Evangelicals and social justice : towards an alternative evangelical community

Abstract

The God of the Bible is unquestionably a God of justice and compassion. Christians have differences as to how human government and the church should bring about a just social order. Evangelicalism, amongst the many religious voices in South Africa, advocate separation between Church and State. Many Evangelicals understand the social engagement of ‘doing justice’ as inextricably linked to the loss of sound doctrine, spiritual dynamism, and a watering-down of the Gospel. Therefore, within Evangelicalism, right doctrine takes precedence over right action. This focus created a dysfunctional understanding of the world and how one engages it. De Gruchy (1986:33) protested the church's complicity with the apartheid government. What could have led most Evangelical churches to turn a blind eye to the murder and dehumanisation of the masses in South Africa (emphasis mine)? He concludes that it because of unbiblical privatisation of piety, which separated prayer and the struggle for justice. Evangelicalism had become dangerously individualistic and ‘otherworldly’ spiritual. This article is an attempt to call Evangelicals in South not to abandon their prophetic mandate, and a call to creative action for an ascetic/privatised spirituality. Therefore, encouraging Evangelicals in South Africa to act against systems that assault or dehumanise the Imago Dei in a pluralistic and democratic South Africa, by becoming an alternative community. Using B.S. McNeil’s work ‘Road Map to Reconciliation’, recommendation will be made to help the Evangelicals to become an Alternative community.