Desmond Tutu: Still Preaching

By DON ROLLINS

“Those who turn a blind eye to injustice actually perpetuate injustice. If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” - (Emeritus) Anglican Archbishop, Desmond Tutu

Disenfranchised people everywhere lost an ally last December. A once-in-a-lifetime amalgamation of politician and ecclesiastic succumbed to a slow-moving cancer, silencing a voice for global liberalism that had for 70-plus years been lifted on behalf of those on the margins.

Desmond Tutu’s death at age 90 was expected yet still jarring. Four generations of change agents the world over had come of age, steeped in the South African cleric’s approach to dismantling institutional racism and hoarding of power - a politically practical, theologically liberating tack that helped bring that nation’s aparteid society to its knees. Tutu’s passing signaled the loss of a beloved champion, but also a mentor in nonviolent resistance.

Tutu is widely remembered for his major role in the anti-apartheid movement; his rise to become South African Anglicanism’s first Black bishop, then archbishop; and long list of prestigious awards, including a Nobel Peace Prize (1984), Fulbright Prize (2008) and Presidential Medal of Freedom (2009). Likewise, his bestselling books, personal papers and speaking appearances that nearly always emphasized the need for forgiveness, even toward the oppressor class..

But as with other prophetic figures across time, the Tutu of popular thought is necessary, but not sufficient to understanding the fierceness and scope of his very public ministry.

Or the costs, ranging from sour reviews to multiple death threats.

Indeed Tutu’s writings, interviews and sermons were often laced with criticism, evoking predictable criticism in return. (Case in point, just days after Tutu’s death, archconservative attorney and commentator Alan Dershowitz took to the airwaves to pan Tutu’s character: “When we’re tearing down statues of Jefferson and Lincoln and Washington, let’s not build statues to a deeply, deeply flawed man like Bishop Tutu …”)

Tacky as Dershowitz was, he is not alone in wanting to dispatch Tutu to history’s dump heap. This is due in large part because Tutu’s achievements and awards afforded him a world stage from which he could preach common liberal positions on abortion, LGBTQ equality, human rights, climate change and the war in Iraq. Borrowing from one of Tutu’s South African mentees, the “Bish” was a danger to every dehumanizing status quo that crossed his path. No country, no leader, no war machine was beyond his reach.

Per Tutu’s instructions, his body was cremated using a green (aquamation) process, placed in a plain pine box for a funeral mass, then interred behind the pulpit of St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town.

A simple farewell seems right for one so close to people and Earth that sustains us. Even in death, Desmond Tutu was still preaching.

Don Rollins is a Unitarian Universalist minister living in Hendersonville, N.C. Email donaldlrollins@gmail.com.

From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2022

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