WHY CHRISTIANS SHOULD NOW SHAKE HANDS WITH SOCIALISM

by Julius Nyerere
CI I RISTIAN ITY. as w ell as education and health services, came to Africa and other parts of the Third World in a European form.
They came with all the cultural accretions of two thousand years of European history and development. The Reformation and the CounterReformation of the 16th and 17th centuries in Europe: hostility between different Christian sects; the relations developed between Church and State in the different parts or Europe, and earlier feudal practices dating back to the Roman Empire: all these things were in a sense brought to Africa by the earl; missionaries because they had helped to shape the Church which came to our continent.
But the societies of Europe and the societies of Africa have all developed since then. Now it is with African governments that the churches and Church institutions have to deal, whether they are themsclses localised or not.
'The relations between the new African governments and the churches depend upon many things. But not least among them is the extent to which the Church has been able to adapt to changing circumstances and developing ideas during the last twenty or thirty years.
Where the Church remained identified with the colonial regime to the bitter end —.as in Mozambique — it experiences difficulty now. Where it was able to identify itself with the political aspirations is,its members and the community at larg.e, it has usually been able to avoid conflict with the new authorities.
But most of all. the position of the Church now depends upon the extent to which it has been able — and k able — to abandon the forms and practices vv. hich have their origin in European history while retaining and strengthening the essence of its Christian message and its mission.
This is not just a question of painting the
Seladonna Hack: in point of histor.s she was not black and Jesus 55 :1 born a Jew. It is not a question of abandoning all music of European origin: some or it is extremely good. It is much more complex than that. Adapting to Africa while strengthening the Christian mission involves the vs hole complex of activities by the Church and by Church members.
Christians of all denominations are citizens of their eountrs : involvement at all levels, and in all institutions, is part of their dut to themselves. their beliefs. and their country.
This need for involvement exists whether the Church is Operating in a capitalist state, a socialist state. an authoritarian one, or a democracy. Yet it seems that the Catholic Church in particular finds a special problem in socialist states. I suggest that this is another problem which arises out of the Church's development in Europe and in other nations \shell were shaped bs European practiecs.
Certain' the Church has traditionally found little difficulty. in operating in capitalist states, even when these were highly autocratic or totalitarnm. It :idapts to the governmental pattern. operating within it. and does welfare work among the losers in the economic game. Yet it continues to he nervous about states which profess socialism: it sometimes even involves itself in part politics in an effort to prevent self proclaimed socialist parties from attaining political power. I find this odd.
The declared aim and purpose of socialist doctrine is the promotion on earth of human equality and social justice — which must involve justice between and for individuals. As l' understand it, this different emphasis — is also part of the doctrine of Christianity. And in fact the problem arises between institutions; many Catholics are themselves socialists and find no difficulty in reconciling their two beliefs! I suggest therefore that this problem arises because for historical reasons the Church is still dominated at policy level by leaders and members from the capitalist states of the developed West.
Where atheism is the declared policy of a stated and where believers are persecuteed or the teaching of Christianity is made difficult if not impossible, then there will obviously be a clash between Church and State. I am not qualified to, comment upon such a problem: but I do not believe it has anything to do with socialism.
And certainly in Africa. socialism is everywhere accepted as a secular doctrine.and as one which has no comment to make upon metaphysics. All the states which profess socialism in Africa do accept the freedom of religious belief, and of all religions.
The challenge to the Church SS hich is involved
in socialism, and also in the system of one-party democracy in Africa, is in reality a challenge to traditional (and European-centred) Church thinking, not to Christianity itself. What is required of Church people in socialist states in Africa. is that they should learn a set of secular practices and mechanisms different to a considerable extent from those of Europe. and in the context of which the Church has until now been operating even in Africa.
There is certainly no reason why in our African states the Church cannot work for individual justice and freedom as effectively, if not more effectively, as in capitalist states. Church people can help the ignorant and the fearful to use the machinery of the state to get their wrongs righted.
If the machinery does not exist, or does not work properly. then Christians can and should participate in the task of getting the necessary systems established or cleansed.
Such activity means that the Church and its members will be working in cooperation with the state and the people, because they will be furthering the socialist purposes to which both state and people have committed themselves. At the same time, the Church will be serving those unintentially injured by the State machinery, and thus carrying on pastoral work among Church members and others.
I should perhaps add that if the grievance arises simply because the person concerned has been prevented from exploiting others or from the proper use of measures taken to prevent personal aggrandizement, then a socialist state is likely to be unresponsive to petitioning! But I see no reason why this should create a problem between Church and State: the Lord himself said that it was going to be rather difficult for the rich to get into the Kingdom of Heaven!