The church cannot escape its task to take on ethical responsibility and consciously deal with a morally and politically sick society.
This observation by the late Gerhard Tötemeyer in his book ‘Church and State in Namibia: A Critical Review’ highlights the essential role religious institutions must play in our community.
Churches have a special responsibility regarding reconciliation concerning the genocide, atrocities before independence and current injustices.
Often, these challenges are reduced merely to justice and peace among the living population. However, the churches aim at nothing less than healing the whole of history.
One may speak of a vertical responsibility towards forgiveness and reconciliation. In an interview in 2000, the philosopher Jacques Derrida explained that the Holocaust is unforgivable.
At the same time, he suggested that forgiveness only really exists for the unforgivable. While forgiveness may seem impossible, it can only happen if the impossible happens.
It is not the role of great-grandchildren to ask for or offer forgiveness.
Real reconciliation must take place one day among the great-grandparents. Religious culture must stress this necessity and possibility against political or material purposes.
Absolute forgiveness, which is possible only in the Absolute, remains a mystery of faith and thought. Faith and grace transcend time, and sin can be annihilated if truth prevails.
The Sermon on the Mount should be the guide towards the fullness of time against any fear.
Thus, churches have a special socio-spiritual task towards reconciliation and the representation of the hurt, who shall never be forgotten.
– Andreas Peltzer
