Ratsara Resigns as President of Adventist Denomination in Southern Africa
Update added June 1; From ANN, May 31, 2016: Dr. Paul Ratsara has resigned as president of the Adventist denomination’s Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division. The denomination’s governing body voted yesterday to accept the resignation which, according to rumor, was originally offered last week and comes after six weeks of accusations of academic fraud.
Ratsara said that he was requesting reassignment as a local pastor in his home region, the Indian Ocean Union Conference “to refocus the church that I love, back to its God-given mission and to prevent it continuing to be distracted.” The union conference includes the island nations of Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles east of the African continent.
Pastor Ted Wilson, world president of the denomination, thanked Ratsara for serving as a regional vice president since 2005 and, before that, as the division’s executive secretary. “We thank Paul Ratsara and his wife, Joanne, for their dedication to the cause of God and Pastor Ratsara’s many years of service to the church,” Wilson said. “Many positive aspects of church growth in the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division have taken place under his leadership. We will pray for God’s guidance and blessing on their continued witness for the Lord.”
Ratsara’s decision came after questions were raised in southern Africa about an academic degree held by Ratsara. He received a Doctor of Theology degree in systematic theology in 2014 from the University of South Africa, the largest university in the country. Rumors circulated on the Internet (which Adventist Today has not been able to confirm) alleged that one of the division staff told the division executive committee that he was the ghost writer for much of Ratsara’s dissertation.
The tensions leading up to Ratsara’s resignation began on April 14 when The New Age, a secular newspaper in South Africa, published a story with accusations of fraud against both Ratsara and Pastor Paul Charles, the communication director for the division. Charles claimed a doctoral degree from an organization in India that was not accredited and for which no address or record could be found, as reported at the time by Adventist Today.
Although Ratsara’s doctoral degree has been confirmed by the University of South Africa and his dissertation is in the university library, accusations continued to put him in parallel with Charles. Early in May an administrative committee of the SID ordered Charles to stop making any claim to the doctoral degree he had previously listed, according to a story published by Spectrum, the journal of the largest association of Adventist academics.
On May 23, Spectrum published an open letter signed by several Adventists from southern Africa, including some academics, urging Wilson to investigate the situation. Wilson was on his way to Rwanda at the time to be part of a major evangelism campaign in that country, and went to South Africa last week to meet with the SID executive committee. During the meeting, Ratsara offered his resignation and Wilson suggested that he take some time to think about it.
Pastor Solomon Maphosa, executive secretary of the SID, will function as the division’s acting president until the election of a new president. A division president is appointed by the General Conference executive committee, usually after nomination by a committee within the division organization. It is up to a local conference to invite Ratsara to work as a district pastor.
The SID includes Adventist denominational units in 17 nations with a total population of 182 million. There are 23,000 Adventist congregations with a total membership of about 3.5 million, and the denomination operates seven universities, colleges and seminaries in this region as well as ten hospitals. This is one of the fastest growing areas on the globe for the Adventist faith with an annual membership growth rate that has ranged from five to nine percent since the beginning of the 21st century.
Update: Adventist Today has received from a source in South Africa a copy of an Email from an employee of the University of South Africa dated May 31, 2016, indicating that the university is “initialising an internal investigation into the … allegations” about Ratsara’s dissertation. No information has been confirmed about the policies of the university relative to writing a dissertation, so it is unclear precisely what the investigation may focus on.
The Adventist News Network (ANN) is the official news service of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. Adventist Today news staff contributed to this article. The photo is Pastor Ratsara speaking at a recent youth congress.
I heard some reports that in fact Elder Ratsara’s dissertation was unable to be found in UNISA’s library. Do you have any information about that?
A source actually sent to Adventist Today a copy of the listing in the catalog of the university library which indicated that it was available on the shelf. The earlier rumor appears to be based on something other than fact. But, since the university has started an investigation (see today’s update on the story) it may result in it being taken off the shelf, although not necessarily for substantive reasons. There has been a great haze of rumors around this story. — Monte Sahlin, CEO of Adventist Today
Spectrum has written that someone under Ratsara confessed to writing a number of chapters of his dissertation. The editor there has confirmed that this subject was thoroughly investigated. Why would Bonya (the man under Ratsara) have made such a confession? And was he pressured by Ratsara? This would be fraud: presenting a dissertation as your own.
