making choices but of failing to recognize alternatives, of stressing one truth at the expense of its companion The gospel message itself must, truth Truth has a way of being elliptical, and heresy in these bewildered times, be is the attempt to circularize that which in its very nature followed by "Be ye reconciled is elliptical The two foci may not be reduced to one to God." he Reformed heritage has in it several items which Tmust be very carefully handled in times such as guilt And when we had difficulty with the concept of ours, items which can very easily be made to feed the guilt we had to rename our penitentiaries, for only modern mind and contribute to the cancelling out of where there is subject-role can there be penitence, we subject-role One of these is the doctrine of the "cove­ call them houses of correction now We try to solve the nant/' which when spoken of as "monopleunc" or made crime problem while we view people in the object-role, over into a "testament" becomes a case of circularizing and then we wonder why it is that we cannot build the ellipse The associated concept of "pedobaptism" prisons fast enough or big enough must likewise be carefully watched in times such as Our assumption in the face of poverty is that where ours, and for the same reason The very concept of the people live below an artificially established level, some­ "decrees," especially when it is dissociated from its thing or someone out there is the cause Such people companion doctrine, can be employed to feed the "spirit are said to be "underprivileged," a slanted term if of the age " The gospel message itself that "God was there ever was one Someone else needs a talking to, in Christ reconciling the world to himself" must, es­ never those persons themselves This is far from de­ pecially in the climate of our bewildered times, be fol­ nying that there is such a thing as object-role and that lowed by "Be ye reconciled to God " a given person, or persons, can suffer privation because "Mrs Becomes the Victim of Suicide" is of what is being done to them But in our endless anal­ heresy—because it gives voice to the circulanzation of yses of the causes of poverty, we need sometime to be an existing ellipse It assumes that there is no such reminded that although Man is often found standing thing as subject-role in the life (and the death by sui­ in an object-role he is capable of subject-role To talk cide) of the creature "made in his image " constantly—that is, exclusively—of object-role is to fall In a wiser time, the headline would read "Mrs into heresy, if we understand heresy not as a matter of Committed Suicide " • From Broederbond to Brotherhood— a tribute to C. F. Beyers Naudé J. Hennie P. Serfontein Sixty-nine-year-old C F Beyers Naude has played a Council of Churches (SACC) for a period of two years special role in the church affairs of South Africa for the to replace Desmond Tutu, newly appointed Anglican past twenty-five years His involvement has put him at bishop of Johannesburg the center of South African Christianity's most contro­ For Naude to occupy this post, serving a multi­ versial issues ecumenical relations, the debate inside racial council representing nearly fifteen million Chris­ and outside the major church denominations on polit­ tians in some twenty-five churches and organizations, ical and social issues, and the escalating church-state is a far cry from the days when he was a rising star in conflict over the government's policies of apartheid the pro-apartheid white Nederduitse Gereformeerde Now it has culminated in his taking office on Febru­ Kerk (NGK) and a member of the secret Afrikaner Broe­ ary 1 as interim general secretary of the South African derbond, for decades the most powerful and influential body in the country Naude's conversion from a leading / Hennie Ρ Serfontein is a South African journalist living figure in the pro-apartheid establishment to one of the in Johannesburg He has closely followed the career of most outspoken voices against apartheid has been Beyers Naude for many years compared with the transformation of Saul of Tarsus 12 The Reformed Journal Today that crisis period in his life is largely forgotten kaner atmosphere, Naude attended the sociology classes When Naude launched the Christian Institute in of Dr H F Verwoerd, the intellectual giant who later 1963, he embarked on a road which made him the most shaped both the dogmatic and practical details of controversial church leader for fifteen years, until he apartheid, first as Minister of Native Affairs and then paid the price for his theological condemnation of as Prime Minister apartheid by being banned m October 1977 for a period Naude emerged as a student leader, chairing the of five years The ban was