March/April/May 2000

Dr Allan Boesak goes to prison for fraud. What is his stand for 'peace and justice' in Biblical terms?

Dear Friends,

In recent times we have heard much about Peace and Justice. However, the Reverend Dr Allan Boesak, head of the now defunct Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ) has given these religious concepts a totally new - a humanist - meaning. For under the banner of Peace and Justice he embraced a revolutionary humanist cause, namely "to work for the fall of the apartheid regime." 1) In the 1980s he rose to prominence in Christo-Marxist church circles, first as President of the South African Council of Churches (SACC), affiliated to the World Council of Churches (WCC), and then as President of the World Alliace of Reformed Churches (WARC). When he set up the Foundation for Peace and Justice it attracted inter-national donors. After the fall of White rule in 1994 he took office in the new Government. He first became the ANC leader of the Western Cape and was then appointed Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva. Alas, at that moment the Scandinavian donor agencies Sida (Swedish International Development Agency) and DanChurchAid started questioning his integrity. On August 4, 1997, he found himself in court, accused of taking for his own use R1,1 million given to his FPJ to assist victims of Apartheid. Though the highest ranking South African politicians, including President Mandela and Dullah Omar, then Minister of Justice, demonstrated their solidarity, Dr Boesak was tried and sentenced for theft and fraud. Finally, after appeal, he went to prison for 3 years. On Monday, the 15th of May, 2000, after a weekend of televised emotional publi-city (his wife Elna is a TV producer), his career came to a temporary stop. Protesting that he was "entering prison as an innocent man," the doors of the luxury Malmesbury prison shut behind him.

What is Peace and Justice?
Allan Boesak claimed to stand for peace and justice. But, in line with the beliefs of revolutionary movements "peace" to him meant the establishment of a socialist regime and "justice" a Marxist redistribution of wealth. At the 1987 Kirchentag in Frankfurt, Germany, he declared, that the power of God would be made "manifest in this world." He said: "The New Jerusalem is not a future world somewhere else. No, the New Jerusalem comes from heaven into this reality... This new Jerusalem will arise from the ashes of all that which is today called Pretoria. For the old things have passed away." - The peace he pursued was not a Christian, but a humanistic peace, a peace which does not have God at its centre but selfish Man. No wonder that his ministry was fraught with strife. His was a warring peace, of which the Apostle James asks: "What causes wars, and what causes fightings among you? Is it not your passions that are at war in your members? You desire and do not have; so you kill. And you covet and cannot obtain; so you fight and wage war." (3:13-4:6) And King Solomon declared: "When a man's folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD." (Prov. 19:3) Rage against God is inherent in all revolutions. A man at peace works for reformation, a man at war for revolution. There is only one kind of peace which is lasting, namely that which has the Lord Jesus Christ as its focal point, for He "was put to death for our trespasses and raised for our justification." (Romans 4:25) Only He, the Prince of Peace, can give peace. Only when we "are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." (Rom. 5:1) Peace is eternally linked with Easter. Peace was made at the Cross, and the empty tomb is its guarantee.

The concept of justice, too, was used by Dr Boesak in humanistic terms, putting sinful Man into the place of God. Perhaps it is best expressed by a saying of former Archbishop Desmond Tutu: "I think I would use Marxist insights: 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." This kind of humanist thinking is embodied in the Freedom Charter, the Kairos Document, the Road to Damascus and all the other "liberation" statements which Dr Boesak ascribe to. But "justice" is an essentially Christian concept. It has to do with right and wrong, with punishment and reward. It has to do with retribution, not redistribution! God is "not a God who delights in wickedness." He hates "all evildoers." (Psalm 5:4-5) He has given His just Law. He is the great Judge. He will send the wicked "away into eternal punishment" and the righteous "into eternal life." (Matt. 25:31-46) Yet, He does not wish "that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance" (2 Pet. 3:9) Therefore He gave His Son Jesus Christ, the just who died for the unjust, "that he might bring us to God." (1 Pet. 3:18). Justice is eternally linked with Easter. God's just Law was fulfilled when Jesus cried: "It is finished."

The Foundation for Peace and Justice
It is not surprising, then, that the FPJ was not a religious organisation and did not pursue Christian aims. In his televised statement of Sunday, 14 May, Dr Boesak said: "The Foundation for Peace and Justice (FPJ), in all its years of operation, was never a charity or developmental organisation, but a political entity created to serve as a front for the United Demo-cratic Front and the African National Congress. It was our job to work for the fall of the apartheid regime." Though its funds came from overseas churches (and governments) they were not used for Christian purposes, but for "the political work of the UDF (United Democratic Front - founded by Dr Boesak in 1983) and the ANC (African National Congress). The moneys were used for strikes, protests, boycotts etc. The purported Christian concerns, says Dr Boesak, "our involvement in projects in the rural areas, was simply a smokescreen for our real work... The people for whose liberation we fought knew this, the leadership of the ANC knew this, the donors knew this and the board of trustees of the foundation knew this." 2)

