The covenant - James A. Michener [624]
'But in most countries,' Philip said, thinking of the drastic readjustments in America in recent years, 'provision is made for reassessment. A law tends to be applicable for only about ten or twenty years. The laws your grandfather passed, Sannie'
'He didn't pass them. He proposed them.'
'Haven't they served their day? Shouldn't they be repealed?'
'Repealed?' the Troxel boys echoed. 'They should be strengthened!'
'You see, Saltwood,' Frikkie explained, 'we know the blacks. They're wild veld creatures like the antelope, and we won't allow them to be spoiled by modern ideas, no matter what the Dutch churchmen advise.'
Jopie was more blunt: 'To hell with the Dutch churchmen. They're today's missionaries.' And at this, Sannie grasped the hands of her young men and started a dance, chanting an improvised song:
'To hell with the missionaries!
To hell with the men of Holland!
To hell with all who interfere!'
Marius, hearing the clamor, came from his study, and Sannie danced up to him: 'We're consigning the missionaries to hell.'
'That was done long ago,' Marius said, and when he joined the young people in a beer, Saltwood asked, 'How do you see the church problem?' and after some reflection he replied, 'When I accepted my Rhodes scholarship instead of playing rugby for the Springboks against New Zealand, I knew I was sacrificing a lot.' He smiled at the Troxels. 'These lads go against New Zealand next month. It'll be the great adventure of your lives.'
'Apparently you have regrets.'
'One you'd never expect. When I returned home with an English wife, I couldn't be a member of the Broederbond, but who cared? What did hurt was that I was denied the right to be a full member of the Dutch Reformed Church. I've never been an elder, you know.'
'Does that matter?' Saltwood asked.
'Grievously. I truly believe that our church is the most effective on earth today. It has spirit, meaning, force. It obeys the word of God and endeavors prayerfully to implement it. A real church.'
'But its support of apartheid? Surely . . .'
Marius rose and went to the refrigerator for another beer. 'Churches go through cycles. In America, if I understand correctly, your Catholic church is riding rampant on birth control and abortion. That's temporary, a fashion of the moment. It has very little to do with the ongoing operation of the church. Same with our church and apartheid. It's a problem for the 1980s. Fifty years from now it will all be settled.'
'So you support your church in all it does?' Philip asked.
'I do, because it's the moral force of South Africa. It's forever.'
'And in the meantime,' Jopie cried, 'to hell with the visitors from Holland.'
'And the World Council of Churches!' Sannie cried, resuming their dance.
A few days later Saltwood observed his arrogant young Afrikaners knocked flat by a much different kind of foreign intervention. He was alone in the Van Doorn kitchen, waiting for Sannie, when her father and Jopie burst into the room, looking ghastly. Without speaking, they fiddled with the radio, located a Pretoria station, and listened as the awful news was reported: 'There is an unconfirmed report out of Auckland that the governments of Australia and New Zealand will be forced to cancel the scheduled tour of those countries by a rugby team from South Africa.'
'Good God!' Marius said, looking at Jopie as if the latter's arms had been amputated. 'That would mean you wouldn't get your Springbok blazer.'
'Wait, wait! This can't be serious.'
But it was. A different newscaster announced in tremulous Afrikaans, his voice near breaking: 'We have nothing definite yet, but governments