Lausanne World Pulse – Perspectives Articles – Using Mass Media to Flood South Africa with Godly Values
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HEARTLINES seeks to reach into South African culture, |
All around the world, obstacles such as language, tradition and culture have invariably had to be overcome in presenting the good news of the gospel and the saving grace of Jesus Christ.
In South Africa, prior to the dawn of the new democracy in 1990, history too had not only posed an obstacle to the gospel message, but had played an often damaging role in distorting the essence of the message itself.
Christianity under “Apartheid”
In spite of the considerable in-roads and invaluable contribution made by missionaries in Africa, in South Africa (prior to the new dispensation), Christianity was often perceived—specifically by the politicised and disenfranchised—as a “white man’s” religion. The so-called “Christian Education” imposed by the former regime, was a reflection of the despised ideology of “apartheid” (separate development); hence, “freedom before education” became the slogan of the day.
In “struggle politics” at the height of the violence in the 1980s, the tendency of some sections of the Church was to advocate liberation theology often at the expense of evangelism. At the same time, those who propagated this philosophy were largely responsible for bringing about change. Both were different sides of the same coin. Restoring—in the country’s new secular democracy—the balance of a society out of spiritual kilter became an enormous challenge for all followers of Jesus Christ.
Restoring Godly Values in South Africa through HEARTLINES
Today, crime in South Africa has become endemic. Corruption is a lifestyle for many. In 2006, an estimated 5.5 million people were living with HIV/AIDS. A deep passion and longing to see godly values flood and change the nation has been the vision of HEARTLINES and the foundation on which the Mass Media Project was established in 2002. The Mass Media Project’s vision is to move people from professed values such as trust, compassion and forgiveness to lived values, as a way of addressing some of the key issues our society faces such as crime, poverty, corruption and HIV/AIDS.
A medical doctor and committed Christian, Garth Japhet (a board member of the Mass Media Project) was the inspiration behind “Soul City,” a popular and universally-acclaimed television series which has been running for the past thirteen years in thirty-nine countries. Aimed at a secular audience, the rationale behind the series is HIV/AIDS education through story-telling.
Inspiring South Africans to Act Out Values Along with the dawn of democracy, buzz words like “moral regeneration,” “transformation,” “Ubuntu” (humaneness) and “RDP” (Reconstruction and Development Programme), became common.
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Val Pauquet is head of communications for FBO Mobilisation, HEARTLINES, the Mass Media Project. She is also a journalist in South African Christian media. Pauquet was a member of the South African Presidential Task Group on Government Information and involved in the historic National Peace Accord and CODESA, which led to the dawn of democracy in South Africa. |