In his book, "The Other Side of the Story", Major General HD Stadler of the SA Police writes about the "Role of the UDF": "These activities were further supported by members of MK (Umkhonto we Sizwe, the 'military' wing of the ANC) who were to provide firearms, including automatic weapons, hand grenades as well as crash-course training and the carrying out of sabotage attacks by utilizing limpet mines and explosive devices. It was later conservatively estimated that the damage caused to property during the period 3 September 1984 to 20 September 1985 amounted to R100 million rand, of which R71 million damage was caused to buildings and a further R29-million caused to vehicles. During this same period a total of 723 people were killed and a further 3 093 injured." 3) - The international sanctions campaign, of which Dr Boesak also boasts, is said to have cost South Africa US$500 billion. 4)

Theft and Fraud
Starting in August, 1997, Dr Boesak's court case finished, after appeal, in May 2000. He had been accused of taking for his own use R1.1 million which had been given for victims of apartheid. But the Appeal Court convicted him of the following:
· "The theft of R259 000 from the Children's Trust set up by pop singer Paul Simon to help child victims of apartheid;
· Defrauding the trustees of the Children's Trust by failing to tell them of the full 682 000 donated by Simon.
He disclosed only R423 000 of the full amount.
· Theft from the Foundation for Peace and Justice when he used donations to finance his own luxurious lifestyle.
The amount he was convicted of stealing was halved from R322 722 to R147 160."
The Appeal Court had cut his convictions and sentence by half, and he was committed to prison for 3 years. His bookkeeper, Freddy Steenkamp, was already there.

In spite of Dr Allan and Mrs Elna Boesak's sentimentally religious televised protestations of innocence, the press hailed the judgment as just, saying: "Our courts are totally independent, unbiased and above reproach." (Independent on Saturday). - "The court should get credit for being deaf to the exonerations of the masses and those in power." (Rapport) - "The new constitutional dispensation will survive only ... if the courts are able to get on with their job free of political interference. Ironically Boesak's trial, conviction and sentence are in some measure a tribute to the health of the new democracy he helped create." (Sunday Times) - "The courts proved to be considerably less malleable in their morality than the then justice minister, Dullah Omar, who proclaimed the innocence of his dear friend Allan, even as the legal process of prosecuting him was being set into gear lower down in his ministry." (Saturday Argus)

Allan Boesak, holding to situation ethics, was bitterly disappointed that the ANC had not saved him from prison. He turned, feigned martyrdom, and claimed that by not testifying in court he had wanted to protect the ANC. His testimony, he said, "would perforce have implicated organisations and individuals now in highly responsible positions on whom this, my testimony, would have had an adverse effect both on them and their work, especially so shortly before the 1999 elections." 5)

'Church' Support
In spite of all, certain high ranking clerics gave him steadfast support. Throughout the trial, former Archbishop Tutu pleaded to keep Boesak free. From Atlanta, USA, he said that Allan Boesak's prison sentence was very alarming. 6) Rev Setri Nyomi, General Secretary of the Geneva-based World Alliance of Reformed Churches, Majala Nhlinziyo, the co-ordinator of the Southern African Alliance of Reformed Churches, and Jameson Buys, the Alliance's General Synod Moderator, visited Boesak in prison to express their "high esteem." Like Tutu, they praised him for his "tremendous contributions".

But what were these contributions? To the 'liberation movements' they may have been valuable, but to the Church they were disastrous. For he was not merely the "greatest hero who stole from the poor to give to the rich... namely himself and his extravagant wife." 7) He had not only "left behind shattered dreams." 8) No. Allan Boesak contributed significantly to the establishment of a humanist worldview in South Africa, which in turn gave rise to a secular state. Quoting the Bible, he took the Name of the Lord in vain and turned the Truth into a lie. Claiming to pursue peace and justice he trampled on the Ten Commandments. He treated Reformed Christianity with contempt. South African church and society have been affected by this more than they are aware of, and the name of the Lord has been dishonoured.

May his trial and conviction be a call to the Church in South Africa to rid itself of all residue of the unbiblical 'liberation theology', to forsake all Christo-Marxist thinking, to cast out all humanistic ideas, and to honour anew the Ten Command-ments and the Reformation Confessions. May this court action remind us that there is a higher Court, a greater Judge, a sterner Judgment. "For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king." (Is. 33:22) He will judge us on bigger issues than the theft of half a million Rands. He will judge every one by His Truth, and the Truth is Jesus Christ. May the Church in South Africa trust and obey only Him and give all honour to God the Three in One.

May God bless you richly,
D. Scarborough.

Footnotes:
1. Cape Times, 15.5.2000, Boesak Statement, Allan" 'My life is in God's hands.'
2. Ibid.
3. Maj.-Gen. HD Stadler, The Other Side of the Story, 1996
4. In 1992 the Wall Street Journal put the total cost to South Africa of the global boycott at "probably $500 billion. Aida Parker Newsletter, no 199, Sept 1996.
5. Cape Times, 15.5.2000. 6. Die Burger, 16.5.2000. 7. Saturday Argus, 20-21.5.2000 8. Sunday Times, 21.5.2000.