Amptelike skrywe van die AP Kerk aan die president.

by Ds. Schalk Strauss | 22 Apr 2020 | Kommentaar, SKK Verklarings., Vars Gebak, Verklarings

Amptelike skrywe van die AP Kerk aan die president insake die huidige inperkingmaatreëls.

Geagte mnr. President, Kabinetsministers, premiers, burgemeesters en gemeenskapsleiers van Suid-Afrika.

Ons rig hierdie skrywe aan u namens ’n kerkverband wat 30 000 Christene verteenwoordig, maar ook, so glo ons, namens ’n groot groep ander kerke in ons land.

Gedurende hierdie krisistyd van die Covid-19 pandemie, het ons vir elkeen van u gebid en ons doen dit steeds. Ons bid dat die Here aan u wysheid sal gee in al u besluite – besluite wat daagliks geëvalueer en gerevalueer word namate nuwe inligting oor die virus en die reaksie daarop beskikbaar word. Dit is juis hierdie inkomende inligting wat dit al meer en meer duidelik maak dat die aanvanklike inligting wat die ramptoestand gemotiveer het, onvolledig was.

Ons waardeer die president se stelling in die persverklaring van 20 April 2020 in verband met die uitdagings wat hy moes hanteer in die besluit om ’n nasionale inperking in te stel en dat hy verkies het om eerder na die kant van versigtigheid oor te hel. Omdat ons doel steeds is om dit te doen wat die beste vir die openbare belang van die burgers is, is nuwe besluite en ’n koerswysiging nou noodsaaklik – hoe gouer, hoe beter. Die blote opgradering van maatskaplike voorsiening om huishoudings wat in armoede leef, te ondersteun, sal ongelukkig nie naastenby voldoende wees nie.

As ons met die huidige toestand van totale inperking volhard, sal dinge volgens ons oortuiging waarskynlik baie versleg. Ons beleef nou die situasie waar dit al duideliker word dat die instel van verdere voorsorg (inperking) nadeliger gevolge sal hê as die siekte self. Die inligting oor die pandemie regverdig nie dat miljoene mense hulle werk verloor en besighede en veral kerke vir ’n onbepaalde tydperk gesluit word nie. Die president het talle nieregeringsorganisasies, godsdienstige groepe en gewone burgers wat geld gee en hulp aanbied om honger en behoeftiges te help, bedank, maar u inperkingsmaatreëls maak dit onmoontlik vir ons om hiermee voort te gaan. Hiermee verwys ons na baie boere en familiebesighede wat nie vir hulp uit die solidariteitsfonds kwalifiseer nie, selfs al dra hulle daartoe by. Dit is nou tyd om vir besigheid oop te maak, werk toe te gaan en veral om onbeskaamd terug te keer tot die openbare aanbidding van die drie-enige God deur die gemeenskap van die heiliges, alhoewel sommige voorkomende maatreëls steeds nodig mag wees.

Hoewel Covid-19 onder ons bestaan en meer as 3300 burgers al die siekte opgedoen het, kan ons die baie groter skade wat aan ons samelewing aangerig word deurdat inkomste vir die onderhouding van gesinne afgesny word, nie langer ignoreer nie. In ons kerke kom min gevalle van die Koronavirus, hospitalisasie of sterftes voor. Daarteenoor het ons talle mense wie se vermoë om hulle gesinne te onderhou, grootliks skade ly weens die verlies aan inkomste en skade aan hulle besighede. Vir ons sal die inperkingsmaatreëls die huidige stand van sake baie vererger. Sonder om die feite waarmee u rekening moet hou, buite rekening te laat, moedig ons u aan om baie mooi na te dink oor die geweldige skade wat deur die volharding met ’n geslote ekonomie aangerig word. In ons gemeentes het ons reeds die verlies aan lewensonderhoud, besighede wat hul deure moes sluit en die isolasie van ons lidmate ervaar en dit is ’n geweldige verlies vir die welwese en welsyn van die hele samelewing. Die skade sal net vererger as ons op die huidige koers van imperking volhard en die ekonomie, ons huise en kerke gesluit hou. Vergun ons om sonder skroom daarop te wys dat as daar ooit ’n noodsaaklike diens was, is dit die openbare aanbidding deur die gemeenskap van die heiliges van die lewende God. Hy is die belangrikste aspek in elke oorweging. Dit is nie vir ons nodig om u daaraan te herinner dat gevaarlike (en waarskynlik onbeheerbare) sosiale onrus die noodwendige gevolg van die huidige koers sal wees nie. Die plundering van informele handelaars en drankwinkels is net die begin.

