Josh witnessing respect for people as individuals vs the person's politics & actions

It’s April 16^th.  Absolutely crazy.  Two weeks from today we will be boarding a plane returning to the US.  I know anytime this comes up amongst our group, we quickly dismiss it trying to forget that reality!  As we all are excited to return home to see family, friends, and loved ones, I know most of us are not looking forward to saying goodbye to this beautiful country and the people we have met here who have forever impacted us.

I wanted to take this blog post to talk about the time I spent at Parliament yesterday (Friday the 15^th).  Steven Swart, a representative for the African Christian Democratic Party who serves in the National Assembly, has a group of 10-15 individuals representing different Christian groups in society come to Parliament once a month to pray for the nation and the current issues within South Africa.  I had the privilege of being invited by Rene to tag along to the prayer meeting.

In a short period of time I earned a lot of respect for Representative Swart.  Amidst the chaos, corruption, and what many view as a catastrophe with the Constitutional Court ruling that President Zuma did not uphold his oath of office– Representative Swart described the situation eloquently explaining that we must separate Jacob Zuma as a person from his role as President.  He described Jacob Zuma as an easy-going and funny individual who he personally got along with well.  What he was saying, is rather than attacking Jacob Zuma the person; the country should respect him as an individual, but they as a President, Jacob Zuma is bound to his office, and if he fails to uphold the duties and obligations that entails, then there are certain consequences that will follow.  Some senior members within the ANC party were explaining that because Jacob Zuma apologized as a person, he should be forgiven and the country should move on.  Yes, perhaps he can be forgiven as a person by the nation, but that does not mean his forgiveness should pardon the consequences of his action.  Representative Swart was excited to mention the Chief Justice’s ruling in the Constitutional Court.  Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng said that the public protector was, “one of the most invaluable constitutional gifts to our nations in the fight against corruption.  She is the embodiment of the biblical David that fights the Goliath that impropriety by government officials are” (http://www.rdm.co.za/politics/2016/03/31/constitutional-court-to-zuma-pay-back-the-money).

Most of the time surprisingly was not limited just to President Zuma, Representative Swart in his overview of current issues within South Africa spent most of his time talking about the people of South Africa, a conference he recently attended in Brussels, South Africa’s role in currently aligning with Israel, etc.  We spent much of the time praying for the people of South Africa and the role of the nation of South Africa within the greater global scheme.  Amidst a time where the media and politics is so focused on President Zuma, the Gupta family, corruption, etc. it was refreshing to see people gathering simply to lift up the nation of South Africa in prayer.  Being there offered a sense of hope, and provided me with a fresh perspective on many of the different issues within South Africa and the way others like Representative Swart, even within politics, can view some of the issues and separate the way they respect people as individuals versus the politics and actions a person takes.