Religion and Conflict Resolution

Christianity and South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission

Megan Shore

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• eBook ISBN: 9781317068136
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This book examines the ambiguous role that Christianity played in South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). It has two objectives: to analyse the role Christianity played in the TRC and to highlight certain consequences that may be instructive to future international conflict resolution processes. Religion and conflict resolution is an area of significant importance. Ongoing conflicts involving Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims and Hindus, and even radical Islamic jihadists and Western countries have heightened the awareness of the potential power of religion to fuel conflict. Yet these religious traditions also promote peace and respect for others as key components in doing justice. Examining the potential role religion can play in generating peace and justice, specifically Christianity in South Africa's TRC, is of utmost importance as religiously inspired violence continues to occur. This book highlights the importance of accounting for religion in international conflict resolution.

Chapter 1
Introduction

The relationship between religion and conflict is an ambivalent one. For many in the field of religious studies, this has become a truism. But for many in the field of conflict resolution, this ambivalent relationship between religion and conflict has only recently been acknowledged. On the one hand, the ongoing conflicts involving Palestinians and Israelis, Muslims and Hindus, and even radical Islamic jihadists and Western countries have heightened the awareness of the potential power of religion to fuel conflict. News reports of Islamic suicide bombers targeting Jerusalem shopping centres, Catholics and Protestants battling in the streets of Belfast, and Hindu radicals attacking Christian churches in India seem only to confirm what Lucretius, the Roman philosopher, famously said: ‘So great the power religion had for evil’.1 On the other hand, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam promote peace and respect for others as key components in doing justice. Indeed forgiveness and reconciliation are central to their moral visions. Accordingly, religious organisations have been leaders in working for peace, establishing medical clinics, social welfare agencies and schools, as well as providing humanitarian assistance amidst war, famine and natural disasters. This unifying capacity of religion led Mahatma Gandhi to say, ‘It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business’.2

Historically, international conflict resolution theorists have largely adopted the position that organised religion is primarily, if not essentially, an instigator of violence. As a result, international conflict resolution theories have tended to exclude religion as a force for peacebuilding.3 Recently, however, scholars such as Scott Appleby, Marc Gopin, Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson have suggested that religion can contribute constructively to a theory of conflict resolution and the practice of diplomacy.4 Their general thesis is that, if religion played a significant part in people’s lives, and if religion played a part in fuelling the conflict, then when resolving the conflict, religion must be at least taken into account, for without this consideration, peacekeepers, diplomats and mediators not only fail to deal with the fundamentals of the conflict, but they also miss potential peacebuilding resources in the religious traditions themselves.

An example of an international conflict resolution process in which religion, specifically Christianity, played a central role was South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In fact, Christianity played such a marked role in the TRC that some observers, such as Richard Wilson, Carl Niehaus and Fazel Randera, have criticised the TRC leadership for adopting a ‘religious-redemptive’ understanding of their mandate.5 Others, such as Tinyiko Sam Maluleke, a South African theologian, have criticised the TRC for ‘hijacking’ Christian theological concepts for political gains.6 Despite these and other criticisms, the relative success of the Commission, as a component of the reasonably smooth transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa, would seem to challenge conflict resolution theories that exclude religion.

The TRC’s relative success demands further examination of the role religion played in the process and whether the Commission’s methods have universal applicability. As a result, a number of scholars, including Lyn Graybill and Russell Daye, have asked whether the TRC is a model for future conflict resolution processes or a miracle performed through the charismatic leadership of President Nelson Mandela and TRC Chair Archbishop Desmond Tutu.7 If the TRC was a ‘miracle’, then its methods have little or no relevance to other conflict resolution processes. However, if it was a ‘model’, other processes could learn from it and adopt and adapt its methods, structures, values, ideas and practices. Although the miracle-model question can be formulated as a simple either-or, I treat it as a spectrum that defines the range of possible interpretations. This study will therefore operate with the premise that the TRC was a unique process, with extraordinary leadership; yet, in spite of these unique qualities, the Commission did contain certain lessons – but no fixed blueprints – that may be instructive to future transitional justice processes and to international conflict resolution mediators.

The two-fold purpose of this book is to provide an analysis of the often ambiguous role that Christianity played in the South African TRC and to highlight certain consequences that may be instructive to those who engage in international conflict resolution theory. It considers both the specific issue of the role that Christianity played in the South African TRC, and the more general issue of the role that religion may play in international conflict resolution.8 Regarding the specific issue, my underlying argument is that the Christian influence in the TRC helped shape the post-conflict reconstruction stage of South Africa’s transition through an emphasis on truth-telling and reconciliation, despite certain limitations when it came to generating justice. This argument should not be interpreted as an apology for the inclusion of Christianity in the TRC or as an attempt to offer a theological response to the TRC, but rather as an attempt to understand and assess the various ways in which Christianity both assisted and undermined aspects of the TRC and South Africa’s ongoing social and political transition. The more general issue addressed in this book stems from current discussions within the field of conflict resolution theory concerning the role of religion in transitional justice mechanisms such as truth commissions. Furthermore, since this book is a case study in religious conflict resolution, it will proceed with an interpretive framework that employs methodologies and questions used by scholars and practitioners interested in religious conflict resolution.

The general body of literature on the South African TRC is immense. Nevertheless, this study does make a distinct contribution in at least four ways. First, its primary aim is to organise an often fragmented body of research on the role of religion in South Africa’s transition and the TRC. Prior studies citing South Africa or the TRC as an example of religious conflict resolution – for instance, Russel Botman, Appleby and Johnston – have devoted only a few paragraphs or a chapter on specific dimensions of the Commission and the place of religion in South Africa.9 This book goes further by providing an analysis of primary texts and secondary texts that have not been examined from the perspective of the role Christianity played in the TRC. An example of where my research and analysis is particularly original appears in my discussion of the two versions of truth-telling in the TRC hearings, which is found in Chapter 5.

