The Confession of Belhar (). 1. We believe in the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who through Word and Spirit gathers, protects and cares for the. The Belhar Confession, drafted in by the Dutch Reformed Mission Church ( DRMC), has its roots in the struggle against apartheid in southern Africa. In this. should not adopt Belhar Confession. Commentary by Viola Larson, Naming His Grace blog, July 1, The th General Assembly will.
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I believe the Belhar does not qualify for approval, let alone doctrinal standard status. They simply didn’t work in a 19thth century North American context.
Belhar Confession
My concern with the Belhar is that adopting it as a confessional statement rules out the possibility that prudence and experience might push us to a different method in achieving – or at least seeking – racial reconciliation. It is reminiscent of the Methodist “quadrilateral: Will they stay in the CRC? It is to care for the poor – to provide them some access to profit, too.
Borgdorff and company have had carte blanc as to how much space they need to make their arguments. I added health, based on personal experience. Profit is not a bad thing, even in the realm of health care and medicine. My father used to say that “as long as God gives us health we’ll be able to make it through this horrible situation. How can a reconciliation statement without being rooted in confessoon cross be a lasting document? Circumstances, means, and numerous other factors can and will affect the “how”.
I find your reference to “prudential judgment based on experience in part” highly relevant. Archived copy as title Articles containing Afrikaans-language text.
Belhar Confession – Wikipedia
None of those options has integrity. I don’t find Professor Cooper’s piece all that confusing. What is best to help this man?
I agree that we should endorse it in some way. PNR I agree with your basic premises and thank you for the e-dialogue. Cooper think that the historic confessions Three Forms of Unity have not been misused over the centuries? In part this is, I suspect, because the taint of racism has already been applied to those who reject it and he wishes to avoid its application to himself.
If I have the above and am also wracked with constant pain and discomfort, suffering from cancer,and desparately trying to help my family pay the medical bills, is that not enough? Cooper that we should afirm the Belhar in some way, and maybe adding it to our confessions is not the best course at this time.
But I also asked, how should I deal with the man here and now, too. GLD Your catechism instructors were both correct and incorrect. These contracts involve public, taxpayer dollars for substantial private gain. Among others, the Spirit led me to work in a community-based agency charged with building relationships with the black community during the racially charged concession. Some time later the NGK acknowledged that the document’s contents were true, with the proviso that references in the Belhar Confession to “the poor” not be regarded as an implicit reference to non-whites.
I might also add that the Spirit led me through Christian education at elementary, secondary and college levels — and through residency experiences in four countries other than the U. I’m not sure that these folks are slothful or that the particular forms of welfare they access encourage it. The burden is on those who want it to demonstrate cobfession importance of having it.
Why the Belhar Should Not Be a Confession
One injustice does not justify another, however. With regard to slothfulness of the corporate welfare folks, I refer to those who, in my experience, bdlhar their largesse to simply purchase the staggering amounts of “talent and energy dedicated to milking The mutual participation in sinful human nature of both rich and poor gets short shrift.
The Spirit has led me back to the CRC after an absence of more than 37 years.
What then of our denominational commitment to the Gospel and the Great Commission? Why didn’t he simply recommend sending the Belhar Confession back to South Africa with the message thanks but no thanks, the CRC already has it covered?
My belhat instructors tended to respond to questions about application to current concerns by saying “the confessions don’t get that specific. It should also be based on an openness to the Spirit’s leading in that instance – and the Spirit has in different instances led me to both extend and to withhold. The sheer gelhar of talent and energy dedicated to milking and bilking the confessiion is staggering. I agree that confessional standards ought to be a circumspect articulation of our theology, not our stance on a social justice issue.
Charities are freer to respond to this leading of the Spirit than are government systems where they are bound to the letter of law and regulation regardless of circumstance.
With regard to society’s poor and marginalized, the hundreds of biblical references form a pattern. Why can’t the CRC make a simple statement about racism instead of trying to form a confession around this singular issue?
