W.C.C. and Racism
The policy making body of the World Council of Churches, the 120 strong Central Committee, has concluded earlier this year its 10 day meetings in the Africa Hall at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Anyone familiar with the proceeding of the W.C.C. will not be surprised to read the latest decisions to emanate from these meetings, for they prove conclusively that the heretical World Council does not speak for Christian opinion anywhere, nor even support the cause of political justice. When the emphasis of this movement is upon Christian Unity, one would expect the W.C.C. to show an ecumenical outlook, especially as this world Church is composed of 239 member churches in 80 countries throughout the world. But such is not the case. The main business which came before the Central Committee was the question of race relations and while every other system of racism or shade of race discrimination was excluded from discussion, the Committee concentrated attention on white racism alone. It is notorious that Communist oppression and Arab intransigence are never discussed by the W.C.C. The reasons are not far to seek. There is no theological unity in the Council’s statement of beliefs, and the Council must therefore turn its attention to social and political problems. The most powerful group in the Council is the Eastern Orthodox Churches along with the Moslems of the Middle East. The Churches of Africa which are strongly represented have found a sympathetic hearing for their grievance about European Colonialism. It is not surprising, therefore, that on the racial question, the Central Committee approved last year’s decision to make grants from its funds of £70,000 to 19 liberation groups, most of whom are African guerrillas, and on the assurance that the money would not be used for military purposes, it was even agreed that these grants would be increased in the future.
Some disquiet was expressed in the Council that such aid would be understood as incitement to violence, especially as in the case of 9 African groups who received aid, the declared purpose was the violent overthrow of the white Governments of South Africa, Rhodesia and Portuguese African Territories. Dr Eugene Carson Blake, the General Secretary, however, found this adverse criticism “very odd”, and declared that he thought that “white people do not yet seem to understand that racism is as great a problem as poverty and ideology”. The stage was set for some violent speeches which were delivered to the Council. The member from the Congolese Disciples of Christ, Pastor Bokelaale, cited the incident of Our Lord driving the money-lenders from the temple as his authority for saying, “I would like to take the whip to all white racists”, which was greeted with laughter and applause. Prof. Sabev of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church cited the precedent from the Middle Ages when bishops led the revolt against the Ottoman domination. The earl of Wemyss, the Church of Scotland representative, was clearly embarrassed by this talk of violence, and expressed concern about the “freedom fighters”, hoping that not many of the groups receiving aid from the Council funds were engaged in warlike activities. The debate ended with the verdict of the W.C.C. president, Dr Ernest Payne, who summed up the mood of the meeting by saying that the unanimous vote showed that “Christian sentiment was behind the programme to combat racism”.
The complacency and palpable deceit behind the words, however, were exposed when the remarkable case of the Southern Sudanese Liberation Front came to be considered. The Southern Sudanese Christians have suffered heavily in fighting Moslem domination and persecution in the Southern Sudan — the U.N. put their losses at the figure of 500,000. A representative of this group handed a petition to an official of the World Council of Churches at Addis Ababa, requesting financial aid in their struggle for survival. In the debate on Racism nothing was heard of the Sudan situation. When asked about the petition, an official would give no assurance that any aid from the Council would be forthcoming on the ground that the programme of aid recognised white racism as having prior claims. Later, a W.C.C. department made it known that the Council might provide relief for the Southern Sudanese through authorities in Khartoum, which was greeted by a Southern Sudanese with the remark that they might as well provide help for the S. African guerrillas through Pretoria. Such blatant cynicism was noted by several observers and deplored as falling far short of the standards that might be expected from a world body with the claims of the World Council of Churches.