On Thursday the 5th of December, former president of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner Nelson Mandela passed away. My purpose today is not to write a tribute to this man as more capable men have already done this. The best one I have found so far is Dr. Mohler’s and you can read it here.
As I write this I am watching the memorial service of this historical figure. Since his death I have read many articles and statuses spread across social media platforms. What has been most saddening is the reaction from certain quarters of Christianity.
When some see Mandela, all they see is a communist terrorist who to some degree has been part of a secret white genocide plan; an interfaith, liberal, corrupt leader; a champion of abortion and the gay agenda. And they are happy to be very vocal about this perception. They have joined a scrum in the culture war, but have gone from ‘touch’ to ‘engage’ without pausing to think.
Why are we so surprised?
I am not sure why Christians are so surprised at the ‘idolising’ of Nelson Mandela and why they feel the need to point it out at every opportunity. Paul writes in one of his epistles, “For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Do you not judge those who are within the church? But those who are outside, God judges. ” Paul, is speaking in line with Christ, of whom John writes, “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. ”
What is the churches mission policy? How do we interact with an unbelieving world? Based on these two passages I think we should be careful when w...
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...unism, or whatever else, the indictment is on you and the church. How sad it is that there was none who openly professed faith in Jesus Christ that arose as the symbol of the end of apartheid and reconciliation. How anaemic was the church that God had to use a secular leader to bring to bear the common grace of the gospel on racial relations and human rights in South Africa? Just as God used the pagan king Cyrus, as shown by Isaiah the prophet, so in our day God used Mandela for His own purposes.
For a helpful round-up of what others in South Africa have said regarding Mandela, click here.
Works Cited
1 Corinthians 5:12-13a
John 3:17-18
1 Corinthians 2:2 http://www.examiner.com/article/ignored-by-the-media-mandela-pushed-one-of-the-most-pro-abortion-laws-ever accessed 2013-12-10 http://m.imdb.com/title/tt0372784/quotes?qt=qt0470046 accessed 2013-12-10
Obama’s speech at Mandela memorial (transcript); ‘Mandela taught us the power of action, but also ideas’, Tuesday, December 10, 9:09 AM
To understand Mandela’s role in civil disobedience, one must first have the knowledge of his personal life. Mandela was born in the town of Transkei, South Africa into a royal family on July 18,1918 (Klerk). Even though Mandela was born into a royal family, he still noticed the ugly treatment of people in South Africa based on their racial background. Mr. Mandela was educated at the University of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand. Both of these universities are located in South Africa, though Fort Ware is in Eastern Cape while Witwatersrand is located in the capital (Klerk, F). While a student in college Mandela was sent home for protesting against the strict policies of the university with several other classmates. Like many col...
...lieve he was a very accomplished man, to creating the first black law all the way to winning the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize. I admire his idea and power to take a stance on a unlawful topic, and never willing to give up. I admire his confidence, his dignity, and his hope that he has for all situations to somehow get better. He didn't just fight for himself, as he had stated in his "I am Prepared to Die" speech, but he mostly cared for the other around him. Before I had done this report, I had a relative perspective on who he was, but once I really began researching Mandela and his life, I found that Mandela was a truly respectable man. In the world today, got communities where they never thought they could have been in a time of only years of time. He made outstanding reforms, and his ideas and use of power were phenomenally put to use, to make the world a better place.
“Mandela, Nelson (1918-).” The New Book of Knowledge: n. pag. Grolier Online. Web. 18 Mar. 2013.
Barack Obama has made no secret that over the past three decades Nelson Mandela has been the greatest influence in his life. Coming from an African ancestry, Obama drew inspiration from Mandela’s life and influenced Obama to take himself upon a journey of self-discovery and find his own voice (Obama, 2004). The repercussions of Mandela’s inspirational work caused Obama to become a part of an anti-apartheid divestment movement in college and to shift to focusing on law and politics (Epstein, 2013). Now that Barack Obama has become President of the United States of America, he has consistently quoted Mandela in all his keynote speeches speaking of freedom and equality and his actions and words are inspired by the desire to emulate Mandela’s powerful actions and movements and the examples that he set, in the 21st century (Killough, 2013). Even within the tribute to Mandela, Obama (2013) says “You can make his life’s work your own…It stirred something ...
