By: Dr. Jerry Bergman
Montpelier, Ohio
After a long airplane trip to the other side of the world, I landed in Johannesburg to meet with my sponsor.
This trip opened my eyes to the reality of the so-called racism in this beautiful country. Johannesburg is a large, modern Western city.
It was clear that the government was attempting to assimilate the Blacks into White society. Several of the clerks in the store we visited were well-dressed young Blacks. Of the 62 million population, 82 percent are Black, 8 percent mixed-colored, and only 7 percent were White.
As we drove to my sponsor’s home about ten miles from the big city out in the country, I noticed that it looked like we were surrounded by mile after mile of prisons.
I learned that the hundreds of 15-foot-tall fences topped by three layers of barbed wire were for a prison, all right, but the purpose was not to keep people in but rather to keep people, mostly Blacks, out.
When I met with some of the residents, they explained the 15 foot wall was often not enough to keep thieves out. In the area inside of the prison fence, most homeowners kept a mean dog trained to kill.
One homeowner mentioned that when his dog, a large German Shepherd, died, he experienced two successful attempts to rob his house. He scrambled to replace his deceased dog and had two concerns in selecting a dog.
They were mainly (1) for protection of his property, and (2) a dog that loved children (he had two young girls). He found one a few days later. I noticed the home of my sponsor, although he lived way out in the country, also had a 15-foot-high fence for protection.
Back in the city to do some shopping, I needed to buy something at a drugstore, which was also protected by a 15-foot-high fence. In the store, which was protected by armed guards, were a few photos of two very bloodied former employees who were murdered in past attempts to rob the drugstore. The sign below the picture explained that this was the reason for the protection.
I never met Nelson Mandela, but the comments I heard about him were consistently very positive. One was that when he was in prison, the guards were very positive about him. He was better than even an ideal inmate.
As an attorney, he gave his time and expertise to help two guards with some personal legal problems that they were then having.
He also stressed that when apartheid was over, the Blacks were not to seek revenge for the wrongs that were perpetrated against them. This would only wipe out the gains made by the Black population.
One common comment was how he was clearly motivated by his firm Christian beliefs. Evidently, his wife was an active Jehovah Witness, as were a large number of Blacks (in South Africa they numbered over 100,000 in 2,000 congregations).
My sponsor was a dentist, so I visited his practice. Both his nurse and receptionist were Black. He mentioned many Whites were training them to become a fully accepted part of their society.
As a creationist he believed that both Blacks and Whites descended from Adam and Eve, thus were not genetically inferior to the Whites as many believed.
The doctor also hired two Black women to help with housekeeping, mostly to help them survive. In their case, they had fled the brutal African dictator Robert Mugabe, then President of Zimbabwe.
As is true in the states, the mainline churches were not interested in creation apologetics. There were three enormously large churches in the city and suburbs, but we were not invited there.
One church, a Baptist fundamentalist church we visited, consisted of a small building in which the tent and musical instruments were stored.
While I was discussing topics of interest with the church members, I noticed a very attractive Black girl who looked to be about sixteen in the congregation of about eighty.
I was never able to talk to her due to the many questions from the congregation members about the creation/evolution issue.
After the tent and chairs were set up, the service was ready to begin. The girl I noticed earlier was in the front row. She led the choir in music and began with a solo.
I have heard many female singers in my life, but I have never, before or since, heard one who produced such an incredibly beautiful sound.
She was only five or six feet away from me, so I was able to hear her without distractions. After I had given my half-hour extemporaneous presentation on creationism, and the choir sang their last two songs accompanied by the three-member incredibly talented band, I again spent time with the members of the congregation.
The congregation had on their Sunday best that would impress any American church member. I was flattered with the appreciation I received, which is common in Black churches.
I was then shown the foundation of their new church that was being built by the members of the congregation.
The church was being built on a high hill, and below in the valley plain, was a large shantytown consisting of what appeared to be thousands of makeshift homes. They were made out of broken metal signs or whatever they could find to construct shelters.
One member of the congregation mentioned, “Most of us live there, including our choir lead singer that you (and the rest of the congregation) so admired.”
I admired how these intelligent, well-dressed church members could do so well in spite of their poor living conditions.
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Dr. Jerry Bergman has taught biology, genetics, chemistry, biochemistry, anthropology, geology, and microbiology for over 40 years at several colleges and universities including Bowling Green State University, Medical College of Ohio where he was a research associate in experimental pathology, and The University of Toledo. He is a graduate of the Medical College of Ohio, Wayne State University in Detroit, the University of Toledo, and Bowling Green State University. He has over 1,800 publications in 12 languages and 60 books and monographs. His books and textbooks that include chapters that he authored are in over 1,500 college libraries in 27 countries. All 60 of Bergman’s books are on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other bookstores.
