"
" But those who came closest to open support for
apartheid were televangelists from the religious right. The socially
conservative policies of the Afrikaans regime made South Africa a special cause
for many televangelists. Jerry Falwell praised the "Christian country"
for its abortion policy in the 1980s, and after his 1985 visit, called for
"reinvestment" by U.S. companies and urged his followers to buy
Kruggerand coins to help boost the South African economy.
Jimmy Swaggart, another popular televangelist, told his
viewers that the conflict in South Africa was nothing less than a struggle
between Christian civilization and the Antichrist. In his presidential campaign
in 1988, televangelist Pat Robertson called advocates for sanctions the
"allies of those who favor a one-party Marxist Government in South
Africa." After his race ended, he became even more direct: "There
needs to be some kind of protection for the minority which the white people
represent now," he said in 1992. And in 1993, he said on his show, "I
know we don't like apartheid, but the blacks in South Africa, in Soweto, don't
have it all that bad." At a time when the Dutch Reformed Church, the
traditional theological backer of apartheid, was reversing its position, the
American religious right provided new religious cover -- and they made the case
to millions of Americans who tuned into their shows." (thanks Krim)
