September 28, 1994 Contact: Barbara McKenna (408/459-2495)

SOUTH AFRICAN PROFESSOR TO SPEAK ON SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE

University of Natal professor Martin Prozesky has been active in the formation of constitutional and governmental policies defining the role of religion in the new order

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SANTA CRUZ, CA--Throughout its history, the conservative government of South Africa often cited the Bible as the basis of its system of apartheid. Now that the fledgling democratic government is taking shape, Martin Prozesky wants to make sure that the same mistake is not repeated twice.

"This is our first chance in a 300-year history to institute some justice concerning religion," say Prozesky, a senior academic figure in South Africa who has spent much of his career lobbying for the separation of church and state in his home country.

Prozesky will speak on the role of religion in the new South Africa in two upcoming talks at the University of California, Santa Cruz. The first talk is titled "Universities, Politics, and Reconstruction in the New South Africa," and takes place on Tuesday, October 11, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. The second talk, titled "Conscience of the Nation? Religion in South Africa after Apartheid," takes place Thursday, October 13, from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Both talks will be presented in the Stevenson Fireside Lounge. They are free and open to the public.

The author of a number of books on religion and the role of religion in apartheid, Prozesky observes that, "We had a situation here where there was religious justification for apartheid, where people found ways of reading into the Bible that the creator made people different and that meant mixing could not be allowed. The new government is taking a very different kind of stance, but the really important issue is that we have an interim new constitution that has to be finalized in the next two years. It's essential that the constitutional status of religion be finalized as a separation of religion and state."

A professor of religion and dean of humanities at the University of Natal in Pietermaritzburg, Prozesky has been a longtime advocate of the separation of church and state. He was recently part of a successful effort to establish a policy that will change religious programming on the taxpayer-supported South African Broadcasting Corporation, which previously broadcast heavily Christian-oriented programming.

Prozesky, who has acted as a consultant for the World Congress on Religion and Peace, has brought this issue to the attention of the public through numerous opinion pieces in papers and journals. He has lobbied officials and has even enlisted the help of Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Although Prozesky says that there is support in South African government for the separation of church and state (opening prayers for each session of Parliament were abolished after elections last April), the majority of the country may not be in agreement. Sixty- six percent of South Africans are Christian, according to a 1992 census. Prozesky says that schools not only open with a prayer, but require religious instruction as part of the curriculum.

"This is a country where there's never been much discussion about things you take for granted, such as a constitutional amendment protecting the separation of church and state. I am hopeful that if we get the constitution right, everything else will follow," he says.

Prozesky's talks are sponsored by UCSC's Humanities Division. For more information, call (408) 459-2696.

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