![Said ANC Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman: "For us there is an important role [for the church]. We joined the struggle through our involvement with the church. (Times Live File photo - Image by: SHELLEY CHRISTIANS)](http://gatewaynews.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/ancwc.png)
The ANC tried to lure churchmen into its ranks at a meeting with more than 200 pastors yesterday – only to be cast out.
Said ANC Western Cape chairman Marius Fransman: “For us there is an important role [for the church]. We joined the struggle through our involvement with the church.
“As people we understood that we cannot talk about the struggle in the absence of the church. We cannot speak about bettering the lives of our people without involving the church.”
Former African Christian Democrat Party MP Wesley Douglas, who joined the ANC last year, said there would be numerous opportunities for ACDP members who signed up with the ANC.
“We are going to host an annual pastors’ conference at which we will invite speakers like TD Jakes and Myles Munroe.
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“There will be an opportunity for pastors to interact with government departments,” said Douglas.
Fransman reminded the pastors that the ANC had been formed in a Bloemfontein church in 1912.
The ANC leadership is hoping that, by reaching out to churches and to the faithful, it will be able to reverse its electoral fortunes in Western Cape.
Since it lost control of Cape Town to a DA-led coalition in 2006, the ANC has steadily lost support in the province.
Yesterday’s meeting was called by the Western Cape Pastors’ Forum, a body for the province’s Christian clerics, to give them an opportunity to debate with the ANC’s top brass .
But the invitation, which more than 200 pastors accepted, backfired.
Asked in a show of hands whether they would join the ANC, more than half of the pastors folded their arms.
Cape Flats pastor Ivan Jones said he would not encourage his congregants to vote for the ANC.
He described the party’s policies as “un-Godly”.
“What the ANC believes, and what it stands for, is against my principles,” he said.
“I’d rather encourage my congregants to vote for a party that stands for biblical truth,” said Jones.
Said Mitchell’s Plain pastor Oscar Bougardt: “This is a ploy! They’re trying to get as many pastors as possible.
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“If they get the pastors, they get the congregations. I expected that we would be allowed to ask questions.
“They claim to be Christians but they are killing 89000 people [a year] through abortions,” said an angry Bougardt.
It is clear that the ruling party is desperate for votes in the forthcoming election. The question that every Christian should ask themselves before voting for a political party is: Who legislated for same sex marriages,abortion on demand, prostitution etc. Christians will have to choose between voting for righteousness or for Sodom and Gomorrah. God bless this nation. Hlengani
As a pastor I am discouraging my congregation family members and friends not to vote for the ANC, they are using the name of God invain, they act contrary to biblical standards and there leader openly declared witchcraft
Good for those pastors who took a principled stand!
The ANC has a spirit of domination and control – it is really only interested in power, rather than the welfare of the people who are its pawns – the “lumpen-proletariat”. The ANC and JZ have repeatedly tried to win favour with church-leaders, but only those who are compromised and undiscerning will be deceived – like the one leader who “ordained” JZ as a “pastor”. What a travesty!
Too many Christians blindly vote either for the party of liberation, or for a “strong opposition”, while ignoring the ungodly policies and legislation those parties have endorsed and supported. Christians need to exercise spiritual, moral and political discernment when they cast their votes.
Thank the Lord for faithful shepherds of the flock. Those pastors who refused to be talking heads & willing dupes for satan’s handiwork. (Ezekial 13: 10-12) I’m writing from the US as a black woman, where the first black president has become Sodom & Gomorrah’s Abraham Lincoln, while also being the unparalleled champion of the abortion on demand industry, which is America’s modern day system of legalized slavery, where unborn babies are concerned. Sixty million aborted since 1972. In some places in America, official public health statistics show that abortions outnumber live-births among black women. ( See New York city for example, 6 out of 10 black pregnancies are aborted.) Praise God for baby Roman’s story out of Pennsylvania that’s also reported in this issue of Gateway.
While black Christians expressed shock and cried foul at the president’s initial announcement for same-sex marriage, they’ve continued to vote overwhelmingly for Obama and the democrat party. Race before values. Values defined in relationship to race, with racial identity being the guiding light, the north star on our moral comapss. Which is in complete opposition to the way Jesus taught us to think by means of spiritual lenses about the important things of life. ” It is written: ‘Man does not live by bread alone.” ( Luke 4:4) “But by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” ( Deut 8: 3)
V. Varnado, USA
I am encouraged by the stand taken by the majority of pastors. We cannot compromise onGod’s word and support anyone who does not uphold God’s word as supreme. Very simple. Perhaps Mr Fransman does not truly understand the values of a true Christian because there are so many within the ANC that blaspheme against our God by threatening the ignorant with His wrath if they do not vote ANC. Perhaps though, Mr Fransman does understand but like his colleagues believes that Pastors are also ignorant.