{"id":7327,"date":"2015-07-21T18:21:26","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T17:21:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/?p=7327"},"modified":"2020-05-21T17:59:32","modified_gmt":"2020-05-21T16:59:32","slug":"5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/","title":{"rendered":"5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mandela Was Never A Christian<\/strong>. How? We’ll tell you; just read on.<\/p>\n

A few days ago the world celebrated the life of a man who\u00a0illustrated to the world and South Africa the core values of leadership, love, respect and togetherness. Mandela was honoured as established in 2009 in order\u00a0to encourage South Africans to emulate, cultivate and sustain Mandela’s humanitarian legacy. On his birthday 18th July, South Africa witnessed 67\u00a0minutes of charity and community action all over the country, as\u00a0volunteers handed out blankets and books, distributed toys at orphanages, and cleaned up public areas, before reporting their activities on social media.<\/p>\n

Sadly, 67\u00a0minutes of good deeds are too short a time to compensate for the everyday bad deeds in South Africa. We need much\u00a0more time devoted to\u00a0charity and community action which is not forthcoming. It is really unfortunate for even the South African Christians who pride themselves as people of good deeds and hastily reckon Mandela as a man\u00a0who shared their faith have to wait for the next 18th July to demonstrate the humanitarian service Mandela spearheaded\u00a0throughout his lifetime<\/p>\n

Jacob Zuma was once heavily rebuked when he allegedly attributed<\/a> the social troubles of South Africa and Africa at large to the Christian faith. Irrespective of the widespread criticism Zuma received then, he was actually right at least to a certain extent in blaming Christianity. For Christians are clearly not who they claim to be. Unlike Mandela, many South African Christians have contributed to the discord in South Africa, and have endorsed hate crimes when they are not\u00a0perpetrators of such crimes.<\/p>\n

Although it has been documented<\/a> that Mandela was raised\u00a0in the Methodist denomination of Christianity, with the Methodist Church of Southern Africa claiming that he retained his allegiance to them throughout his life, it’s most likely that Mandela was never a Christian.\u00a0As the man’s legacy is most likely to be celebrated each year, we imagined it’d be necessary to make a piece that would continually remind the Christian community especially those in South Africa, that Madiba was never a Christian the way most of them are.<\/p>\n

Read\u00a0Also: Ugly And Less Known Fact You Won’t Believe About Nelson Mandela<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian<\/strong><\/h2>\n

1. Mandela Was All About Love and Respect<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Unlike most Christians in South Africa who have no regards, love or respect for their fellow countrymen, who participated and refused to rebuke xenophobic attack, who dismiss news of farm attacks as deserving, and constantly confront social issues with racial abuse and unfair accusations, Mandela stood for fostering racial reconciliation and togetherness.<\/p>\n

He stood for equality and exemplified it for the whole world to see. To Mandela, it doesn’t matter if you’re black, white or coloured. All that ever mattered to him was for we all to see ourselves as equal.\u00a0He was typically friendly and welcoming to everyone including his opponents.<\/p>\n

2. He Exemplified Forgiveness<\/strong><\/h4>\n

These relate most to the black Christian community in South Africa. How long are you going to grieve for apartheid crimes? How long are you going to hate and blame the whites for your misfortunes? Isn’t it past time to move on and forget apartheid? If Mandela who spent 27 years in prison forgave those that imprisoned him, what reasons could be holding you all back from moving on? It’s really disappointing to see acclaimed Christians excusing inhumane crimes as a pay-back\u00a0for apartheid.<\/p>\n

3. Mandela Illustrated True Leadership<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Many times, Christians have metaphorically regarded themselves as “the light of the world” suggesting that they were\u00a0meant to lead the world at large to greatness. Yet in their everyday activities and even among their gatherings they have in many scenarios shown that they are a bunch of blind leaders who are clueless about the importance of unity and integration. However, Mandela was and is remembered as a light to freedom, justice, and fairness which are all core values of true leadership.<\/p>\n

4. He Was An Ordinary Man<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Mandela once said, “I was not a messiah, but an ordinary man who had become a leader because of extraordinary circumstances.” Little wonder he\u00a0made his own bed even as President, was friendly and welcoming, constantly polite and courteous, attentive to all irrespective of age or status,\u00a0often talked to children or servants and always looked for the best in people even to the extent of defending political opponents from his allies, who sometimes thought him too trusting of others. How many Christians in South Africa can be described with these qualities?<\/p>\n

See Also: 10+ Inspirational Quotes Of Nelson Mandela<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