Ons is ook erg bedroef deur die blatante rassisme deur sommige regeringsdepartemente wat verligting en hulp in die pandemie betref. Ons is voorts baie verontrus oor die stygende gety van misdaad gedurende die inperking. Ons beskou dit ook as ons roeping om daarop te wys dat daar baie meer onrus en rampspoedige gevolge kan voorkom omdat gemeenskapsveiligheidsgroepe nie toegelaat word om op te tree nie.

As kerke is ons baie besorg oor die lewens en gesondheid van ons lidmate asook ander in die gemeenskappe wat ons bedien. Veral omdat talle in ons kerke bejaardes of hoë-risiko gevalle vir Corvid-19 is. Hul gesondheid is egter nie die verantwoordelikheid van die staat alleen nie. Daardie persone en hul gesinne, predikante, leiers en dokters is die beste geposisioneer om vir hulself te besluit oor hoe hulle gedurende die verspreiding van die siekte moet leef. As hierdie ’n groot plaag, ’n direkte gesondheids- en lewensbedreiging vir al ons lidmate was, soos baie van ons aanvanklik gedink het dit was, sou ons met graagte gewillig wees om ons neer te lê by billike maatreëls om die verspreiding te voorkom – soos ons die afgelope maand gedoen het. Dit is egter nou duidelik dat die krisis nie op die vlak is soos dit aanvanklik beskou was nie. Al meer van ons kerke dui daagliks aan dat hulle nie bereid is om voort te gaan om die uiterste inperkingsmaatreëls na te kom nie. Ons begeerte is om gehoorsaam te wees aan die burgerlike owerheid. Ons moet egter ook doen wat God van ons verwag en wat die beste is vir ons mense en gemeenskappe en soos ons gewete ons voorskryf.

Ons erken dat die grondwetlike regte van vryheid van beweging, spraak, godsdiens en assosiasie beperk mag word kragtens Afdeling 36 van die grondwet, maar sulke “beperkings moet redelik en regverdigbaar wees in ’n oop en demokratiese samelewing wat gebaseer is op menswaardigheid, gelykheid en vryheid”. As ons die aard van hierdie regte in aanmerking neem; die belangrikheid van die beperkinge, die aard en omvang daarvan, asook die verhouding tussen die beperkings en hul doel en minder beperkende maniere om die doel te bereik, blyk dit dat ons as kerkleiers nou die morele verpligting het om ons aanvanklike steun vir die huidige inperkingsmaatreëls in die lig van die jongste feite oor die pandemie te heroorweeg. Meer nog, ons het nie net hierdie regte omdat die grondwet dit vergun nie, maar omdat dit van God self af kom. Ons glo dat die tyd ryp is vir ons leiers om af te sien van die ekstreme inperkingsmaatreëls.

Tot dusver was die reaksie in die kerk een van verootmoediging en sondebelydenis – die sondes van die kerk en die sonde van ons burgers en regering. Met hierdie brief nooi ons die regering om hulle asseblief by ons in verootmoediging voor die Here Jesus Christus aan te sluit. Ons pleit om die genade en barmhartigheid van God, sodat Hy aan ons verlossing en wysheid vir die toekoms sal gee. Die dood is ’n vyand, die laaste vyand wat deur die heerskappy van Christus vernietig is. Ons bely dit met ons hele hart en hoewel ons die dood verag, vrees ons nie die dood nie, want vir ons is die lewe Christus en die sterwe wins. Mag God opregte berou in ons bewerk en wanneer ons ons sondes erken en bely, glo ons dat Hy ons genadig sal wees en ons land sal herstel.

In diens van die ewige Koning, Jesus Christus.

Ds. JL Schütte – Direkteur van kerkadministrasie

English translation: Formal statement to the president regarding the current lockdown regulations.

Dear Mr. President, Cabinet Ministers, Premiers, Mayors, and Community Leaders of South Africa,

We are writing to you on behalf of a church denomination representing 30 000 Christians and also, so we believe, on behalf of a host of other churches in our country as well.

During this time of crisis of the Covid-19 pandemic we have been praying for each of you and continue to do so. We pray that the Lord may grant you wisdom in all of your decisions – decisions that must be evaluated and re-evaluated every day as new information about the virus informs our reactions to it. It is exactly this unfolding information that makes it more and more apparent that the initial information that motivated the state of disaster was incomplete.

