Apartheid and Christianity : Comparing to the United States of America's Case.

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I researched on today's situation of Christianity in the Republic of South Africa for 3 weeks at the School of Theology, Stellenbosch University in South Africa. Stellenbosch is the city of Afrikaners, and the School of Theology of the university has been the center of Afrikaner's Christianity, which supported Apartheid.The Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa is now trying to confess the sins during the Apartheid Era, but it is not so clear whether religion will be able to contribute to the reconstruction of South African society.The United States and South Africa are both multi-ethnic nations, and both have used "civil religion" which have the roots in Calvinistic Christianity in order to integrate the multi-ethical society. Christianity of the United States fought against slavery in Civil War. President Lincoln was the symbolic person who criticized the slavery from the standpoint of religion. I posed a question why the white Christianity of South Africa failed to criticize Apartheid.By analyzing the materials of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa, I could find the two main reasons of the difference between the United States and South Africa.(1) the difference of the stance to the Enlightenment ideas, and (2) the difference of understanding of Republicanism.I would like to make attention to the possibility and limitation of religion in South Africa, which tries to make multi-cultural nation by allowing the diversities, and at the same time, by aiming at the integrity of the nation.