I have confidence that the university will do due diligence. I wonder, though, if someone benefits from not having the dissertation on the shelves—that it might have been removed without the university’s knowledge. This would remove proof that some of the document was not original to the writer. I would hate to see professors involved in this by way of their personal assessments of Ratsara’s work—that’s a real can of worms; but there would be not other way to indicate plagiarism or ghost writing absent the document, itself. Maybe I read too many academic mysteries . . . . .
Now Ted Wilson is on good move. he should also come in ECD and analyze all those who are calling themselve missionaries with bogus PHDs. You find that someone has never finished secondary school but he went in Andrews University with fake papers and they bestowed on him a PHD. Actually those people are the people who are doing mafia in these countries instead of doing the work they should be doing. So we are strongly requesting Wilson to do a deligent assessment also in ECD countries, we have Union Presidents with such Bogus PHDs!
I am sick of my addiction to social media. Therefore, I am going on a “social media fast” for 40 days and 40 nights. During that period of fasting from all social media, I will be live-tweeting my observations and keeping my Facebook friends constantly updated on my experience.
Academic degrees as corporate ladder currency cannot possibly be an intra-office phenomenon in one Division office in one Division of the Seventh-day Adventist church it seems.
The church needs a response that is appropriate whether there are two or two thousand employees personally trafficking in fake academic credentials related to the position they now hold.
Beyond fake academic degrees as social currency, other socially and historically rooted behaviors around the world include bribery, nepotism, unilateralism, racism, tribalism, and so on. And one doesn’t need to stray far from home to experience many of these firsthand no matter where we live.
Tolerating such behaviors in the name of maintaining church functionality is catching up rapidly when the Internet spills beans half way around the world in milliseconds. Keeping the church from civil war over social differences is not by any means limited to matters such as women’s ordination or sexual identity or self-racially-segregating congregations in pluralistic societies.
Perhaps this fake degree matter will lead to the realization that if we truly have to wait for an innocent to cast the first stone, we are all going to have to drop the stone in our hand. And that doesn’t mean that dishonesty or other unloving behavior is acceptable.
What is our response, then?
Indeed.
I find it appropriate that Ratsara resigned. Before assignment as a Pastor should he not make a full confession if his dissertation was written mainly by another person as is alleged?
“Maybe I read too many academic mysteries . . . . .” WWW. Looks that way!
Members of the concerned group that has pressured the church to look into this issue assert that while the listing for the dissertation is on the UNISA website, no hard copy is accessible at the library when requested in person. No electronic copy is available.
There has been long-time interest in accessing this dissertation due to its topic, not just because of the authorship issue.
RATSURA has for years fraudulently misrepresented his credentials
and should be put “out to pasture” and not re-assigned a comfortable parish!
Ted Wilson. apparently for several,years was apprised of the accusations
against RATSURA but colluded and connived to conceal and cover up the
convincing evidence. He is complicit in this corruption and should resign.
What were wily Wilson’s motives in this cover up?
He was relying on Ratsara to cojole and coerce the African
delegation to the San Antonio GC to vote against WO.
A simple task for SID president Ratsara since the tribal/
third world/patriarchal delegates had natural misogynist
prejudices against women.
This was a QUID PRO QUO arrangement between the two
presidents and both should resign.
What you are saying is very true. Most of those people who supported him to discriminate women for ordination, are actually those who have many problems in their territories and they supported him so that he could allow them to return in their positions and continue with their immoral projects. We have a Union President who never attends Church Services at all and when GC Session was taking place in Texas, he was spearheading the group of people who were shouting that women should not be ordained; and what spirit was leading such people. Women should be ordained therefore, Ted should go because we do not want discrimination of women in SDA Church.
Integrity problems in Africa…….hows those 1000’s of baptism going in Rwanda?
