Minister Issues Call to Oppose Injustice
Anti-apartheid leader Rev. Allan Boesak urged the congregation of a South-Central Los Angeles church Sunday to “light up this dark Christmas” by fighting injustice in South Africa, Angola and the United States.
The South African minister told about 300 people at Ward A.M.E. Church to “think about the fact that in my country there are children in jail” without being charged.
Boesak juxtaposed an account of children being arrested in his country with the biblical story of King Herod the Great, who saw the infant Christ as a threat to his power and sought to destroy him.
“He killed all male children of Bethlehem and the surrounding area 2 years old and younger,” he said. “That is always the response of the powers of this world” to those who preach “peace based on human dignity.”
“The problem is we are afraid to acknowledge that Herod is alive,” Boesak said. “We know that if we say Herod is alive we must be compelled to do something about it.”
A collection was taken after the sermon for Children of Apartheid, a humanitarian group founded by Boesak.
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