White ministers and theologians of the DRC reject apartheid

123 White ministers and theologians of the Dutch Reformed Church (DRC) (Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk) family issued a statement in which apartheid in church and politics was categorically rejected on Scriptural grounds. This was contrary to the official view of the White DRC at that time. However, during the 1986 synod the following viewpoint was adopted: "The Dutch Reformed Church is convinced that the application of apartheid as a political and social system by which human dignity is adversely affected, and whereby one political group is detrimentally suppressed by another, cannot be accepted on Christian-ethical grounds because it contravenes the very essence of neighbourly love and righteousness and inevitably the human dignity of all involved." Following the 1986 Synod, thousands of church members broke away to form their own right wing Afrikaanse Protestante Kerk (APK). On 7 June 1988, the moderator of the DRC, Professor Johan Heyns, reinforced the changed viewpoint by telling a conference in Harare that the NGK no longer justified apartheid.