NGK 'can learn from Muslims'
2006-09-27 23:17
Johannesburg - Political analyst Harald Pakendorf says the Dutch Reformed Church could well follow the example of Muslim aid organisation, Gift of the Givers.
During the church's spring conference in Pretoria, Pakendorf challenged them to get involved like the Muslim organisation in helping the community.
Pakendorf referred to a fire that razed hundreds of squatter dwellings in Alexandra, Johannesburg, and said the ministers should have been out there to help the people, rather than sitting there, listening to him.
He said that although he knew there were outreach actions at congregations, he wished the Dutch Reformed Church would launch a big co-ordinated action, similar to the upliftment of Afrikaners in the 1930s.
'Don't stand and grumble'
He encouraged church leaders to help promote the diversity in the country from which unity would come.
He did, however, sound a warning against the kind of diversity that could lead to Afrikaners becoming a separate entity.
"It won't help to stand and grumble on the sidelines."
Pakendorf said Afrikaners had to acknowledge nowadays that they had messed up.
They paid more attention to the "volk" than to justice and didn't stick to the adage of "doing unto others as you would have them do unto you".