When Nelson Mandela was a young boy he was largely influenced by his guardian Jongintaba who was the Thembu Chief. Jongintaba would let the people lead the debates, and then he would analyze their thoughts, and they would make a decision. This influenced Mandela in his fight for a true democratic government. This also led Mandela to study law and fight for the rights of black South Africans. This background brought Mandela to th...
This source is very helpful for several reasons. For instance, it states what Mandela has taught us as humans (the humanity all of us share can help us transcend the sins some of us commit). Another reason is that the United States' reaction is included towards Mandela and the Transformative Power of Tolerance and Reconciliation. This source will help back up Mandela's lesson towards humanity. It helps to organize the structure of my thesis statement.
Nelson Mandela it’s a man whose legacy unquenchable spend himself for the well-being of others. Through a series of stories told by men and women about how Nelson Mandela touched their lives, the book shows what it is that has made him one of the greatest people of our time: the way he has managed to inspire people through ordinary human actions. Here in essence are some of the key qualities of great leadership. Most of the stories in this book are from ordinary men and women. A few from newspapers, television and magazines. Whether they happened exactly as they
"Nelson Mandela." UXL Biographies. Detroit: U*X*L, 2011. Student Resources in Context. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
There are many types of people in the world. Some of them are negative and some are positive. Negative people seem to have an endless impact on the people they influence. Negative people plant their venom in the lives of families, friends, communities, countries, and sometimes, even the world, which can make healing difficult and almost impossible because, in many cases, negativity breeds more negativity. However, all people are not negative people, and many people take time to build up others who are less fortunate than they are but who deserve the same opportunities they have. Nelson Mandela is one of these positive people. Mandela contributed to ending
Transition to 1st main point: First, let’s talk about the childhood and education of Mandela
...eid of white supremacy in South Africa. Throughout the book, I have seen Nelson's open-mindedness. Nelson always listened to communist ideas and Indian goals, eventhough he did not agree with them. Nelson faced many hardships through his struggle and this had to cause some resentment against his oppressors. But if anyone would not be bias in his writing, I would say it would be Nelson Mandela. He has showed in his book that he is great individual and that he will not let his past feeling cloud his writing. You can see his feelings in his book and that is what makes it so good, but I believe he does not hide anything from us on both sides of the stories.
“To deny people their right to human rights is to challenge their very humanity. To impose on them a wretched life of hunger and deprivation is to dehumanize them. But such has been the terrible fate of all black persons in our country under the system of apartheid (“In Nelson Mandela’s own words”). Nelson Mandela was a moral compass symbolizing the struggle against racial oppression. Nelson Mandela emerged from prison after twenty-seven years to lead his country to justice. For twenty-seven years he sat in a cell because he believed in a country without apartheid, a country with freedom and human rights. He fought for a country where all people were equal, treated with respect and given equal opportunity. Nelson Mandela looms large in the actions of activists and politicians. He inspired music and movies, and swayed the mind of powerful leaders. Making him an influential person who affected American culture.
Nelson Mandela is one of the greatest ethical and political leaders in recent history. Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to the fight against the racial oppression of the apartheid regime in South Africa. In doing so, he became the first democratically chosen black president of South Africa. Nelson Mandela’s life is a blue print for the development of a leader who fought against discrimination and aimed to build fairness and justice, and by doing so, acquired the ultimate achievement: equality for South Africa.
Mandela's story is an in-depth exploration broader than the light overview of South Africa's apartheid given by the text book. The writing of the autobiography is easy to read, clear and precise. It does not contain any footnotes or endnotes, but in most biographies of any kind there are few citing. There are no maps, charts or tables but in the spirit of it following a mans story there could only be a time line, but a time line would be overwhelmed by the 27 years Mandela spent in prison.