony, and laziness, while the poor and needy suffered outside her door.” NLT

“Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.” NASB]