{"id":19178,"date":"2011-12-22T07:04:40","date_gmt":"2011-12-22T07:04:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ghanamma.net\/2011\/12\/south-africa-president-zuma-draws-flak-for-christianity-comments\/"},"modified":"2011-12-22T07:04:40","modified_gmt":"2011-12-22T07:04:40","slug":"south-africa-president-zuma-draws-flak-for-christianity-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/22\/south-africa-president-zuma-draws-flak-for-christianity-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: President Zuma Draws Flak for Christianity Comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rnw.nl\/africa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/img\/static\/publishers\/minibanners\/rnw180.png\" alt=\"Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Hilversum)\" title=\"Visit Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Hilversum)\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>21 December 2011<\/p>\n<hr class=\"thin clear\" \/>\n<p>South African President Jacob Zuma was Wednesday at the centre of a row over his comments that Christianity had brought in orphans and retirement homes.<\/p>\n<p>South Africa&#8217;s Times newspaper Wednesday quoted Zuma, a Christian, as saying: &#8220;Long before the arrival of religion and (the) gospel, we had our own ways of doing things.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Those were the times that the religious people refer to as dark days but &#8230; there were no orphans or old-age homes. Christianity has brought along these things.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The South African Council of Churches reacted immediately, saying they were shocked by Zuma&#8217;s comments. About 80 percent of South Africa is Christian.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We do not understand why the president, whom we have always counted as one amongst us Christians, would find the Christian faith to be so hopeless with regard to building humanity,&#8221; Reverend Mautji Pataki said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Lord Jesus Christ was a friend to orphans and widowers and the old and the disabled.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Zuma&#8217;s aides, however, said his comments had been reported out of context.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;While we welcome the advent of Western culture, some useful traditional ways of doing things and aspects of African culture were undermined or even eroded,&#8221; presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This does not in any way imply a negation or rejection of Christianity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The chief whip of the ruling African National Congress party, Mathole Motshekga, said some missionaries came to Africa to aid colonisation.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;A distinction should therefore be drawn between Christianity as a faith and nefarious missionary activities, which have brought sufferings upon our people,&#8221; Motshekga said.<\/p>\n<p><em>ANP\/AFP<\/em><\/p>\n<p>AllAfrica &#8211; All the Time<\/p>\n<p><\/p>\n<fieldset>\n<legend align=\"center\"><strong>More News on allAfrica.com<\/strong><\/legend>\n<\/fieldset>\n<p><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>See the original post:<br \/>\n<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/allafrica.com\/stories\/201112220244.html\" title=\"South Africa: President Zuma Draws Flak for Christianity Comments\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">South Africa: President Zuma Draws Flak for Christianity Comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> 21 December 2011 South African President Jacob Zuma was Wednesday at the centre of a row over his comments that Christianity had brought in orphans and retirement homes. South Africa&#8217;s Times newspaper Wednesday quoted Zuma, a Christian, as saying: &#8220;Long before the arrival of religion and (the) gospel, we had our own ways of doing things<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19178","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>South Africa: President Zuma Draws Flak for Christianity Comments - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2011\/12\/22\/south-africa-president-zuma-draws-flak-for-christianity-comments\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"South Africa: President Zuma Draws Flak for Christianity Comments - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"21 December 2011 South African President Jacob Zuma was Wednesday at the centre of a row over his comments that Christianity had brought in orphans and retirement homes. 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