The Blessing of Harassment

C. T. Wilson, representing the first contingent of Christian missionaries sent to what is now Uganda, told of the elaborate ceremony with which he was ushered into the presence of the “king.” Henry M. Stanley, following up the efforts of David Livingstone, had called for workers to minister in that equatorial land, and Wilson was one of those who volunteered. Shortly after his arrival he presented himself to the African leader, who stepped down from his throne in the audience hall of his palace and extended a Western handshake. During the translation of a letter from Wilson’s sponsors, the Church Missionary Society, a roll of drums greeted the name of Jesus.

The next morning, Wilson recalled, there was another meeting. “He wanted us to make guns and gunpowder and seemed rather disappointed when we told him we had not come to teach such things; but afterwards he seemed satisfied and said what he wanted most was to be taught, he and his people, to read and write.”

That was 100 years ago this month. The missionaries had come to a part of Africa that despite illiteracy had a relatively sophisticated civilization. The high altitude tempered the climate, and the people could boast a progressive culture. For the missionaries the challenge resulted in a rare blend of success and suffering. The Church under the evangelizing influence of Anglican missionaries grew amazingly fast, and by 1919 a cathedral was being erected at Kampala that is still probably the largest Christian place of worship in Africa. But the price was paid mostly in blood: few foreigners survived for very long.

Most notable among the pioneers were the Scottish engineer Alexander Mackay and Bishop Alfred R. Tucker. They endured not only persecution but bitter competition with Roman Catholics and Muslims, not to mention extensive civil and political strife. The ruler Mutesa was said to have sacrificed 2,000 captives to the spirit of his dead father. Mutesa’s son Mwanga was even worse. Erratic behavior not unlike that of Uganda’s present leader, Idi Amin, characterized their reigns. Their very vacillation, however, kept the missionaries hopeful, and doors of opportunity were quickly entered. Replacements for the fatalities kept coming.

Uganda has now entered a new era of persecution. The most notable death has been that of Anglican archbishop Janani Luwum (see “Making Headway Painfully in Uganda,” by Festo Kivengere, April 15, 1977, issue). The circumstances of his death will probably never be known in full. They recall, however, the death of the first Anglican archbishop of eastern equatorial Africa, James Hannington, upon his arrival in 1885. Historians agree that Hannington was the victim of a politically inspired assassination.

Through it all the Church marches on. In recent decades one of the most talked about revivals in the world has been a revival in Uganda. Whether it is still going on cannot yet be determined, but shortly before his death Archbishop Luwum was still optimistic. The last devotional talk he gave before his council of bishops he entitled “The Blessing of Harassment.”

We are brought back to the old principle that Christians quite often prosper under tribulation. Should we therefore seek it? That would be foolhardy or perhaps cynical. What we should do is to try more fervently to deal with the problems of lethargy and indifference that often seem to accompany free opportunity.

Rights With Rites

We are delighted at the increasing attention being given to human rights since President Carter began to exert leadership in this area. Even the National Council of Churches is establishing a human-rights office. Its director will be the Reverend William Wipfler, who until recently handled the NCC’s Latin America desk. Wipfler led the NCC group visiting Cuba earlier this year and reported that accounts of human-rights violations in that Marxist nation were overblown.

He might bring a better perspective to his new job if he considers what United Church of Christ executive David Stowe said about China: “[There are] no beggars but also no artists; no crime but no literature; no pornography but no press freedom; no gross wealth but no political options; no drug abuse but no news; no inherited privilege but no religion.”

As evangelicals who work and teach in a Latin American theological context, we were disturbed by numerous inaccuracies in Harold B. Kuhn’s analysis, “The Evangelical’s Duty to the Latin American Poor” (Current Religious Thought, Feb. 4). To mention a few: the Exodus theme in Latin American theology is referred to as an example of “uncritical use of biblical models.” Yet in documenting this allegedly uncritical use. Dr. Kuhn shows a disturbing unawareness of current Latin American thinking on this subject. To say that “Latin American theologians assume that today’s oppressed people are the heirs of God’s Exodus—that they are the present-day counterparts of the Israelitish people in Egypt” is to caricature the position of many Latin American thinkers, including those Kuhn himself mentions. The use of the Exodus is generally related by Latin American theologians to the larger Old Testament theme of God’s alliance with the poor and oppressed and his promise to aid them. The significant element of the Exodus is the fact that God’s initial revelation of himself to the nation of Israel is in the context of deliverance from oppression, and that this deliverance is essential to understanding God’s actions in history.

