The BMC - A Personal Opinion

The BMC – A Personal Opinion

The Black Methodist Consultation[1] has recently come under a lot of scrutiny. It has not only been scrutinized at the hands of white, but also black Methodists. People have displayed their opinions, mainly at a church body that defines itself along racial lines and how this should not be the case in the democratic dispensation South Africa finds itself in. Like everyone else, this presents my opinion on the BMC as it is currently. It is not my aim to discuss the relevance of such a body, but rather if the current form of the BMC is making a difference in normal black people’s lives. It is my assertion that the only thing people have a problem with is the word “black” in the BMC. This is because we are a country that still finds it difficult to speak about colour. This confirms that we are nowhere near a state of healing as all of us, white and black; still find it uncomfortable to speak about issues of colour. This, however, is not the focus of this piece.

The relation between the Black Consciousness Movement[2], Black theology and the BMC cannot be disputed.[3] Therefore, by implication the BMC adopts the philosophy of the BCM and Black theology presents the praxis[4] or framework that the movement employs. Black Theology is understood, by its proponents as the theological aspect of the BCM. Whether or not the BMC still consciously recognizes this, I am not convinced. Black theology has also come under a lot of fire for its insistence on using the term ‘black’. Black theologians have gone at lengths to argue that the term only secondarily connote skin colour. The term black carried with it huge socio-economic and political implications, therefore the name was used as a synonym. Black was (It still is!) synonymous with oppression, poverty, disease and barbarism. Loosely termed, Black theology is a theology of the oppressed, the poor and downtrodden[5]. Black theology also understands that traditional theology[6] has done its theology through the eyes of the elite and the powerful so as to keep to the status quo. Black theology does theology through a preferential option for the poor. Black theologians assert boldly that God is on the side of the oppressed. Because God is not neutral, theology cannot be neutral and consequently this means the same for the Church[7]. Secondly, during apartheid every other race in South Africa was not referred to by their skin colour, but rather as non-whites (non-people). Theologically, this implied that black people were negative images of whites, while whites were made in the image of God blacks were made in the image of whites[8]. Therefore the term ‘black’ was compulsory because it put in perspective the ontology of the black person in relation to God.

The BMC, in its current form fails to reach out to the normal black person. As a young boy, growing up in the township, I have never felt the BMC was a space I would even be welcome in. The truth is; the BMC is a formation of not just black people, but the black elite. The movement that claims it exists for the benefit of the black people does so through speech. They discuss the plight of the black person in a high tea. The paradox is mind-boggling. In order for the BMC to be effective, the bulk of its membership should consist of the black church, not the black elite and/or leaders. Mosala has argued that the reason Black theology had not become the property of the people “…may lie in the class positions and class commitments of its proponents.[9] I believe the BMC also finds itself in the same predicament. As long as it stays like this, it will continue being a lion without teeth and it will persist in being a ladder for black Ministers with respect to positions. With this being said, it is still my conviction that the BMC, as a lion with teeth would play an imperative role in society and the Church. In my judgment, the BMC needs to concentrate on the praxis, the framework, which is Black theology. They need to look at society from the lens of the oppressed, poor, outcast and the downtrodden. The movement must understand that this is who they exist for, the poor.

Black theologians have asserted that if you want to find God at work, go to the poor and the outcasts. The BMC needs to employ Black theology not only as a way of doing theology but as a framework. They need to allow people to learn that salvation is not an eschatological escape from this world to the next. It is not an escape from this life of oppression and hunger to a spiritual life of milk and honey. But Jesus liberates us now, from our social, physical and spiritual constraints. The BMC and ultimately the Church become catalysts for this salvation. The BMC must preach Christ the liberator, who came for the sick, downtrodden and oppressed. The BMC must remain a figure of Moses[10], and not that of Nehemiah[11], we cannot rebuild when there are people still stuck in the land of oppression.

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[1] Hereafter referred to as the BMC

[2] Hereafter referred to as the BCM

[3] Ndikho Mtshiselwa puts this point across in his work. Mtshiselwa, N., 2015, ‘The emergence of the Black Methodist Consultation and its possible prophetic voice in post-apartheid South Africa’, HTS Teologiese Studies/Theological Studies 71(3),

[4] Praxis is a Greek term which when translated means “to work”

[5] Black theologians who make this assertion are to mention but a few, Simon Maimela, Bonganjalo Goba, Manas Buthelezi and Allan Boesak

[6] i.e. Western theology

[7] Maimela, S. 1986. Current Themes and Emphases in Black Theology. In: Mosala, I, J; Tlhagale, B. The Unquestionable Right To Be Free: Essays in Black Theology. Johannesburg: Skotaville Publishers. pg. 101-112

[8] Balia D.M. 1989. Christian Resistance to Apartheid. Braamfontein: Skotaville Publishers

[9] Mosala, I. 1986. The Use of the Bible in Black Theology. In: Mosala I. Tlhagale , B. The Unquestionable Right to be Free: Essays in Black Theology. Johannesburg: Skotaville Publishers. Pg. 175-204

[10] A figure of liberation (the Exodus story)

[11] A figure of reconstruction (the rebuilding of the Temple)