We appreciate the president’s statement in the press release of 20 April 2020 regarding the challenges he faced in the decision to impose a nationwide lockdown and that he chose to err on the side of caution. Because our goal is still to do what is best for the public good of the citizens, new decisions and a change of course must now be made, sooner rather than later. To scale up welfare provision to aid households living below the poverty line, will unfortunately not even closely be enough.

If we continue on the current course of action of extreme lockdown, things may get much worse, as we fear they most certainly will. We are now in a situation where it becomes clearer and clearer that any further imposed cure (lockdown) will prove to be worse than the disease. The data on the pandemic do not justify putting millions of people out of work and locking down businesses and even more important, churches, for the indefinite future. The president thanked the many NGO’s, religious groups and ordinary citizens who are donating money and volunteering to help feed the hungry and destitute, but your lockdown regulations makes it impossible for us to continue with this. In this we are referring to a lot of our farmers and family businesses that does not qualify for help from the solidarity fund, even while contributing to it. It is now time to open up for business, return to work and especially to unashamedly return to the public and corporate worship of the Triune God, even though some precautionary measures might still be necessary.

While Covid-19 is among us and 3300 citizens have contracted the disease, we cannot further ignore the much larger damage to our society that is done by cutting off the means of supporting the lives of families. In our churches, we have few Coronavirus cases, hospitalizations or deaths. However, we have many people whose ability to support their families has been greatly damaged through the loss of wages and damage to their businesses. For us, the lockdown regulations will worsen this state of affairs quite seriously. Without ignoring the facts that you have to deal with, we encourage you to more carefully consider the immense damage that will be caused by continuing this current path of a closed economy. In our congregations we already have experienced the loss of livelihoods, closed businesses, and the isolation of our congregants, and it is a tremendous loss to the health and well-being of our whole society. This damage will only worsen the longer we stay on the current course of lockdown and keeping the economy and houses of worship closed. And allow us to be so bold as to point out that if there was ever a necessary service, it is the public and corporate worship of the living God. He is by far the most important in any consideration. We also do not need to remind you that the dangerous (and probably uncontrollable) social unrest will also be the likely result of staying on this course. The looting of spaza shops and liquor stores are only the beginning.

We are also deeply saddened by the blatant racism from some government departments regarding relief and aid in response to the pandemic. We are also very concerned about the rising tide of crime during the lockdown. We also consider it our calling to point out that there will be much more unrest and disastrous consequences because neighbourhood watch groups are not allowed to operate.

As churches we have a great concern for the lives and health of our members as well as those in the communities that we serve. Especially because many in our churches are elderly or are in a high-risk category for Covid-19. The fact is that the responsibility for their health is not the government’s alone. Those individuals and their families, pastors, leaders and physicians, are the ones to make the best decisions about how they should live during the spread of this disease. If this were a great plague, a direct threat to the health and lives of all of our congregants, as many of us initially thought it was, we would be glad to continue to comply with reasonable measures to mitigate the spread – as we have done for the past month. However, it is now clear that this crisis is not on the level it was viewed at first. Every day more of our churches indicate that they are not prepared to continue to comply with the extreme lockdown regulations. Our desire is to be obedient to the civil magistrate. However, we must also do what we believe God expects of us, and what is best for our people and our communities, and what our consciences dictate.

We acknowledge that the constitutional rights of freedom regarding movement, speech, religion and association may be limited in accordance with Section 36 of the constitution, but such “limitations must be reasonable and justifiable in an open and democratic society based on human dignity, equality and freedom.” If we take into account the nature of these rights; the importance of the limitation, as well as the nature and extent of the limitation, the relation between the limitation and its purpose, and less restrictive means to achieve the purpose, it would seem that as church leaders we now have the moral obligation to re-evaluate our initial support for the current lockdown regulations in light of the latest facts about the pandemic.

Moreover, we have these rights not because the constitution grants them, but they are extended to us from God Himself. We believe the time is now at hand for our leaders to stand down from the extreme lockdown regulations.

Until today the response in the churches has been to humble ourselves, confess our sins – the sins of the church and the sins of our citizens and government. With this letter we invite the government to please join us in humbling ourselves before the Lord Jesus Christ. We call upon the grace and mercy of God to give us relief and to give us wisdom for the future. Death is an enemy, the last enemy that will be destroyed by the rule of Jesus Christ. We confirm this with all of our hearts and while we despise death, we do not fear death, because for us, to live is Christ and to die is gain. May God grant us repentance, and as we confess and repent of our many sins, we trust that He will be gracious to us and heal our land.

In the service of the eternal King, Jesus Christ,

Rev. JL Schütte – Director of Church Administration