Kairos Document

The Kairos Document (KD) is a theological statement issued in 1985 by a group of black South African theologians based predominantly in the black townships of Soweto, South Africa. The statement challenged the churches' response to what the authors saw as the vicious policies of the Apartheid state under the State of Emergency declared on 21 July 1985. The KD evoked strong reactions and furious debates not only in South Africa, but world-wide.

The KD is a prime example of contextual theology and liberation theology in South Africa, and has served as an example for attempted, similarly critical writing at decisive moments in several other countries and contexts (Latin America, Europe, Zimbabwe, India, etc.).

The KD was written by an ecumenical group of pastors in Soweto, whose names have never (officially) been released to the public. Many believe it was a conscious decision to make the document anonymous, perhaps for security reasons since the Apartheid regime frequently harassed, detained, or tortured clergy who opposed the government. It is widely thought though that Frank Chikane, a black pentecostal pastor and theologian, and Albert Nolan, a white Roman Catholic priest and member of the Dominican Order, belonged to this group. John de Gruchy writes decidedly that Frank Chikane, then General Secretary of the Institute for Contextual Theology (ICT) in Braamfontein, Johannesburg, initiated the process (2004, 195).

When this fairly short, 11,000-worddocument was first published in September 1985, it included over 150 signatures; it was subsequently signed by many more church leaders and theologians in South Africa, though the amended list was never published. A substantially revised, second edition appeared in 1986.

The God of the State
The Apartheid State often makes explicit use of the name of God to justify its own existence, most explicitly in the preamble to the (1983) Constitution of South Africa: "In humble submission to almighty God ... who gathered our forebears together from many lands and gave them this their own; who has guided them from generation to generation ..."

The KD theologians reject this categorically: "This god [of the State] is an idol ... [it is] the god of teargas, rubber bullets, sjamboks, prison cells and death sentences." In other words, "the very opposite of the God of the Bible", which is, theologically speaking "the devil disguised as Almighty God." Therefore, "State Theology is not only heretical, it is blasphemous ... What is particularly tragic for a Christian is to see the number of people who are fooled and confused by these false prophets and their heretical theology."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos_Document