Dr. Kuhn goes on to cite a lack of consideration on the part of Latin American theologians of other elements of the Exodus, such as Moses’ “forty-year cooling-off period” in the wilderness and the fact that the Exodus was Jehovah’s deliverance, “not a seizure of power by an underground movement.” On the first point Dr. Kuhn apparently is unaware of the whole “theology of captivity” theme of writers such as Rubem Alves and Leonardo Boff. On the second point it would be interesting to know to which thinkers he is referring, since any number of Latin American theologians—Gutierrez, Segundo, José P. Miranda, Julio de Santa Ana, Emilio Castro, Rafael Avila, among others—have stressed exactly this point, that the Exodus is God’s intervention in history to bring his people out of oppression.

This same question may be raised with various of Dr. Kuhn’s other assertions: “… that the ‘liberating’ work of the Church is now a purely horizontal thrust into the world”; “… that liberation theology may fairly be called a ‘guerrilla theology’ ”; “… North American capitalism is seen as the sole cause of injustice and misery in Latin America.” It would be interesting to know to whom these and similar quotes refer and why Dr. Kuhn feels these statements are representative of Latin American theology.

The article refers several times to “simplistic assumptions.” These are never adequately documented. Not only is it difficult to identify Dr. Kuhn’s sources, but we are also hard pressed to relate his analysis to virtually any of the Latin American theologians writing in the context of the various theologies of liberation.

Unfortunately, Dr. Kuhn is no more illuminating when writing concretely about his sources. He refers to the treatment of salvation and “universal salvation” in Gutierrez and Assman without ever clarifying that these Catholic theologians are speaking against the classic dictum “outside the church (i.e., the Roman Catholic Church) there is no salvation.” While the views of these men are often not compatible with the view of most evangelicals, it must at least be pointed out that for them the term “universal salvation” has a very different meaning than it has in a Protestant or evangelical context. This is eminently clear if one traces this discussion from Vatican II through Medellin to its present usage in Latin America.

There is certainly much that can be criticized in the theologies of liberation, and as evangelicals in Latin America we seek to do this. However, no discussion is helped by inaccurate and irresponsible treatment of its subject.

Dr. Carmelo Alvarez

Professor of Church History

Director, Department of General Studies

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

San José, Costa Rica

Licenciate Victorio Araya

Professor of Christian Thought

Seminario Bíblico Latinamericano

Rev. Plutarco Bonilla

Professor of Biblical Literature; President

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Dr. José Míguez Bonino

Dean of Graduate Studies

Higher Institute of Theological Studies

Buenos Aires, Argentina

Prof. Julia Campos

Professor of Christian Education

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Dr. Orlando Costas, Director

Latin American Evangelical Center for Pastoral Studies (CELEP)

San José, Costa Rica

Dr. Irene W. Foulkes

Professor of New Testament

Vice Dean, Diversified Program at a Distance

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Dr. Richard T. Foulkes

Professor of New Testament Literature

Director, Department of Bible and Christian Thought

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Dr. Alan Hamilton

Professor of Behavioral Sciences

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Dr. Thomas Hanks, President

Ministry to the Student World (MINAMUNDO)

San José, Costa Rica

Rev. Paul Leggett

Professor of Christian Thought

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Rev. Ruben Lores

Dean, Diversified Program at a Distance

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Dr. Osvaldo Motessi

Professor of Church and Society and Evangelism;

Academic Dean

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Dr. Laverne Rutschman

Professor of Old Testament

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Rev. Carlos Tamez

Professor of Education and Pastoral Theology

Director, Department of Pastoral Ministry

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Dr. George J. Taylor

Professor of Pastoral Psychology

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

Mr. Charles Troutman

Personnel Coordinator

Community of Latin American Evangelical Ministries (CLAME)

Advisor, Ministry to the Student World (MINAMUNDO)

Licenciate Hugo Zorilla C.

Professor of New Testament

Seminario Bíblico Latinoamericano

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