5. He Was Willing\u00a0To Die For A Better South Africa<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Christians introduce themselves as followers of Jesus Christ who died to redeem them. But none of these Christians is willing to follow this lifestyle save for Mandela who accepted to die for South Africans. In a speech<\/a>, Mandela said “during my lifetime I have dedicated my life to this struggle of the African people. I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons will live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal for which I hope to live for and to see realized. But, My Lord, if it needs to be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die”.<\/p>\n

From the foregoing, it’s obvious that Mandela is unlike the “typical Christians” we have today who are clueless about who they are and what they claim to be. Mandela was never a Christian like most of the Christian living today, he was a better specimen and if he was truly a Christian, then it would be an insult to him to call some certain people in the society Christians too.<\/p>\n

Check Out: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Winnie Mandela<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mandela Was Never A Christian. How? We’ll tell you; just read on. A few days ago the world celebrated the life of a man who\u00a0illustrated to the world and South Africa the core values of leadership, love, respect and togetherness. Mandela was honoured as established in 2009 in order\u00a0to encourage South Africans to emulate, cultivate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":7339,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[429],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Mandela was never a Christian like most of the Christian living today, he was a better specimen and if he was truly a Christian, then it would be an insult to him and his legacy to call some certain people in the society Christians too.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Mandela was never a Christian like most of the Christian living today, he was a better specimen and if he was truly a Christian, then it would be an insult to him and his legacy to call some certain people in the society Christians too.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BuzzSouthAfrica.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BuzzSouthAfrica\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-21T17:21:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-05-21T16:59:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/nelson-mandela.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"938\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"626\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nedu Raymond\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@buzzsouthafrica\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@buzzsouthafrica\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nedu Raymond\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/\",\"name\":\"5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-21T17:21:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-05-21T16:59:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/583be5374716cd7ec08e48931993ec8d\"},\"description\":\"Mandela was never a Christian like most of the Christian living today, he was a better specimen and if he was truly a Christian, then it would be an insult to him and his legacy to call some certain people in the society Christians too.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/\",\"name\":\"BuzzSouthAfrica.com\",\"description\":\"BuzzSouthAfrica\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/583be5374716cd7ec08e48931993ec8d\",\"name\":\"Nedu Raymond\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chinedu-Ndubueze-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chinedu-Ndubueze-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Nedu Raymond\"},\"description\":\"An advocate of closed-back headphones, horror movies, and dark humor; Raymond believes Peter Griffin and Stan Smith should be real people. Outside of having to write, edit, and work on other forms of content, he may keep up with the EPL or listen to everything Eminem and Jon Bellion.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/author\/chinedu\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?","description":"Mandela was never a Christian like most of the Christian living today, he was a better specimen and if he was truly a Christian, then it would be an insult to him and his legacy to call some certain people in the society Christians too.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?","og_description":"Mandela was never a Christian like most of the Christian living today, he was a better specimen and if he was truly a Christian, then it would be an insult to him and his legacy to call some certain people in the society Christians too.","og_url":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/","og_site_name":"BuzzSouthAfrica.com","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/BuzzSouthAfrica\/","article_published_time":"2015-07-21T17:21:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-05-21T16:59:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":938,"height":626,"url":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/nelson-mandela.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Nedu Raymond","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@buzzsouthafrica","twitter_site":"@buzzsouthafrica","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Nedu Raymond","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/","url":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/","name":"5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-07-21T17:21:26+00:00","dateModified":"2020-05-21T16:59:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/583be5374716cd7ec08e48931993ec8d"},"description":"Mandela was never a Christian like most of the Christian living today, he was a better specimen and if he was truly a Christian, then it would be an insult to him and his legacy to call some certain people in the society Christians too.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/5-reasons-mandela-was-never-a-christian-or-was-he\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"5 Reasons Why Mandela Was Never A Christian Or Was He?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/","name":"BuzzSouthAfrica.com","description":"BuzzSouthAfrica","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/583be5374716cd7ec08e48931993ec8d","name":"Nedu Raymond","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chinedu-Ndubueze-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Chinedu-Ndubueze-96x96.png","caption":"Nedu Raymond"},"description":"An advocate of closed-back headphones, horror movies, and dark humor; Raymond believes Peter Griffin and Stan Smith should be real people. Outside of having to write, edit, and work on other forms of content, he may keep up with the EPL or listen to everything Eminem and Jon Bellion.","url":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/author\/chinedu\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/nelson-mandela.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3B4tc-1Ub","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buzzsouthafrica.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}