Baptist ethics of conscientious objection to military service in South Africa: the watershed case of Richard Steele
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Date
2005
Authors
Hale, F.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Theology, University of the Free State
Abstract
English: Although the Baptist Union of Southern Africa included relatively few outspoken critics
of the apartheid system, during the 1970s and 1980s a small number of its younger
members confronted the military system which supported that system of social engineering
by refusing to comply with military conscription. Particularly noteworthy among
these dissenters was Richard Steele, who had been influenced by the Anabaptist tradition
of pacifism in the United States of America. Like his cousin and fellow Baptist,
Peter Moll, he countered prevailing sentiments and practices within his denomination
by going to prison rather than serve in the South African Defence Force. Steele’s
action met with little support in the Baptist Union.
During the last two decades of the twentieth century international scholarship
shed light on the history of conscription and conscientious objection
thereto in the Republic of South Africa as that country’s apartheid
policy and the military apparatus which supported it came under severe
critical fire. Such works as Jacklyn Cock’s and Laurie Nathan’s War and
society: The militarisation of South Africa2 and the anthology War and resistance:
Southern African reports which Gavin Cawthra, Gerald Kraak, and
Gerald O’Sullivan edited3 thus illuminated previously tenebrous corners
of this subject. Others, however, remained in the shadows. Almost
completely overlooked in the pertinent scholarly literature, despite the
Description
Keywords
Christian ethics, Conscientious objection, Richard Steele
Citation
Hale, F. (2005). Baptist ethics of conscientious objection to military service in South Africa: the watershed case of Richard Steele. Acta Theologica, 25(2), 18-44.