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Allan Aubrey Boesak (born 23 February 1946〔(Encyclopædia Britannica )〕 in Kakamas, Northern Cape) is a South African Dutch Reformed Church cleric and politician and anti-apartheid activist. He was sentenced to prison for fraud in 1999 but was subsequently granted an official pardon and reinstated as a cleric in late 2004. Along with Beyers Naude and Winnie Mandela, Boesak won the 1985 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award given annually by the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights to an individual or group whose courageous activism is at the heart of the human rights movement and in the spirit of Robert F. Kennedy's vision and legacy. ==Theologian, cleric and activist== Boesak became active in the separate Coloured branch of the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk and began to work as a pastor in Paarl. He became known then as a liberation theologian, starting with the publication of his doctoral work (''Farewell to Innocence'', 1976). For the next decade or so, he continued to write well-received books and collections of essays, sermons, and so on. An anti-apartheid speech of his was sampled by British electronica group The Shamen on their album ''En Tact''. Boesak was elected as president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches in 1982, a position he held until 1991. He rose to prominence during the 1980s as an outspoken critic and opponent of the National Party's policies and played a major anti-apartheid activist role as a patron of the United Democratic Front (UDF) from 1983 to 1991. In 1991, Boesak was elected chairman of the Western Cape region of the African National Congress (ANC). Boesak resigned from the Dutch Reformed Church in 1990 after details of an extramarital affair with television presenter Elna Botha emerged; they later married. In 2008, Boesak publicly challenged the South African leadership to remember why they joined all races to create a non-racial South Africa. In the annual Ashley Kriel Memorial Youth Lecture, Boesak suggested that the ANC was well down the slippery slope of ethnicity preferences and "had brought back the hated system of racial categorization."〔(ANC entrenches racism – Boesak ) ''News24''〕〔(Allan Boesak – reflections twenty-five years after the launch of the UDF ) ''Africafiles''〕 Also in 2008, while serving as the Moderator of the Cape Synod of the Uniting Reformed Church in Southern Africa,〔()〕 Boesak, to the shock of many senior church leaders,〔()〕 announced that he would resign all of his positions within the church because of the church's discriminatory position on homosexuality and gay and lesbian persons. Boesak invoked the anti-apartheid 1986 Belhar Declaration, which lambasts all forms of discrimination, to say that the church should welcome gays and lesbians and begin to perform gay marriage ceremonies and appoint gay clergy. Dr. Boesak had originally come out in favour of same-sex marriage in 2004,〔()〕 a year before South Africa's Constitutional Court ruled that the denial of marriage rights to gay people was discriminatory and violated the country's constitution. In December 2008 he left the ANC to join the Congress of the People party. In reaction, the ANC leaked a memorandum written by Boesak, detailing how Boesak discussed different roles he could play to help the organisation. His preferred choice was the post of South African ambassador to the United Nations.〔( ANC refusal to clear Boesak's name pushed him to join Cope ). ''Cape Argus''〕 The same month saw Boesak voicing his views on the Zimbabwe crisis, calling on citizens of the stricken country to rise up in opposition to President Robert Mugabe and his authoritarian ruling party. He also censured Mbeki for failing in his role as the Southern African Development Community's official mediator to heed the churches' call for a peace-keeping force.〔Terreblanche "Zim must rise against Mugabe – Boesak" 2008.〕 He also called for a revaluation of affirmative action, describing as "totally inexcusable"〔Terreblanche "Review affirmative action – Boesak" 2008.〕 its effectuation in the Western Cape. In June 2013, Christian Theological Seminary and Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana appointed Boesak as The Desmond Tutu Chair for Peace, Global Justice, and Reconciliation Studies, a new four-year position held jointly with both institutions.〔(Anti-Apartheid Activist Allan Boesak Appointed by Butler, Christian Theological Seminary ) Butler University Newsroom, 14 June 2013〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Allan Boesak」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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