Second, this study builds on the work of religious conflict resolution advocates to provide a comprehensive examination of the role of Christianity in the TRC. My purpose is not to defend religious conflict resolution by appealing to the TRC as an example, but rather to understand the various ways in which Christianity functioned both as a source of peace and conflict in South Africa’s transition. This aspect of the study will contribute to the development of a critical theory of religious conflict resolution.

Third, this study will assess the main criticisms of Christianity’s influence on the TRC, most notably the work of human rights scholar Richard Wilson. My assessment builds on my background in religious studies, international development studies and international conflict resolution. Although some religious studies scholars, most notably Russell T. McCutcheon, Donald Wiebe and others associated with the North American Association of the Study of Religion, have been reluctant to make normative judgements, I do draw conclusions that have a prescriptive character about them.10

And fourth, because of its interdisciplinary nature, this study should be informative not only to scholars in religious studies but also to scholars in international relations, conflict resolution and other fields where the intersection of religion and politics is a significant area of interest.

This book consists of two parts. The first part provides the context for this study. It outlines the interpretive framework that I will use to examine the role religion played in the TRC, and it sets the historical context for the topic of this book. Chapter 2 introduces the emerging field of religious conflict resolution, an approach to international conflict resolution that accounts for insights from religion.11 The focus of this chapter is on the development of religious conflict resolution as an alternative to conventional theories of international conflict resolution that remain rooted in realpolitik and secularist approaches to politics. In addition, this chapter will introduce the truth commission as a transitional justice mechanism and highlight the general objectives of South Africa’s TRC. Chapter 3 provides a brief historical overview of the relationship between apartheid and Christianity in South Africa and demonstrates the role Christianity played in both perpetuating apartheid and challenging it. This historical context is essential because religious conflict resolution is based on the premise that, if religion was involved in the conflict, and if it is involved in people’s lives, it should be addressed in the post-conflict resolution. Moreover, this history will provide the necessary background when we evaluate TRC decisions and assess alternative strategies.

The second part of the book is an evaluation of the role that Christianity played in the TRC. It consists of four chapters. Chapter 4 examines the controversial role that Christianity played in the implementation and administration of the TRC. This discussion demonstrates how Christianity shaped the mandate and functioning of the TRC process. I interpret the TRC as both a moral and political response to apartheid, one that actually necessitated the inclusion of religion in the transition from apartheid to democracy. Chapter 5 addresses the notions of truth and truth-telling. The issue at stake is the extent to which Christian discourse functioned as a truth-telling discourse in the TRC hearings. Chapter 6 takes up the highly contested topic of reconciliation and the role Christianity played in defining the various concepts of reconciliation that operated during life of the TRC. Chapter 7 identifies and responds to four primary criticisms levelled against the TRC for failing to achieve satisfactory justice for the victims of apartheid violence.

Chapter 8 of this book is the conclusion. It highlights this study’s primary findings and it presents four general lessons that will be instructive to scholars and practitioners of religious conflict resolution.

1 Titus Lucretius Carus, On the Nature of the Universe, trans. Sir Ronald Melville (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 6.

2 Mahatma Gandhi, Non-violence in Peace and War (2 vols, New York: Garland, 1972), vol. 2, p. 248.

3 For an in-depth discussion on the global resurgence of religion, see Scott M. Thomas, The Global Resurgence of Religion and the Transformation of International Relations: The Struggle for the Soul of the Twenty-First Century (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

4 R. Scott Appleby, The Ambivalence of the Sacred: Religion, Violence and Reconciliation (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000); Marc Gopin, Between Eden and Armageddon: The Future of World Religions, Violence, and Peacemaking (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000); Douglas Johnston and Cynthia Sampson (eds), Religion, the Missing Dimension of Statecraft (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994).

5 For these criticisms, see Richard Wilson, The Politics of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Legitimizing the Post-Apartheid State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001); Carl Niehaus, ‘Reconciliation in South Africa: Is Religion Relevant?’ in James Cochrane, John de Gruchy and Stephen Martin (eds), Facing the Truth: South Africa Faith Communities and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Cape Town: David Philip Publishers, 1999), pp. 81–90; Fazel Randera, ‘The Baruti versus the Lawyers: The Role of Religion in the TRC Process’, in Charles Villa-Vicencio and Wilhelm Verwoerd (eds), Looking Back Reaching Forward: Reflections on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa (Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 2000), pp. 123–31.

6 Tinyiko Sam Maluleke, ‘Dealing Lightly with the Wound of My People’, Missionalia, 25 (1997). Online, available at: www.geocities.com/missionalia/maluleke.htm (accessed 7 January 2009).

7 Lyn S. Graybill, Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Miracle or Model? (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2002); Russell Daye, Political Forgiveness: Lessons from South Africa (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004).

8 For a brief discussion of the term ‘religion’, see Jonathan Z. Smith, ‘Religion, Religions, Religious’, in Mark C. Taylor (ed.), Critical Terms for Religious Studies (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998), pp. 269–84.

9 H. Russel Botman, ‘Truth and Reconciliation: The South African Case’, in Harold Coward and Gordon S. Sm...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of Abbreviations
• Foreword
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Introduction
• PART ONE SETTING THE CONTEXT OF THE STUDY
• PART TWO EVALUATING THE ROLE CHRISTIANITY PLAYED IN THE TRC
• Appendix Chronology of Key Events
• Bibliography
• Index