Tutu Calls U.S. Rights Struggle Inspiring

Softly and reverently the choir began to sing, and a knowing look flashed across the face of South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Sitting in the pulpit of Holman United Methodist Church on West Adams Boulevard on Sunday, Tutu closed his eyes meditatively, and joined the choir in singing “Oh Freedom,” an African-American spiritual heard often during the civil rights movement of the 1960s:

“And before I’d be a slave

I’d be buried in my grave

And go home to my Lord and be free.”

Tutu noted the links between the civil rights movement and the liberation struggle in South Africa.

“We thank you for the inspiration that we have received from your own civil rights movement,” he told the overflow crowd of more than 900 at the 11 a.m. services. “Thank you for Martin Luther King Jr. Thank you for those who were his mentors such as James Lawson.”

Once an aide to King, Lawson, the church’s pastor, was a key figure in the civil rights movement. He is also Tutu’s friend.

The 58-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate had come to the church as part of a 10-day speaking and fund-raising tour in Southern California. While Tutu spoke of the need to end apartheid, his message was also punctuated with his characteristic humor.

“When the missionaries came to our neck of the woods, we had the land and they had the Bible,” he said, describing the arrival of colonialism to the African continent. “They said, ‘Let us pray,’ and we foolishly closed our eyes. And when we opened our eyes, we had the Bible and they had the land.”

The ebullient Tutu couldn’t help laughing along with the congregation.

Despite his anecdote on colonialism, Tutu paid tribute to those who came to Africa to build clinics and hospitals and to minister. The Bible, he said, turned out to be an important tool for the oppressed people of South Africa.

“If you wanted to oppress people, the last thing you should have made available is the Bible because it is the most subversive--the most revolutionary--for those who you would wish to be docile,” he said.

“You don’t need a Marxist communist manifesto,” he said. “Nothing is more radical (than the Bible). So we say thank you for bringing the Bible. We are taking it seriously.”

Tutu likened black South Africans to people set free from bondage by God.

“We are seeing our promised land in sight now,” he said. “We are seeing the possibility of a new South Africa.”

He stretched out his arms, asking: “When God is for us . . . “--here the congregation joined in, reciting the Scripture with him--”who can be against us?”

In a Mother’s Day tribute, Tutu came down from the pulpit after his sermon and hugged the congregation’s oldest mother--a 97-year-old church member--and the newest mother, who held a 9-day-old child in her arms.

Outside, church members sold taped recordings of the archbishop’s speech and books on Southern Africa. Many at Sunday’s services found a special message in the sermon for African-Americans.

“It strengthened my faith in God and the righteousness and victory of our struggle,” said Karen Williams, who visited Holman to hear Tutu. “It’s important that we connect our struggle here with (that of) our brothers and sisters in South Africa.” Seventeen-year-old Daniel McClellan viewed the speech as a “wake-up call.”

“His message was that we need to shape up our attitude and get more involved in foreign policy,” McClellan said. “I think that one day South Africa will be free and run by a black majority.”

Lawson said he hoped Tutu’s visit would inspire the African-American community to contribute to the development of South Africa and the continent as a whole.

“I believe the African-American community must become the instrument for pouring into Africa human resources, talent,” the minister said. “They need doctors, lawyers, engineers, pilots. These are all things in which we can help.”