Dion has posted a letter from a friend of his in Johannesburg who is doing something concrete about the xenophobic violence through Calvary Methodist Church. He’s got a few suggestions on how we can help. Please go over to Dion’s blog, read it and seriously consider how you might help.
Thanks Dion and Alan for your efforts.
I’ve been browsing through news stories all over the web concerning the xenophobia crisis in Gauteng at the moment. What I’ve seen is completely sickening and heartbreaking (Warning some of the material is graphic). Sitting here behind a computer screen I feel completely frustrated and helpless to do anything worthwhile other than to pray and write blog posts about this tragedy. I’m sure that there must be other people out there feeling the same way. Can I call on you to be extremely prayerful about this situation and then also to leave a comment if you know of any practical ways we can help. May God have mercy on us.
Xenophobic attacks in Gauteng are rocking the press and media world here in South Africa – I think its been reported on CNN as well. This morning I was listening to SAFM and a bunch of guys talking through the whole issue. One phone caller made a rather outlandish comment which I think begs some discussion. This particular caller suggested that the xenophobic attacks we are witnessing are a result of the failure of the church to hold the government morally accountable!? Do you think this is the case? Are we the government’s moral watchdogs? In what ways can we be proactive in this instance?
This is a difficult discussion because categories like ‘the church’ are rather slippery and used differently by different people. When this particular caller used that category I think he had in mind the likes of Frank Chikane and Desomond Tutu. The other difficulty is the root cause of the xenophobia – is it outright xenophobia or simply reaction to unbearable economic pressures?
What do you think…?
***UPDATE (13:50): Tutu has come out quite vocally this morning against the violence pleading for it to end. It would seem to me that Tutu has been, for the most part, a constant moral thorn in the government’s side, irrespective of who the ruling government has been.***
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