6/29/11 TO STEPHEN CHONG @ HOLY WAVE RE USE OF "AFRIKAANER" IN SUNDAY MESSAGE
Hi Stephen,
I didn't receive a response from you about whether Holy Wave is a presbyterian church. Anyways, I also wanted to let you know I was a bit disappointed with your divisive use of the word "Afrikaaner" & the Dutch name "Vander___" a few weeks ago. Sure, there were many Dutch Afrikaaners guilty of persecuting black people in South Africa decades ago, just as some white people persecuted blacks as slaves in America years ago.
But then there were just as many, or more, "whites", as well as white Dutch-Americans who DIED for the sake of setting blacks free in the Civil War in America (some of whom were my ancestors; walk thru any cemetery around West Michigan & other Dutch areas of the northern USA & midwest & see how many Dutch names are listed as Civil War veterans (for the north, obviously).
I'm not as familiar with the Boer war(s), but I'm sure NOT ALL BOERS, and not all Dutch South Africans (Afrikaaners) were so cruel to black people as the one example you provided. Also, not all Dutch South-Africans agree with the term "Afrikaaner" as an appropriate description of them as one whole group (here's a quote from Wikipedia:
"...in recent times, mainly during the apartheid reform and post-1994 eras many more white Afrikaans-speaking people, mainly with "conservative" political views and of Trekboer and Voortrekker descent, have preferred to be[ 9] called "Boers" or Boere-Afrikaners, rather than 'Afrikaners.' They feel that there were many people of Voortrekker descent who were not co-opted or assimilated into what they see as the Cape-based Afrikaner identity which began emerging after the Second Anglo-Boer War and the subsequent establishment of the Union of South Africa in 1910. Certain Boer nationalists have asserted that they do not consider themselves a right-wing element of the[ 10] political spectrum.[ 10]"
I understand you want to emphasize the importance of Christians being kind towards others, but clearly the white South African you mentioned by the name of Vander___ was not a Christian. Thus he doesn't represent Christianity, nor Dutch people (think of all the Dutch in the Netherlands who never went to S. Africa and never were part of apartheid, as well as the Dutch in S. Africa who were more benevolent &
simply born into it.) Furthermore, think of the good Dutch people, including Corrie TenBoem, who were active in protecting Jewish people from persecution by the Nazis, at the risk of their lives.
If you want to discuss criminal behavior & aspects of the news in your Sunday homily (sermon) to highlight a point, I encourage you to do so without emphasis on race or nationality of the criminal, which is divisive and the opposite of what a church should be doing or attempting to do, which is uniting people.
In America, as you may or may not know, some people have accused Koreans or Korean-Americans as taking advantage of black people by opening liquor stores in black neighborhoods. That may be true, but I don't think it would be something to mention in a Sunday message, at least not with an emphasis on race or nationality because the risk is that somebody may walk out thinking badly of all Korean-Americans just as
somebody may have walked out of your message a few weeks ago thinking LESS of white people of Dutch descent, or specifically those with a prefix of "Vander" in their name.
If the church is to maintain its integrity, it must NOT acquiesce to creating a divisive "us-them" identity
(ie we are all good & they are all bad). I am a Christian, in the Spirit, & striving to live by the Spirit & tell the Good News of Jesus Christ. I also have a heritage (Dutch), and a skin color (white), and a nationality (American), all of which can be used for or against me by others according to their prejudice or lack of. We all experience this at one time or another and church should be striving to eliminate this as much as possible, not accentuate it.
I normally appreciate your high-energy messages & a lot of the good points you make, as well as your love of family & friends. Keep up the good work ! For the kingdom !
By the way, I might add that the "poor white" person in America is the highest victim of "hate crime"; thus anything that contributes to generalized anger or hate towards all white people is certainly contributing to some of the erroneous justification of persecution of whites today. And I know you don't want to simply depopularize white people as an entire class of persons, or Dutch-Americans, et al. right ? That would be just as wrong as a "white church" using negative examples of Koreans in their Sunday message.
