Sermon Illustrations

APARTHEID - INCLUSIVE LANGUAGE

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OUR FIRST CONCERN

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As a mother, you sometimes try to keep your children naive about apartheid and its cruelties as long as you possibly can so that they can grow up as normal, happy children. But this is not possible for very long, because all too soon the questions start coming and you have to explain why they can’t play in certain parks, why white schools have such beautiful playgrounds and theirs don’t, why some child calls them "nigger” (“kaffer” in Afrikaans), or why Mommy got angry when the white lady in the store addressed her as "girl.” But even more difficult are questions like “Mommy, what do people mean when they say Daddy is banned,” or trying to explain who those angry men were who took Daddy away at four o’clock in the morning, or “if he’s not a criminal, why is he in jail?” . . .

As I look at you, I'm struck by the difference in our situations. We, too, are concerned about the human dignity of women and the inequality we have to suffer. But when all our people are oppressed, the liberation of one section cannot take first priority. While we applaud the efforts tobring equality to women, I must remind you that while American women claim their right to a budget of their own, our concern is whether or not our children will have enough to eat. When the blood of your children has stained the streets, you do not find the gender of God the most important thing to worry about. Our first concern right now is the liberation of all our people.

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—From the address of Dorothy Boesak to the Phoenix General Assembly. Published in the “Minutes” of General Assembly (1984), p. 824.