Turning a biblical face to racism
Church Unlimited hosted a workshop on Saturday morning to unpack racism in South Africa.
MBOMBELA – Motivational speaker and author, Alexander Venter presented it. He tied racism to biblical times when the tower of Babel was destroyed by God and the people scattered across the world.
Venter is a world-renowned speaker and author who has presented similar workshops across the country and in Europe.
According to pastor and Church Unlimited public relations officer, Etienne Garnett-Bennet, the workshop was a practical session and started off with small groups of all races sharing their experiences with racism.
ALSO READ: Through education, we still transform SA
“It is a crucial time in South Africa’s history for us to take charge of bringing people together who have been divided in the past,” he said.
“It brought an understanding of reconciliation and forgiveness and provided a biblical overview of reconciliation and why it is necessary.”
Venter’s experiences during the heyday of apartheid led him to Soweto where, according to Garnett-Bennet, a black student invited him to Soweto after the 1976 uprising to see how black people lived.
“This changed his life and he realised how ignorant he was of other people’s suffering. He started Bible studies and church meetings in the area. His ministry has become one of reconciliation and bringing people of different races together.”
During his talk, Venter said the birth of racism came about after God’s destruction of the biblical tower of Babel.
“The tower of Babel was built as an edifice of human pride in their achievements. This angered God, who gave them different languages and scattered the across the world. All races stem from the tower of Babel and the once-united people were scatted under God’s judgement after He caused them to speak in different tongues.”
ALSO READ: ‘Brides’ radiate beauty in their dream dresses
He said this caused the people to build walls of division which gave birth to the hostility between the different ethnicities.
Garnett-Bennet said the workshop was well attended by different churches, which was encouraging as it meant that, as a city, people could start discussing these issues.
