General News of Friday, 4 February 2022
Source: www.ghanaweb.live
2022-02-04Christians responsible for 70% of all public sector corruption - Rev. Frimpong-Manso suggests
Rev. Professor Paul Frimpong-Manso, President of the GPCC
The Church must take pole position in corruption fight
Christians for majority of corrupt public servants
The Church must reap challenges of COVID-19 and other challenges
The Church must play a crucial role in combating corruption in the country and it must do so decisively starting from within.
This is the position advanced by Reverend Professor Paul
Read full articleFrimpong-Manso, President of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC).
Without citing any scientific data, the top clergyman suggested that Christians, contrary to the tenets of the faith, were complicit in most high-level public sector malfeasance year in and out.
What the GPCC boss said:
“How do we defend the Christian faith when 70 per cent of all monies siphoned illegally from the public purse every year were stolen by Christians who are supposed to be the Light and Salt of this world?
“How can the Church as the Body of Christ defend the Christian faith in these last days in a morally degenerating and corrupt society where the lack of fear of God and the love for money is reaching the tipping point?” he asked.
Rev. Prof. Frimpong-Manso according to a Ghana News Agency report added that a defence of the Christian faith went beyond “mere rhetoric, sloganeering, condemnation and militancy.”
The event at which he spoke:
The GPCC President spoke on Thursday (February 3, 2022) at the opening ceremony of the 53rd Annual Conference of Heads of Churches and Organisations (CHCO) at Gomoa Fetteh in the Central Region.
The four-day capacity building Conference is on the theme: "Defending the Christian Faith in Contemporary Times" (Jude 3-7; 20-21).
The over 230 denominations attending the event will discuss issues affecting member churches of the Council, a reconstitution of the National Executive Council and the promulgation of the Council’s revised constitution, the GNA report noted.
Name and shame the corrupt
He identified corruption as a spoiler to the country's democracy, its stability and development efforts calling on the Church to act as the bulwark to curbing financial malfeasance.
“Defending the Christian faith will require the Church and every Christian not only to speak up against the canker of corruption in society but also hold ourselves accountable first, by teaching and disciplining the corrupt public officer and private businessperson in our Churches to eschew corruption and petty stealing,” he said.
He urged pastors and church leaders not to just extol members who gave huge sums of tithes, offerings, and other monies to support God’s work but probe and be sure of how those individuals raised such monies, the GNA report added.
Admonition about emerging challenges and opportunities
On the subject of the challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic specifically and other challenges, he tasked all present to reposition the Holy Spirit as an anchor in these times.
The church, he stressed; needed to restrategize to better face the challenges and to reap from their opportunities for growth of individuals and of the church as a collective.
“For the Church, these emerging challenges should awaken us to the opportunities therein to re-assert our transformative influence as the Salt and Light of this world,” he said.
