Even when it became extremely popular to do so, the Nazi linked 7th Day Adventists never took a position against South African apartheid, when most major Christian denominations did.
At least on two occasions in more recent memory our church failed to exercise moral and ethical leadership in its dealings with state governments during major conflicts. Both failures happened in Africa. The first was in South Africa during the Apartheid era. Our leaders, both in South Africa and at the world church headquarters in Washington, kept quiet and did not take a disciplined ethical position in any significant way against the regime or its racist ideology.
In the mid-1970s, following the Soweto uprising and the Apartheid government’s brutal crackdown, external opposition to the South African government, led by Western governments, institutions and the Church, became widespread, persistent and even “fashionable”. Businesses and financial institutions were targeted and “forced” to divest from South Africa, resulting in a near total isolation of the country from the community of nations. Many organizations, realizing the sun was setting on Apartheid, did what was expedient and belatedly denounced the system and its whole apparatus.
Our church did not even do that. Our leaders were resolute in their silence and inaction, making us one of the few global churches who took a noncommittal stance against Apartheid even when it was acutely unnecessary to do so. And by playing it safe we effectively endorsed Apartheid to the bitter end. After the regime fell, our leaders continued their silence as though such silence was synonymous with forgetting.
- Matthew Quartey. "THE IMMORALITY OF SILENCE: ADVENTIST LEADERSHIP IN TIMES OF CONFLICT"Spectrum Magazine. Published 21 Nov 2019. Retrieved 07/21/2020 from: https://spectrummagazine.org/views/2019/immorality-silence-adventist-leadership-times-conflict
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