then extended until he was students' representative council and other student or­ unexpectedly unbanned in September of last year ganizations He also took part in the symbolic ox wa­ Naudé's earlier career and staunch Calvinistic gon trek of 1938, which commemorated the Great Trek background gave no indication that he would later rebel into the interior a century before This reenactment against many of the sacred values and political views played a crucial role in galvanizing a sense of Afrikaner of the vast majority of the Afrikaner volk His creden­ Nationalism, thus preparing the way for the National tials as an Afrikaner Nationalist were impeccable His Party's surprise general election victory of 1948 father was the famous Reverend Joshua Naude, himself After qualifying at Stellenbosch in 1939, Naude a minister of the NGK During the Anglo-Boer War was ordained in his first charge in Wellington in 1940 (1899-1902), he interrupted his theological studies at He subsequently served several congregations in the the University of Stellenbosch and joined the Boer Cape and the Transvaal forces, serving as a kind of unofficial chaplain under The year 1940 was important for two other reasons the famous General Chnstiaan Fredenk Beyers And at In that year Naude married Ilse Weder, who had com­ the bitter peace talks at Vereenigmg in May 1902, he pleted her degree at Stellenbosch two years earlier She was one of only six Boer delegates out of a total of sixty came from a German missionary family working on the who refused to agree to unconditional surrender and Moravian mission station of Genadendal, 200 kilome- to approve the peace treaty—a bittereinder, as those who stuck it out to the end were called Beyers Naudé was born on May 10, 1915, in the NGK parsonage in Roodepoort, the fourth of eight chil­ Naudé attended the sociology dren—six daughters and two sons His birth came classes of H. F. Verwoerd, who shortly after the end of the abortive rebellion of 1914, later gave apartheid its dogmatic when several former Boer generals launched a cam­ paign of armed resistance against the decision of their and practical contents. former colleagues, Generals Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, to support England in the war against Germany and to occupy South West Africa (now Namibia) One of the ters from Cape Town And in a secret ritual Naude rebel leaders was General Beyers, who had resigned as became a member of the local cell of the Broederbond head of the Defence Force Beyers had drowned in an in 1940, swearing an oath with his hand on the Bible escape attempt across the flooded Vaal River, and the that he would remain true to the aspirations of the or­ Naude parents named their new son after their hero, ganization and the Afrikaner people Chnstiaan Fredenk Beyers Naude At least half the ministers of the NGK belonged to Naude's father subsequently played an active role the Broederbond Together with teachers they consti­ in Afrikaner political, cultural, and community life, a tuted more than 40 percent of the membership of the role similar to that played by black ministers seventy elite Afrikaner Nationalist organization Although its years later in uplifting their impoverished communi­ members at that time numbered only 2,000 organized ties Thus it was in Naude's house that a meeting of in small cells across the country, the Broederbond in­ fourteen men was held on May 24, 1918, to plan the cluded politicians, businessmen, and professional men launching of the secret Afrikaner Broederbond, the or­ as well as the ministers and teachers who indoctrinated ganization was formally established shortly afterwards their parishioners and pupils with the principles of on June 6, 1918 Regarded as the spiritual father of the Christian Nationalism The activities of the Broeder­ Broederbond, Naude was elected its first president bond laid the foundation for the Afrikaner Nationalist Given his staunch Afrikaner Nationalist back­ takeover in 1948 The cells met once a month, but the ground, it was natural in 1932 for young Naade to existence of the Broederbond and its membership re­ study theology at the University of Stellenbosch Lo­ mained an absolute secret, a member was forbidden cated in a village near Cape Town, this university has by oath ever to admit his membership, even to his been the cradle of Afrikaner Nationalism for nearly 150 family years, six of South Africa's eight prime ministers have Dr Naude served congregations in Wellington, been graduates of Stellenbosch In this exclusive Afri­ Loxton, Olifantsfontem, Pretoria East (where he was a May 1985 13 gency, the government banned the African National Congress and the Pan-Africanist Congress, tightened security laws, and stifled black voices.