Conflating WO with the credentials of the SDA clergy is without basis and indicates an unwillingness to accept the decision of the GC in Official Session. It’s time to quit beating a dead horse!!
Whatever the TRUTH of the matter is, God is watching the proceedings! Angels that excel in strength are closely following every move in this, for God is so interested in every issue that concerns his church here on earth. Amos 5:13, “Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time.” And pray that the “gates of hell” Matthew 16:18 should not prevail against the Church of God.
God will finish his work with a people full of the Holy Spirit, not necessarily those with superior literary qualifications and yet destitute of the Spirit of Christ.
God bless the SDA Church, God bless the outgoing SID president, God bless all leaders of the SDA Church world over
I am quite sure Ratsara will be appointed to a comfortable sinecure and eventually enjoy a very generous retirement package. There is ample precedent for it in clerical circles.
He was appropriately put into leadership not based upon his academic background, but rather upon his demonstrated dedication and capabilities as a servant of God and man. These qualities were amply demonstrated in his extraordinary leadership which led to church grown in his Division far outstripping that of North America and Europe where highly degreed pastors and leaders proliferate. Some decades ago the Ontario, Canada SDA Conference commissioned a study to document the correlation between post-secondary formal education and effectiveness in ministry with an emphasis on soul-winning. The findings disturbingly demonstrated that the higher the academic degree level achieved by pastors in the conference, the more attenuated was their effectiveness as soul-winners. These findings were of course never shared with the membership. There was a day in early Adventism when having a degree as a pastor or church leader was actually frowned upon. We are now at the other extreme. Which is really better?
Array one everything you say is appropriate and correct.
Academic degrees are meaningless for soul winning.
HOWEVER, this pastor/president was clearly lacking in moral fiber,
and INTEGRITY when he CHEATED on his dissertation with
UNISA, submitting another’s work as his own!
Donald Trump, famous for his epithets (Crooked Hillary)
would rightly label RATSARA
“Cheating rascal Ratsaral”
This man should be “put out to pasture”
He is not a role model for our young students,
and has caused damage to the church’s reputation
in the local non SDA press.
We are made to look ridiculous.
Wily Wilson GC president is complicit in this
CORRUPTION.
Had Wilson appropriately dealt with this mess
two years ago, none of this would have gone public.
But wily Wilson was waiting for Ratsara to
“Deliver the Goods” –the African delegates
at the GC in San Antonio.
Wilson and Ratsara have brought ill repute
on the church and both should resign!
I have been involved with many studies of Adventist evangelism and church growth over the last 35 years and none of them yielded results of the kind you allude to. I have to conclude it is not a well-founded fact. Adventist Today will publish a summary of all available research on this topic later this summer.
“The tensions leading up to Ratsara’s resignation began on April 14 when The New Age, a secular newspaper in South Africa, published a story…”
This information is incorrect.
1. In 2014 Ted Wilson was informed of all this scandalous situation by a person named C.P. After a few emails CP’s address was blocked and his emails to Ted Wilson providing further info were rejected since.
2, Doesn’t Wilson have some responsibility in this scandal? After all, It appears that he expected it all would end up under the rug, especially after a lawyer from SID threatened CP. I believe that Ted Wilson was certainly not surprised when it was all published in the newspapers, but was certainly very frustrated that the action trying to silence CP had not worked as expected.
3. When Ratsara first said he would resign, Ted Wilson told him to “sleep over it.” What was TW expecting with this suggestion? He knew Ratsara had to resign. He knew it for about 2 years, and still wanted to maneuver the situation? To late, it was all in the public domain now.
4. It would be interesting to know if there are more people at the GC who knew about this issue, or if TW actually hid it also from those who work close to him. Someone has to be responsible for this scandal at the GC level.
5. The lawyer who emailed the threat to CP is also part of the conspiracy team. He should also be fired right now.
George, how do you know these things? If you would prefer to respond to atoday@atoday.org your response will be confidential. The Adventist Today team has had difficulty verifying many rumors related to this story.
