One generation after apartheid, something has gone badly wrong with race relations in South Africa. One symptom of the new tide is overt racism. People put their names to it, too, and in public places. One would not have contemplated this just a few years ago. Blacks are referred to as neanderthals, trolls, savages, turds, and so on (see, as an example, a public debate at the news service News24). It hardly gets worse. A foreign newspaper put it euphemistically last month, referring to "a recent spike in race-tinged comments". OBSERVATION: One cannot assume that this has not entered the Church. I know that it has. Francis Schaeffer wrote about the spirit of the age: "Fog cannot be kept out by walls or doors ... till the room we live in is hardly distinct." In the present situation, I think that ministers might be better served by assuming that the fog has entered the Church than that it has not. Some good news, though, is that general contact between races has increased. (See also Rainbow Index).
NOTE: Since my recent post, News24 has added this to its comment boxes: "Only comments that contribute to a constructive debate will be approved by moderators."
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