Guns for God

"What in God's name does the World Council of Churches think it is doing?" demanded the Johannesburg Star. The easiest part of the answer: it is giving $200,000 to "antiracist" organizations. The hard part: much of the money goes to black African liberation movements (some Communist supported) involved in various stages of violent subversion against white minority regimes in South Africa, Rhodesia, and the Portuguese colonies.

Few W.C.C. actions have so divided its 235 Protestant and Orthodox member churches. The Archbishop of Canterbury protested that the W.C.C. executive council did not consult constituents before voting the funds last month. The British Council of Churches expects a hot debate at its Oct. 17 meeting. Elsewhere, key Protestants are choosing sides.

White liberals in the target nations, particularly South Africa, were anguished. "This is no way to make a contribution to the solution of the problem of racialism," said Helen Suzman, the South African Parliament's fiercest foe of apartheid. Methodist Leader Tom Parker despaired of support for such action by followers of "a Saviour who spilt no drop of blood but his own." W.C.C. member churches in South Africa all opposed the grants but decided not to quit the council. Prime Minister B.J. Vorster then warned darkly of "government action" if they did not. Last week the white Presbyterian Church told Vorster to mind his own business, and merged with black Presbyterians.

The W.C.C. explains that its money will go for welfare, not warfare, though Director of Communications Albert van den Heuvel admits that "these two aspects may sometimes overlap." He says that the W.C.C. is not endorsing revolutionary violence, but it no longer rules out aid to "antiracist organizations." In recent years, many liberal Protestants have been moving in two directions at once. Despite their growing opposition to the use of American arms in Viet Nam, they have come to accept violence when used by "oppressed peoples." Thus the grants should have come as no surprise. Last year a W.C.C. sponsored conference urged churches to support revolutions when they are the last resort in fighting tyranny.

If the W.C.C. is now guilty of aiding violent groups, the South African Methodist Dimension observed, then that nation's whites "must stand under similar condemnation for implicitly supporting daily acts of violence" against blacks. Nevertheless, the W.C.C.'s token donation of cash lends moral respectability to terrorism. This, in turn, could further erode support for the W.C.C.

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