I appreciated the interview with Grant Retief in the October Briefing. He has certainly done a significant work on university campuses in Durban and in the recruiting and training of apprentices. His analysis of the South African Christian scene is also perceptive—and provocative.
According to the 2001 Census, nearly 80 per cent of South Africans claim to be Christian. (Religious Intelligence gives an undated estimate of 73.5 per cent based, in part, on denominational statistics.) Grant’s claim that most of these are in church on Sunday mornings is, I believe, rather exaggerated. There are no church attendance statistics in South Africa. The 80 per cent census figure includes all nominal Christians and all family members. Most nominal Christians seldom (if ever) go to church. Church attendance amongst blacks is high; it’s much lower amongst whites.
But that is minor. What I do dispute is his claim that “what they [South African churchgoers] would be hearing is prosperity”. I do not deny that the prosperity gospel has ravaged certain sectors of the church—perhaps even large sections. Trinity Broadcasting Network is widely viewed in black urban townships. The ‘alive’ churches in the black cities are largely Pentecostal, and they have been heavily influenced by the prosperity gospel. The extent of that influence, though, is debated. One reason for their success is that they have broken with African Traditional Religion (ATR), unlike the accommodation of many of the mainline denominations, and thus attract ‘true’ Christians. Grant, in working with black Christians on campus, would naturally be confronted with these prosperity gospel Pentecostals and be left with the impression that the prosperity gospel is “mainstream Christianity for most people in this country”.
But the census (and Human Sciences Research Council and Religious Intelligence) statistics belie this impression. 30 per cent of South Africans claim to belong to mainline churches. While many of these folk don’t go to church, those who do don’t hear the prosperity gospel on Sunday mornings. 11 per cent belong to the Zion Christian Churches—an amalgamation of Old Testament, Christian and ATR elements; whatever prosperity influence there is is not dominant. Other Zionists, Ethiopian-type, other Apostolics and other African Independent churches (census classifications covering thousands of African Initiated Churches) claim another 20 per cent; these have Christian and ATR elements, and whatever prosperity influence there may be is not dominant. Pentecostal and charismatic churches comprised about 9 per cent of the population in 2001. This percentage has, no doubt, grown, and their influence is wider. But even here where the prosperity gospel has been highly influential, there are many churches that are not prosperity gospel.
To conclude, the prosperity gospel is highly influential and no doubt growing. But it is hardly “mainstream Christianity for most people in this country”.