Hi Monte,
I don’t think there is any need for confidentiality, since all I said is already in some way public knowledge.
Since the beginning of this case the main whistle blower, CP, has confided me a lot of information on what he was doing digging in the mud.
But, please feel free to identify any portion of it and I will be happy oto clarify as much as I can.
For convenience, if you prefer, my private email is: drtichy@gmail.com, but I have no problem dealing with anything in the open here.
“I heard some reports that in fact Elder Ratsara’s dissertation was unable to be found in UNISA’s library.” (Loren Seibold)
Some time around August/2015 I emailed Mr. Ratsara asking where could one get a copy of his dissertation.
Guess what? He didn’t have the decency of acknowledging my email, much less to provide the info I was looking for. Then I knew there was something nebulous and fishy about his dissertation.
Exactly why do you consider it an affront because Ratsara did not respond? I assume such persons in hi office receive so many emails that it may be physically impossible to respond to all of them.
As a matter of fact I see your name so often disparaging Adventism that I would not blame him for not responding.
My comment was to George Tichy who complained Ratsara did not respond to his inquiry.
Two main papers written for TOSC, the highest level committee studying the GC and church response on Woman’s Ordination, and the eloquent statements written by Brothers Finley and Morris about Pastor Ratsara’s life and work…will this be re-studied? How soft will his professional parachute landing be? as he (Ratsara) ponders how our church keeps him employed will we publish another book by him?
Long before his dissertation, this dear brother needed a pastor not enablers.
Paul S. Ratsara and Richard M.
Davidson, “Dealing With Doctrinal
Issues in the Church—Proposal for
Ground Rules”
Paul Ratsara and Daniel Bediako, “Man
and Woman in Genesis 1-3:
Ontological Equality and Role
Differentiation.”
“This is no ordinary story. Paul Ratsara is no ordinary man.” –Mark A. Finley, assistant to the president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
“Once you start reading this remarkable story of deliverance and transformation, you will be inspired and challenged to live with courage and holy boldness.” ———Derek J. Morris, editor, Ministry
The report on the study conducted by a Canadian conference that”demonstrated that the higher the academic degree level achieved by pastors in the conference, the more attenuated was their effectiveness as soul-winners.” That makes a lot of sense. With additional levels of education, most individuals come into contact with ideas which are much broader than that associated with a given sectarian perspective wheres the criteria for being “effective as soul-winners.” is how many individuals have you baptized into the Adventist Church. With broader perspectives, an individual might reasonably conclude that this is not the best criteria to use and refocuses his or her attention on more meaningful service to needy individuals..
There have been questions even by some of the local African leaders regarding the huge baptisms that have, and continued to be reported. Since number of baptisms is a major requirement for pastors it is very important that they are successful soul winners. The best metric for evaluating this is to determine the numbers five years later where attrition can be determined. Getting someone “in the tank” is a poor method for numbering successful soul winners.
It is alleged that Wilson knew of the situation for two years, but took no action until the public press made the charge of fraud.
If Ratsara is innocent he must be cleared. The church cannot simply ignore this and move on as if it had not happened.
If one of the division staff was a ghost writer for any amount let alone much of Ratsara’s dissertation it must be acknowledged and both the writer and Ratsara must face this information and honestly deal with it. IF, however, this rumor is false, both must be cleared.
IF it is proven that Ratsara did use a ghost writer then he is guilty of some form of academic fraud, and if it is proven that Wilson sat on the issue until forced by the public news item to face it, and if Wilson was offering cover for Ratsara so a strong supporter of Wilson’s personal positon on a contentious matter at the S.A. GC Session would give Wilson the support he desired, then Wilson needs to follow the action of Ratsara.
IF this is all evil speaking then those who have spoken evil must be brought to account. There is far too much evil speaking, which is given cover when we remain silent and allow it to happen, encouaring more of it.
Some very pertinent thoughts, Allen. Do you believe some posters have jumped the gun in these cases?
Allen,
The French have a lovely phrase: DEJA VU!
A ridiculous repetitive re-run of a previous event!
This playbook is pathetically predictable.
