There will always be so many who might say, “Ah, he’s a politician masquerading as an archbishop.” Politics is so all-pervasive, and in my theology, obviously, all of life belongs to God, and you don’t have compartments, this is your economic life, this is your political life, this is your religious life. Religion encompasses all of those. But yes, I wouldn’t myself have said I was setting out to be a political animal.
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Desmond Tutu
Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; chair of South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Nobel Peace Prize, 1984
South Africa · 1931–2021
Politics and public life
About
South African Anglican cleric who became General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches and then Archbishop of Cape Town, and who was a leading non-violent opponent of apartheid. He received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984 and chaired the Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1995.
20 answers
I sent off the letter. I probably made a technical mistake by giving it to a journalist before hearing from the Prime Minister because this journalist was working for a Sunday newspaper and gave it enormous press, and I think quite rightly the Prime Minister was annoyed that I had not given him the opportunity but never mind.
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