c. 1999 Religion News Service
Boesak found guilty of theft, fraud in misusing charity money
(RNS) Former world church leader and prominent anti-apartheid activist Allan Boesak has been found guilty on four counts of stealing money from a charity he headed aimed at helping victims of apartheid, including donations from singer Paul Simon.
Boesak, who once headed the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, was found guilty Wednesday (March 17) of taking $400,000 from the Foundation for Peace and Justice. He was acquitted of 23 other counts.”The accused willingly and unlawfully appropriated money intended for the children of South Africa,”said Judge John Foxcroft in declaring Boesak guilty of one count of fraud and one of theft in the case involving singer Simon, news services reported.
According to testimony at the trial, Simon donated the equivalent of $200,000 to Boesak’s foundation after his 1988 Graceland concert tour but Boesak passed on only $128,000 of it to the charity.
The judge also found Boesak, once one of the country’s best-known campaigners against South African racial discrimination, guilty of misusing $226,000 donated by Scandinavian church-related aid agencies and of misusing another $93,000 to buy homes in an upscale suburb of Cape Town.
Boesak refused to comment after the verdict was read. He will be sentenced next week. His supporters in the African National Congress chanted”Viva Boesak”from the public gallery after the verdict was announced.
Boesak, a former pastor who left the ministry after his first marriage broke up, headed the WARC in the early 1980s after campaigning within the international organization for it to declare apartheid heresy. He also headed the regional ANC in the Western Cape and was considered close to South African President Nelson Mandela.
An ANC investigation cleared Boesak of wrongdoing but Scandinavian donors criticized the probe and prosecutors later filed charges.
Earlier, foundation bookkeeper Freddie Steenkamp was sentenced to six years in prison on similar charges.
Lyons agrees to plea bargain on federal charges
(RNS) The Rev. Henry Lyons, who resigned Tuesday (March 16) as head of the National Baptist Convention USA, on Wednesday pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion and fraud charges as part of a plea deal in which 49 other charges against the St. Petersburg, Fla., minister were dropped.”Yes sir, I am guilty of those counts,”Lyons told U.S. Circuit Judge Henry Lee Adams Jr.
Lyons pleaded guilty to one count of bank fraud, two counts of tax evasion, one count of making false statements to a bank officer and one count of making false statements to the federal government.
At the end of the hourlong hearing, Lyons shook hands with U.S. Attorney Charles Wilson and said,”I appreciate everything everybody did. I’m sorry about it,”the Associated Press reported.”You did the right thing,”Wilson replied.
The plea agreement came one day after Lyons’ resignation as president of the NBCUSA and two weeks after he was found guilty on state charges of racketeering and grand theft for swindling millions from corporations seeking to do business with members of the denomination and of misusing funds meant to aid burned black churches.”I accept full blame for everything that happened while at the helm of the National Baptist Convention,”Helms said on the steps of the federal courthouse after the hearing.”When the devil came to Jesus Christ, he tempted him with fame, power and wealth, and I’ve fallen far short of the standards set by our Lord.”
Catholic, Presbyterian leaders join to press for Northern Ireland peace
(RNS) In a joint statement to commemorate St. Patrick’s Day, U.S. Presbyterian and Roman Catholic leaders have prodded Americans to support peacemakers in Northern Ireland.
The statement, issued Tuesday (March 16), came on the eve of an effort by President Clinton to push forward the stalled implementation of last year’s Good Friday agreement aimed at bringing peace to the troubled six counties which have been torn by violent sectarian strife.
In particular, the formation of an Executive body for Northern Ireland has been stalled by a dispute over the”decommissioning”of paramilitary groups, especially the Irish Republican Army.”While there is a real impasse as regards the formation of an Executive for Northern Ireland, there is a wider agenda flowing from the Good Friday Agreement which must not be overlooked,”said the Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, Stated Clerk of the Presbyterian Church USA, and Archbishop Theodore McCarrick of Newark, N.J., chairman of the U.S. Catholic bishops’ international policy committee.”It deals with policing, equality, and human rights,”the two added.”It must also be pursued vigorously and energetically.” In their statement, the two church leaders said Americans can support peacemakers in Northern Ireland in three ways:
_”We must make clear that no group that threatens or refused to disavow violence enjoy our support.
_”We must clearly acknowledge that there are two principal communities and traditions, each deserving of equal dignity and respect, in Northern Ireland.
_”We must continue to contribute to peace in Northern Ireland through the many practical initiatives already undertaken or in prospect.” The two American denominations are members of the Inter-Church Committee on Northern Ireland, which has been meeting since 1990 with counterparts in Ireland and Northern Ireland in an effort to encourage economic development and other measures aimed at reducing tensions.”What is needed is a generous measure of courage, determination, perseverance and willingness to engage in genuine dialogue for the sake of the common good _ the same qualities that produced the Good Friday Agreement,”Kirkpatrick and McCarrick said.
Report: U.S. `Islamophobia’ and mistreatment of Indian sacred sites
(RNS) An upcoming report by the United Nations special investigator on religion says that”Islamophobia”is widespread in the United States, in part because of”hate-filled”media images of Muslims, a news service said Wednesday (March 17).
Reuters, reporting from Geneva, said the report, due to be presented to the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission next week, also notes that traditional Native American religious practices are often abused. Investigator Abdelfattah Amor, a Tunisian lawyer and educator, said the U.S. government needs to do more to protect Indians’ sacred sites.
Amor spent two weeks in the United States more than a year ago investigating religious freedom. He said at that time that Muslims and Native Americans had complained most often to him about infringement of their religious rights.
Reuters said Amor’s report argues for placing limits on freedom of the press”when it generates actual intolerance, the antithesis of freedom.” While”the Muslim community can certainly flourish freely in the (American) religious sphere,”Amor said,”it has to be recognized that there is an Islamophobia reflecting both racial and religious intolerance.” The problem, Amor added,”is not the fault of the authorities, but of a very harmful activity by the media in general and the popular press in particular, which consists in putting out a distorted and indeed hate-filled message treating Muslims as extremists and terrorists. American public opinion, and hence society, is thus informed, and formed by negative representations of the Muslims.”
English village homebuying agreement: no complaints about church bells
(RNS) People seeking to buy homes in a new development in the Devon village of Thurlestone in England are having to sign an agreement that they will never object to the sound of the church bells _ or the chimes of the church clock, which sounds the hours.
The development is next to the 13th century Church of All Saints, which has a ring of six bells. The bells are rung at practice every Thursday evening for half the year and before the service on one or two Sundays a month.
At the request of the (secular) parish council and the parochial church council, the covenant has been written into the legal documents purchasers of the homes will sign. The move follows several widely reported cases of townsfolk moving into the country and then objecting to rural noises, including church bells and cocks crowing at three or four in the morning.
Quote of the day: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, India’s conservative Hindu group
(RNS)”We have nothing against the Christian brethren, but we are totally against the vendors trading in wholesale evangelism.” _ A statement by Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, India’s main right-wing Hindu organization, accusing Christians of engaging in forced conversions of Hindus.
DEA END RNS
