Martin Luther reminded us we live in a world “with devils filled that threaten to undo us.” This line from his hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God, is a powerful image of the forces that seek to pull us apart. In our church, in our nation and around the world, hostilities and hatreds thrive and the peace and unity for which we yearn seem far away.
Does the church have a word to speak into this racial and political strife? In many times of crisis, the church has borne witness to the life-giving power of the gospel in living that takes up the cross of Christ. It has also borne witness in its confessions. One of those confessions has come to us from the suffering experienced by those in the Dutch Reformed Mission Church during the time of apartheid in South Africa — the Belhar Confession.
So, before answering the questions why Belhar and why now, it might be better to first ask, “What is Belhar?” In response to the oppression of apartheid in South Africa, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church proposed this confession of the Christian faith in a synodical meeting in the town of Belhar in 1982 and adopted it in 1986. It was not only a stance against the injustices of apartheid, it also provided a theological rationale for a way forward in its aftermath. The process of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, which focused on restorative justice rather than punishment, owes much of its motive power to the Belhar Confession.
There is now, in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and in the larger church, a renewed interest in the Belhar Confession. The Reformed Church in America, one of our Formula of Agreement partner churches, is currently considering whether it should be included among their confessional documents.
Like the RCA, the PC(USA) has started a formal process of engaging the Belhar Confession. The 216th General Assembly… “Commends the Belhar Confession to the church for reflection, study, and response, as a means of deepening the commitment of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) to dealing with racism and a means of strengthening its unity…” The Office of Theology and Worship has been given the task of developing study materials for the church’s use and that work is under way. The text of the confession is posted on their web site: www.pcusa.org/theologyandworship/confession/belhar.pdf .
The Belhar Confession follows a pattern similar to the Barmen Declaration in that it declares what it affirms, followed by what it must reject if its affirmations are true. For example, in section 3, Belhar affirms: “We believe that God has entrusted the church with the message of reconciliation in and through Jesus Christ; that the church is called to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, that the church is called blessed because it is a peacemaker, that church is witness by both word and deed to the new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells.” It then goes on to say, “Therefore, we reject any doctrine which…sanctions in the name of the gospel or of the will of God the forced separation of people on the grounds of race and color and thereby in advance obstructs and weakens the ministry and experience of reconciliation in Christ.”
Belhar is strongly biblical and theological because it is addressed to the white Dutch Reformed Church in an effort to state clearly what all Christians believe and what, therefore, all Christians should do. There was a strong sense that the church had, in its essence, the hope for transforming an unjust society. The state did not.
As we in this country still struggle with the inequities of perduring racism, Belhar can help us think and act our way toward healing and restoration. In its accompanying letter, the synod said that “[on] this road we shall unavoidably suffer intense growing pains while we struggle to conquer alienation, bitterness, irreconciliations and fear. We shall have to come to know and encounter both ourselves and others in new ways. We are only too well aware that this confession calls for the dismantling of structures and thought, of church and society that have developed over many years. However, we confess that for the sake of the gospel, we have no other choice.”
A large part of the strength and compelling nature of Belhar is that in addressing this confession to the Dutch Reformed Church whose members were part of the oppressive structures of an unjust society and state, the Dutch Reformed Mission Church, whose members suffered the oppression, saw their white counterparts as brothers and sisters in Christ. They did see them as oppressors and named them as such, but they did not see them as enemies.
In our own Book of Confessions, we have theological resources that can help us address and confront issues that divide us. Barmen reminds us that we are not to listen to any other voice than our Savior, Jesus Christ. To listen to anything that would contradict the voice of our Lord is idolatry. The Confession of 1967 calls us to a ministry of reconciliation. Both of these confessions speak truly on issues of injustice, but Belhar deepens and expands in ways that are helpful in our witness to the gospel.
First, neither Barmen nor Confession of 1967 is from the ones who are oppressed. They speak on their behalf, but they do not come from them. Belhar does and there is power and grace in that. Second, Belhar lays out specifically the kind of life to which we are called because of the work of Jesus Christ — there is unity in the church, not because we create it, but because Christ made it possible. It is God’s gift to us. This reconciling unity, which overcomes hostilities and divisions, is the basis for declaring the injustice of enforced racial divisions. It specifically addresses racial issues.
This specificity does not limit its use, however. The principles of Belhar apply to other divisions we experience or create. The church can be well served by a serious study of Belhar, but study must lead to change, not for the sake of change but for the sake of a world torn apart by division — a world that needs to know where hope can be found. The Belhar Confession is, therefore, more than a statement about the internal unity of the church. It sets forth the very mission of the church as it bears witness to the One who can save us from our own sinful patterns of destruction.
Eunice McGarrahan is interim associate pastor of Vienna Church in Vienna, Va.
