His teaching was peppered with history ancient and modern. It reawakened my interest in history and I began to read voraciously, starting with ancient centers of civilization such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus valley and China. I followed history from these recorded beginnings through the European world hegemony, the settling of the New World, the American War Between the States (as our Civil War is called in the South), through the World and Cold wars.
I had also deeply imbibed in his “systematic” theology which had its foundation in the scholarship of the Plymouth Brethren, the Scofield Bible, and Dallas Theological Seminary. The Colonel’s unique contribution was to overlay a broad understanding of history with a system of theology that “made sense” of human history past, present and future.
Placing myself squarely in the center of his teaching, I made it a habit to live out bible doctrine. If this is truth—it should work applied to daily life. So far, I believed that I had been successful in living out bible doctrine on a daily basis.
But now, I was having some doubts about Thiemes’s theological/historical interpretation with regard to Rhodesia. The Rhodesian government was not doggedly resisting world pressure to move toward majority rule. My discussions with Kinny and Dave Phelps had revealed that Smith’s Rhodesian Front government was actively involved in discussions with the British and even Mugabe and Nkomo, the two primary terrorist leaders. Kinny’s brother, who was in the minority conservative opposition, the Rhodesian Action Party (RAP), was totally opposed to Smith’s willingness to compromise.
I had begun to see how difficult it was for Africans to bridge the gap from rural subsistence farming to become commercial farmers. Blacks could own small shops, but only in the African townships. Blacks could work in the mailroom, but there was no way for them to move into positions held by whites. Even the Rhodesian African Rifles had only just recently commissioned their first black officers. However, this all black unit was still mostly led by white officers.
And then there was the whole issue of social interaction. Abe and I couldn’t eat together. Sure, white farmers would often work side by side with their African laborers, but the white man returned to his comfortable farmhouse while the blacks lived in huts on the white man’s property.
Even the food and drink was segregated. White Rhodesians ate a healthy diet of beef, chicken, lamb, vegetables and fruit. Black Rhodesians ate a fatty cut of “ration meat” and whatever else they could grow or scrounge for themselves. Whites drank bottled beer—my favorite was “Castle” while others preferred “Lion.” Africans were only allowed to drink in special beer halls. They drank a stinky beer byproduct in plastic buckets. Some of this was cultural. Much was a matter of economic favoritism.
I wrote some letters to Col Thieme advising him of what I was seeing, believing he would appreciate the first hand reporting. I didn’t air these concerns in my “public” letters which were published in the Berachah Church weekly bulletin. Privately, the Colonel and his close circle of friends were not happy about my reporting. It seems that they didn’t want to hear anything that did not fit with the Colonel’s teaching.
This came to light as a couple of Thieme followers showed up on our doorstep. One was a 19 year old from Houston named Matt. His father was a regular attendee at Berachah, though we had never met. His son had only limited exposure to Thieme’s teaching, but was looking for adventure, having recently graduated from high school. Matt’s father paid his way to Rhodesia to join the Army. Matt was a nice kid, but completely ignorant of the historical and political issues facing the Rhodesians. He was just there for the wild ride.
[Matt finished his training with RLI, but after his first trip to the bush, he “took the gap” (deserted). He called me just before he left for the airport. I jumped on my camo-painted motorcycle and raced out to the airport to try to talk him out of leaving. By the time I arrived, he was getting ready to board. In uniform and with my Uzi over my shoulder, I was allowed into the departure lounge only to discover that the plane had just closed its doors for takeoff. It was too late to stop him. Some years later, I heard that Matt had gone off to Central America with Dirk from Belgium who had been in my training company. They were looking for mercenary work.]
“Kalanyoni” - Our new home on the Bulawayo road
Left to right: American who was a manager at The Watergate, Matt from Houston, Jeff, Pegi kneeling with Rebel
The other Thiemite who showed up was a “taper” from Perth, Australia. He was visiting as a tourist and spent a couple of months in Rhodesia, making our home his base of operations. He told us that Col Thieme’s executive secretary, Katie Tapping, had given him our address with the admonition that we were “unstable and unreliable.”
Pegi and I were shocked at this revelation. How could we be considered unstable and unreliable? Katie’s explanation to our Australian friend was that we had begun to have the “wrong political opinions.” Apparently, only the Colonel was allowed to interpret current history! And, his interpretations from the distance of Houston were more reliable than our view from Africa.
I think this was intended to get us to toe the line with regard to our opinions, but it had the opposite effect. It caused us to doubt the Colonel for the first time. That led to us beginning to doubt his whole system. Now, we didn’t just rip all of his teaching apart immediately. That would take a few more years, but it was a turning point for us.
We were no longer Thieme devotees. Now, he was just an important teacher in our lives. We found ourselves beginning to reexamine everything, beginning with the whole idea of a military career as a Christian. And maybe this was all to show me that I actually belonged in the ministry?
No comments:
Post a Comment