Why Bahamian Anglicans should not canonize Bishop Desmond Tutu

Dear Editor,

South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu died on Boxing Day in Cape Town at the ripe age of 90. The recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984,Tutu, along with Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk, was instrumental in dismantling the apartheid system implemented by the White South African National Party, after its ascent to high office in 1948.

In 1991, de Klerk, who died in November of this year, repealed many of the apartheid laws enacted by the late Prime Minister Henrik Verwoerd in 1959, or thereabouts. Verwoerd’s infamous Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 underscored the heinous nature of state-sanctioned white supremacy in South Africa. It was built on the racist foundation of the 1913 Land Act that Verwoerd’s racist political ancestors had enacted.

Over three million South Africans were forcibly relocated from their homes and dumped in the 10 Bustustan ghettos between 1961 and 1994, due to this apartheid policy. While Verwoerd was busy legislating segregation laws in 1959, Tutu was studying theology at St. Peter’s Theological College in Rosettenville, South Africa.

Three years later in 1961, Tutu was ordained to the Anglican priesthood. He would serve as chaplain of the University of Fort Hare, a post he was appointed to in 1967. He also served as Anglican bishop of Lesotho and chairman of the South African Council of Churches.

In 1985, Tutu was appointed the first black bishop of Johannesburg and the first black archbishop of Cape Town in 1986.

Subsequent to news of his passing, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that Tutu was one of several “outstanding South Africans who bequeathed to us a liberated South Africa”.

The Dalai Lama described Tutu as a “true humanitarian”.

According to former US President Barack Obama, the late South African Anglican clergyman was a “moral compass” to him. And current Cape Town Archbishop Thabo Makagoba said that Tutu’s legacy was his moral strength.

Born in October 1931 in Klerksdorp, Tutu was appointed as chairman of the African National Congress (ANC) government of then President Nelson Mandela’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 1994, which was tasked with investigating the atrocities committed by the apartheid government and anti-apartheid organizations.

While Tutu used his massive religious platform to fight apartheid throughout the 1980s, groups such as the Pan-African Congress, the ANC, the Congress of the People and the South Indian National Congress all engaged the white South African administration from a political standpoint, and in some instances, from a violent standpoint.

One case in point is the ANC’s Umkhanto we Sizwe, a militia group founded by Mandela. This group was the HAMAS and Hezbollah of South Africa. Mandela’s involvement with this terrorist organization was one of the reasons he spent 27 years in prison, between 1963 and 1990.

Tutu found himself caught between the violent white South African administration and these black revolutionary groups.

In 1980, Tutu was arrested for his anti-Apartheid activism, which is a testament of his unwavering opposition to the racist system. The Anglican Church of South Africa will hold a requiem mass at St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.

An interfaith service will also be held in his honor. All in all, Tutu lived a very productive life.

Bahamian Anglicans can applaud his willingness to boldly confront an overtly racist system which was demeaning to Black South Africans and other ethnic groups.

In this regard, remembering his anti-apartheid activism is a fitting eulogy. Having said that, however, Bahamian Anglicans must resist the temptation to canonize the famed South African cleric.

In 2013, Tutu was quoted as saying that he “would not worship a God who is homophobic”.

Calling South Africa a “rainbow nation,” Tutu would go to launch his LGBTQ campaign, going as far as advocating for same-sex marriage. His acceptance of homosexuality tells me that he outright rejected the biblical injunction against sodomy.

Not only was Tutu at odds with the Christian Bible, but he was also at odds with the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion — the essential doctrinal beliefs of the Anglican communion, which appear to be Calvinistic in tone.

In Article 7, which concerns the Old Testament, it is stated that “no Christian man is free from obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral.”

Article 9, titled “Of Original or Birth Sin,” rightly stated that humanity is “inclined to evil”.

This was especially evident with Tutu’s LGBTQ activism and his willingness to appoint and promote gay priests. Decrying opposition to homosexuality, Tutu conflated mere opposition rooted in love to hatred of gay people. In reality, however, not every form of discrimination is bad.

For instance, no right-thinking parent would entrust their children to a known pedophile; nor would a sane woman feel comfortable sleeping in the same room with a known serial rapist.

Evangelical Anglicans know that God loves sinners. That is why He made provision for their salvation by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us. After salvation, the process of sanctification begins.

This includes purity in the area of human sexuality. God will never compromise His infinite moral standards for anyone; and that includes the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

— Kevin Evans

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