SOUTH AFRICAN RADIO AND TELEVISION AS CONTEXTS FOR EXEGESIS: A CASE STUDY OF INTERPRETIVE PRACTICES IN SOUTH AFRICAN PUBLIC WORSHIP
Religion – especially the Christian religion – has played, and still plays, and extremely important role in the structuring of public life in South Africa (78% of the population regard themselves as Christian; cf the decisive role Afrikaner churches played in the legitimation of apartheid as well as the role played by religion in the struggle against apartheid, HSRC Report 1985; Church and Society 1991; Kairos Document, The road to Damascus: Evangelical Witness in South Africa; Relevant Pentecostal witness.) This social role has obviously been ambivalent: religion either served to perpetuate the socio-political status quo by at least inhibiting, if not opposing, any process of change; or it acted as vanguard in the liberating and democratising process (De Gruchy 1979; Villa-Vicencio 1991). The religious witness was therefore also ambivalent: it acted simultaneously as both a unifying and as a conflict-generating force (Adonis and Smit 1991; Villa-Vicencio 1987; Nolan 1988; The things that make for peace).