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Race Politics, and the Soul of a Movement
In 1985, as the global debate raged about how to challenge the apartheid regime in South Africa, a number of prominent white evangelicals in the United States were making headlines for their opposition to sanctions and their embrace of the South African government. At the same time, two groups of evangelicals issued statements condemning apartheid. The first was published by a multiracial committee in South Africa, titled “Evangelical Witness against Apartheid.” That document circulated internationally, and helped shape responses to apartheid by liberal and moderate evangelicals around the world. The second was issued by the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, which publicly condemned the “evil” of apartheid and called for Baptists to divest. This lecture explores the transitional connections that shaped evangelical anti-apartheid activism in a global context.
