Episcopal Press and News
Tutu Captivates Thousands across America with Bold Message of Reconciliation
Episcopal News Service. June 21, 1990 [90153]
Roger Gaess
Archbishop Desmond Tutu's spirited vision that apartheid would soon be dismantled in South Africa and that a truly democratic government would be instituted there through nonviolent means stirred audiences time and again during a recent five-week speaking tour of the United States. The impassioned message of the Anglican archbishop of Cape Town warmly resounded in cities and university towns across the country, drawing opposition only from a Jewish group opposed to his support of Palestinian statehood.
Tutu kicked off his visit with a May 6 appearance at Pennsylvania's Lincoln University, one of the nation's oldest African-American colleges. In a press conference prior to receiving an honorary degree, Tutu characterized the fast pace of events in South Africa as "mind-boggling" -- from the February release of Nelson Mandela to Mandela's participation in the talks held on May 2 to May 4 between the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African government. "We have no doubt at all now of the inevitability of the freedom that so many people have been struggling for so long," Tutu said.
He expressed confidence that a settlement is within visible reach. "The minute we are able to put together a constituent assembly... towards the end of the year... then apartheid will have gone. But," Tutu cautioned, "the consequences of apartheid, the inequities, the imbalances... are going to take a long while to correct."
Responding to a questioner, Tutu said that the new South Africa will be nonracial, nonsexist, and democratic, with "a government that has the support of the majority of the people." Noting that the recent ANC delegation included whites, he stressed that the emerging government will be neither a white nor a black majority government. "I hope that they will quickly commit themselves to a bill of rights, which guarantees individual rights," he told the Lincoln University gathering. "I don't think anyone in the black community is going to have any truck with attempts at bringing in ethnicity through the back door by talking about group rights."
On May 9, Tutu, the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was warmly received by about 3,000 cadets and visitors at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York. He was joined by the Rt. Rev. Charles Keyser, who was making his first visit to the academy as the suffragan bishop for the Armed Forces of the Episcopal Church. In his address as part of the Distinguished Lecture series, Tutu challenged his audience to dispense with outdated assumptions that undermine prospects for an enduring peace.
Tutu emphasized the "undoubted impact" that the ending of the cold war has had upon the winds of change in South Africa. No longer could the apartheid government credibly voice its fears about an expansionist communism, and thereby paint the ANC with guilt by association, he said.
Tutu also paid tribute to the courage of South African President F.W. de Klerk and the unique role of Nelson Mandela, and called upon the international community to continue economic sanctions until apartheid is irreversibly dismantled.
Prompted by a question from a cadet, the black South African bishop reminded his audience that "white South Africans are not demons" and that "many of them are committed to the new South Africa." He took the occasion to stress that his political positions are grounded not in a partisan stance but rather in the teachings of the Gospel.
The church, Tutu stressed, has a continuing role to play, especially in preventing those who have been oppressed from becoming oppressors themselves. "Our people say they are committed to a nonracial, nonethnic democracy. People can almost always claim high ideals ahead of time and when the reality of having power is there, they can deflect from those high ideals," he said. "I hope that when that happens the church of God will be around to passionately denounce any new oppression."
Two weeks into his speaking tour, Tutu encountered a protest in Pasadena, California, when heckling by several members of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), an organization known for its right-wing militancy, prompted cancellation of an outdoor reception for him on May 20. The disturbance followed Tutu's sermon to an overflow crowd at All Saints Episcopal Church.
"Why do you hate Jews?" the JDL activists shouted. "Tell him to lay off Israel," opined Irv Rubin, the JDL spokesman, apparently referring to the bishop's Christmas pilgrimage to Jerusalem during which he firmly supported Palestinian self-determination and compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to the treatment of blacks in South Africa. (See ENS 90005, January 10, 1990.)
Tutu reportedly remained unruffled by the incident. "Please let them say what they want to say, because in my country they are not allowed to do that," the church rector, Rev. Dr. George Regas, quoted Tutu as responding.
The Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio sought to clear the air by arranging a May 29 discussion between Tutu and leaders of the Cincinnati Jewish community during the bishop's four-day visit to that city, regarded as the center of Reform Judaism. The meeting grew to include a few national Jewish leaders and Bishop Patrick Matolengwe, former suffragan bishop of Cape Town and currently bishop-in-residence at Milwaukee's All Saints Cathedral.
After a frank exchange of views, the Jewish leaders issued a statement that "shared the archbishop's concerns that he is being unfairly targeted as being anti-Semitic." They also noted that Tutu had expressed his appreciation of the contribution of Jews in the struggle against apartheid. And Tutu, in