Abstract:
This article surveys the Dutch Reformed Church Mission Policy and the close
collaboration of mission and politics. The 1948 Nationalist Party election victory
brought about a host of laws designed to bring total control and dominance over
black people’s lives and their destiny. The Dutch Reformed Church was drawn into
the government agenda to the extent that they lost their prophetic voice. The use of
government instruments such as the forced removal of ‘excess’ and unwanted people
from white farms was employed by the church. Black Christians that held a different
political view were declared “no longer Christians” and forcefully removed from the
mission stations. The pious outlook of mission did not help the church to realise that
its social and political interests were against the love of Christ and thus the love of the
neighbour.
