ENCOURAGEMENT FROM REV. DR. ALLAN AUBREY BOESAK

ENCOURAGEMENT FROM ALLAN AUBREY BOESAK

Justice Is A Verb!

October 7, 2017

South African theologian Rev. Dr. Allan Aubrey Boesak is a humanitarian, social justice activist, author of numerous books and scholarly articles, and a leading authority on liberation theology.  I am blessed by his friendship and loving encouragement of my efforts in ministry as a pastor, preacher, public theologian, and advocate for social justice.  He wrote the foreword for my 2017 book The Fierce Urgency of Prophetic Hope (Judson Press, Valley Forge, PA, 2017).  And, Dr. Boesak was delivered a lecture at New Millennium Church on Holy Saturday (April 15) and proclaimed the sermon on Easter (April 16), 2017.  The lecture and sermon can be viewed on the New Millennium website (www.newmillenniumchurch.us) by clicking on the Sermon Archive folder.

Dr. Boesak sent me the following e-mail message from South Africa earlier today after learning of my federal civil rights lawsuit against the Arkansas Supreme Court for permanently barring me from being assigned to, presiding over, and deciding civil and criminal cases involving capital punishment, the death penalty, and the method of execution in Arkansas.  With his permission and my gratitude, I now share his prophetic observations with you.

Dear Wendell,

…So often in the past days I have thought about you, knowing I should write to encourage you as you take on the forces of Empire in Arkansas, where you have lived so boldly and have taken your convictions from your prayer room to the pulpit, from the pulpit to the bench and from all these to the streets of injustice and struggles for peace, justice, dignity and life.

Of course they cannot let you be, you disturber of false peace; you exposer of officialised mendacity; you mocker of make-believe progress; you foolish prophet of righteousness, who think believing in Jesus actually makes a difference. So their ire rises as filth flourishes in stagnant water: trumped-up charges, persecution under the guise of judicial propriety, bludgeoning of the truth through the law as if the law truly mattered to them. Assassination of your character by gorging on your soul hoping to break your spirit. Begrudgingly having to recognize you as their colleague, but being too intelligent, independent, and strong to be their peer, they are forced to look up to you. 

So they resort to what they know best: to niggerize you through their blunt abuse of white power.Trying to smother your prophetic power with their damp, suffocating arrogance. Trying to still your voice by waterboarding you with public humiliation. Trying  to befoul your Godly work with the stench of their hypocrisy. They speak of "impeachment" but their lips drip "destruction" and their hearts drool "lynching". They pretend to speak with a civil tongue, but their blood lust gets in the way.

But their true desires are already known, and these shall not be fulfilled. But do not give in to them, my Brother. They shall fail ignominiously. Do not be afraid, "Those who are with us, are more than those who are with them." I think I know a little bit of what I speak. In my darkest days my mother, over and over, implored me to read Ps. 91. I pass that plea to you.

…

Allan