The scripted scenario runs as follows:
1. Esteemed church leader presents “original “. Material
later proved to be plagiarized.
2. A whistle blower ( Walter T Rea) blows the esteemed
leaders cover.
3. The church administrators ” circle the wagons”
4. The whistle blower is castigated, vilified and condemned.
If you don’t like the messenger, kill him!
5. When the mounting evidence becomes overwhelming,
Indulge in “spin” euphemisms and mockery to curtail damage.
6. Allow time to elapse, and then re-install the esteemed leader
on a higher pedestal than she had before
I do not know if EGW was ever personally confronted about
her plagiarism during her life time. If she was, did she deny
and prevaricate?
Ratsara compounded his cheating problem by repeatedly
denying and lying about it.
My prediction: as with EGW, this low life will after a
suitable elapse of time, be re-installed to his former position.
EGW and RATSARA are NOT good role models for our
multiple Adventist students world wide.
With the above scripted scenarios how can we possibly
teach our offspring, ethics, morals, and ACCOUNTABILITY???
yes – the spin was evident by the way the resignation was worded – absolutely no accountability – merely ‘humbly’ ……. moving onto to better things. Good for him, but somehow, I don’t see anything sincerely addressed. this is most dishonourable behaviour and yet it seems to be being rewarded!
Trustworthiness and Integrity seem to be unimportant for TW – he is totally excusing this behaviour and WHY?!
sounding more like Rome to me
When a person commits plagiarism as Pastor/Dr. Paul Rastara is alleged to have done, not only are they going against copyright laws and human rights, but they are also disrespecting the person whom they are stealing from. Sadly, although plagiarism isn’t something that people welcome, that doesn’t prevent them from committing it.
When all this occurs in the context of an Adventist Church Division President (there are only 14 persons holding such office) and exerting influence in academic, medical, administrative settings of a worldwide church it is not a small matter. All this has bigger implications if the President of our church delayed, obstructed, or minimized the issue of accountability. One can understand the pastoral and personal concern for our brother, but to overlook the damage or compound the crime with a cover-up would make an already serious and dangerous problem even worse.
I hope AT and others will remain vigilant.
Most people commit plagiarism because they have run out of ideas. They desperately need to ace something, but lack the ability and creativity, so they resort to copying other people. Nonetheless, one should never mix plagiarism with inspiration, imitation, or influenc
Sam Geli wrote:
“Most people commit plagiarism because they have run out of ideas.”
Another reason common among people with heavy responsibilities, is they do not have time to do everything they have undertaken. So the right “msanagement” decision is to delegate whatever can be delegated. It is very common in industry and politics and religious and charitable institutions, to have underlings draft statements, speeches and published articles, that go-forth under the name of the “top dogs”. And this also happens with much academic research where underlings do most of the heavy lifting but senior professors who revies and presumably mentor, also get their names on the publications. Ditto for patents.
The problem here is that proper attribution in academia requires that ALL of the contributors be acknowledged, not just the “top dog”. And in the case of one’s own doctoral thesis, the works of others and the sources, need to be properly documented. These are the modern standards of scholarship. And not always followed carefully. And routinely ignored in some academic institutions in various places.
I the allegations are true, then Ratsara would not be the first to earn an advanced degree under dubious circumstances, nor will he be the last.
“If the allegations are true, then Ratsara would not be the first to earn an advanced degree under dubious circumstances, nor will he be the last. But western academia may have higher standards that may be more carefully vetted. Anyone claiming to have completed a doctoral dissertation (were there orals) should be more than willing to share his opus and also give full attribution to all sources.
All to often, we love things and use people. It should be the other way around: we should use things and love people.
yes – the spin was evident by the way the resignation was worded – absolutely no accountability – merely ‘humbly’ ……. moving onto to better things. Good for him, but somehow, I don’t see anything sincerely addressed. this is most dishonourable behaviour and yet it seems to be being rewarded!
Trustworthiness and Integrity seem to be unimportant for TW – he is totally excusing this behaviour and WHY?!
sounding more like Rome to me