In the run-up to the G20 conference, various lobbyists in South Africa were calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare Gender-Based Violence a “national disaster”. Eventually, this was conceded, and the Department of Social Development posted the announcement on its website
What is meant by this declaration? What difference will it make? And what does it say about the beliefs of a large number of South Africans?
On September 7, South Africa’s rugby team, The Springboks, beat the New Zealand All Blacks by 18 points to 12 in another thrilling contest between rugby’s fiercest rivals. Saturday’s victory positions the Springboks as the strong favorites to win this year’s Rugby Championship, building on the winning streak of the back-to-back Rugby World Cup champions. The impact of rugby in post-apartheid South Africa is a testament to the unifying power of sport on a national level, but there is another way in which Christians can see the redeeming value of rugby on an individual level: rugby is a tool to help boys become men.
For centuries breeders have tried to predict the fastest racehorses. Secretariat, a thoroughbred that won the 9th American Triple Crown, is considered by many to be the greatest racehorse of all time. He set and still holds the fastest time in all three Triple Crown races. The average thoroughbred’s heart weighs almost 4 kg. Secretariat’s heart weighed nearly three times that. For some years now, yearlings have been selected on the basis of heart size, as judged by ultrasound measurements.
We can also predict the weather. The old adage is often true. “Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in morning, sailors take warning.” Jesus said a similar thing in Matthew 16:2-3: “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ And in the morning, ‘It will be stormy today, for the sky is read and threatening.’”
But forecasting the weather and fast racehorses seems somewhat trivial compared to predicting who will make a godly wife. Every Christian man wants to wed a virtuous woman, but how can he know? Is it possible for a man to predict who will be a godly wife?
