Desmond Tutu

Discussion in 'The Commons' started by Religious Fanatic, Jul 24, 2019.

  1. Religious Fanatic

    Religious Fanatic Well-Known Member

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    What are your thoughts on Desmond Tutu? I know he is incredibly controversial. I always knew Africa was conservative, and always appreciated their devotion overall to Christianity in the midst of their struggles, but I was naive to think that people like Tutu couldn't exist within their society. Such a shame, considering how influential he was.
     
  2. amazinglove

    amazinglove New Member

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    Could you be more specific?
     
  3. Religious Fanatic

    Religious Fanatic Well-Known Member

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    Like do you think he has done more harm than good or no?
     
  4. bwallac2335

    bwallac2335 Well-Known Member

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    I know very little of what he has done.
     
  5. anglican74

    anglican74 Well-Known Member Anglican

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    Like, on the one hand he was a civil rights hero during apartheid in South Africa

    but ever since then, his daughter has gotten ordained (that's 1.), and 2., she has gotten married to another woman, and now they both got excommunicated from the Church of South Africa and are licensed in the Episcopal Church somewhere in the US
     
  6. Botolph

    Botolph Well-Known Member

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    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Tutu

    I am not sure that I would have described Bishop Desmond Tutu as controversial. He would more generally be understood to be one of the Anglican Lights of the 20th century, he promoted the Gospel, bore witness to Jesus, and was a powerful influence for change.

    Tutu polarised opinion as he rose to notability in the 1970s. White conservatives who supported apartheid despised him, while many white liberals regarded him as too radical; many black radicals accused him of being too moderate and focused on cultivating white goodwill, while Marxist-Leninists criticised his anti-communist stance. He was widely popular among South Africa's black majority, and was internationally praised for his anti-apartheid activism, receiving a range of awards, including the Nobel Peace Prize. He has also compiled several books of his speeches and sermons.​

    The Anglican Church of South Africa is not as conservative as much of Africa, and indeed shares more values with the 1st world than much of Africa. Africa of course is a continent - not a country or a county, and there are many flavours to being African, so whilst there are parts of Africa were Tutu would not be accepted, that is not all of Africa.

    Hated by many white South Africans for being too radical, he was also scorned by many black militants for being too moderate.
    — On Tutu in the mid-1980s, by Steven D. Gish, 2004​

    It is clear that his position on a number of issues do not sit well with the lines drawn on this forum in terms of what might be described as Orthodox Anglicanism, but based on the significant impetus for good he has achieved, and he is an Anglican better known than most for achieving meaningful change, it would be churlish not to admire the man, whilst reserving the right not to agree with everything he thinks.

    I really have no knowledge of his children, and in fairness the decision taken by adult children are their own choices. I know that my children have made choices along the way that I have been less than thrilled with, and I love them yet.
     
  7. Religious Fanatic

    Religious Fanatic Well-Known Member

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    I am not flattered that he has bought into the 'black and gay are the same thing' myth. A lot of conservative, Godly black people I know would not take kindly to such a remark in allowing their persecutions to be placed in an equally worthy type of martyrdom with homosexuals.