When Ghana fails: religion will be the biggest failure

Over the past few years, I have always had this inner pressure of writing a piece on today’s religious practitioners who have all of a sudden saturated the airwaves and print media with their ‘truthful’ attempts at inciting the citizenry against the current government.

The particular area of my coverage is the Christian leadership in this country who has suddenly become the seers of evil in our governance system.
I do anticipate the bashing I will be getting from Christendom but much as they have the right to open their mouths and be heard – so do I have and I have mentally prepared myself to receive them.

For the past over hundred years, Christianity has dominated in our engagement with God in this country. Its earlier impact of instilling moral discipline in us requires over emphasis. And in those days, the societal ills that we are experiencing today were almost nonexistent. However, our belief factor has fallen in recent years and hypocrisy has taken control of us and especially our current crop of some clergymen.
Of late – and grudgingly so, the WORD OF GOD has unashamedly been commercialized to the extent that it is the hottest selling ‘commodity’ that some crooks have taken refuge. That is why in every new human settlements in Ghana, it is the churches and drinking bars who compete for space.

The true Word of God is never preached – it is the words of prosperity which they use to hypnotize unsuspecting entrants into captivity. They, therefore, end up becoming captives of the so-called men of God and not GOD HIMSELF.
Through the almost daily, weekly and monthly doll-outs of these congregants, the founders in no time make it to the class of the wealthy; and it is at this stage that they begin to see things differently which lead them into becoming ‘POLITICAL MEN OF GOD’.

GRANDIOUS LIFESTYLES

These ‘men of some gods’, after successfully fleecing the flock to give abundantly to God in order to be rewarded by God in heaven, end up becoming fabulously rich and begin to live in a class of their own.
They will not end at their vulgar acquisition of earthly property – they go an extra mile of insulting the very poor congregants who drop their last coins and those who may have stolen to donate into the church basket for being ‘stupid’.
How else can one fathom, when a reverent minister, can stand before a large crowd of his church and tell them in the face that ‘…As for me and my family – poverty is very faaaaaaaaar away from us…’ (para phrased).

This did not tickle his church members to see it as an insult they could ever have from their leader. They rather applauded in claps and cheers. But the worst was yet to come. For those who are poor in the church were to come out openly and declare their poverty levels to qualify them to dip their hands in the basket of church collection and take as much as their needs demand.
And this insult to the poor was taken up by the media as a novelty that was worth hyping.

Sometime in 1997 or thereabout, Kweku Sintim Misah (KSM), dared these latter day men of God, and told them in plain language that they were using the name of GOD negatively for their own selfish gain. It was a delight to have watched the episode on G-TV “Talking Point” at the time.
Despite their vehemence against KSM’s stance he was able to stand his ground and proved them wrong. He told them in plain language that their life-styles go thousands of miles beyond the teachings of Jesus the Christ and against what he stood for.

The grandeur appearance of these men of some gods is as a matter of fact becoming too nauseating to the teachings of the GOSPLES. Acquisition of fleets of luxurious cars and many dollar-prized homes in first class residential areas have become their daily desires.

The meekness for which Christ admonished us to live, has given way to lifestyles of FLAMBOYANCE by these ‘men of their gods’. Beyond these, is the manufacture of all kinds of vulgar titles for themselves such as APOSTLE-GENERALS and I am expecting in the very near future to hear of Arch Bishop-General, as well as Prophet/Prophetess-Generals.

Fake academic doctoral (PhD) titles are not left out! And that is why Junior High School (JHS) graduates who are into ‘ministry’ have been able to conjure them as part of their title identities.
Thus far have we denigrated the WORD OF GOD for our parochial desires of earthly acquisitions of spiritually worthless wealth and confusing titles.

POLITICAL/RELIGIOUS CORRUPTION

Greed – is a social canker that has the potential of destroying a whole society. And this is what the church is expected to preach which I have enjoyed during the early days of my Catholic teachings. The church still espouses these dictates where ‘prosperity’ is not a key lesson.

The emergence of non orthodox churches especially in our days – is going the opposite direction. ‘Donate more in order to be given abundantly’ is the tenure of today’s teachers of the ‘word of god’.

Who will fail to heed to this call of donating-to-be-given-in-multiples. However, these men of god must be told in plain language they most often than not force their congregants to go to the extremes of either stealing or corrupting themselves in one way or the other to enable them meet their financial commitment to their churches and leaders.
I remember sometime back in the 1980s, the then Chairman of the Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC), Flt. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, once said the only genuine way of making money is by lottery wins. What he did not know is that workers have to sometimes steal from their employers or corrupt themselves in order to stake the lotto in the first place.

That is what is happening in today’s Christian churches. Christians are stealing in order to meet their ‘obligation’ to a god. Some even get themselves into the illicit drugs business and doll out filthy dollars for church activities. A popular pastor in the early 1990s was captured by “The Chronicle” newspaper, being given some flashy cars by an internationally known Ghanaian drug baron who is currently doing time in a foreign prison.

And, indeed, congregants of churches of late have to engage in other dubious means to draw them to the container that receives collections. They have to necessarily resort to this because the pastor has told them the more they donate – the more the reward. But GOD, the MAWUSOGBOLISA (apologies to Konkonsa of Radio-Gold fame), will not accept such filthy money and they can only get their reward from the devil and not HIM.
It is, therefore, not uncommon to see some filthy men occupying front pews of these churches. Their rewards, however, does not come from the true GOD we must worship – they get them from the devil they quietly engage.
I was unpleasantly surprised when a leading member of one of the charismatic churches state that they (pastors) don’t force or put their hands into the pockets of their members to take money. I honestly don’t know whether he was genuinely ignorant of the reality or he feigned it.
The fact must be told that the fear they put in their followers is enough to ‘steal themselves’ for the pastor and church. This is what the Akans in Ghana call ‘nyansa krono’ (using intelligence to steal).

Of the various religions in Ghana, Christianity has more than half of the population as members. They go to church every Sunday, attend prayer-meetings on daily basis; men and women’s fellowships are not left out. All-nights are not also left out!

Their men of gods minister to them. If they are really teaching them the TRUE WORD OF GOD, I don’t think Ghana would have been as rotten as it is today. And it is in the midst these scandalous godly practitioners, that we have some of them coming out to see evil in our governance system.

They have intentionally decided to forget that about two-thirds of ministers of state, the civil service and other public office holders profess to be Christians. They go to church every Sunday including ordinary ‘spiritual’ encounters yet we have the social malaise with us known as CORRUPTION.
It ought to be stated – and EMPHATICALLY so, that if governance in this country has FAILED, then the Christian community is the hugest FAILURE. We ought to tell these reverent ministers that if corruption has its ugly head weighing on us as a country – these people have to blame themselves as the encouragers of these heinous crimes against the state of Ghana.
The WORD OF GOD has now been commercialized to the level where rogues have taken over and butchering it into shreds.
As Emmet Fox once stated; “…To be afraid is to have faith in evil than GOD…”, I dare, therefore, state that some of the reverent ministers are the prime quiet robbers, who, through subtle means push their members to rob from the state to satisfy a god that they have been fooled to belief.

However, these same ‘surrogates’ of GOD, today – at the least opportunity open their ‘truthful’ mouths, voices and eyes in seeing all the ills of our governance system in this country. So-called CRUSADES are now used to incite the citizenry against the governing Party of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
I must state, and emphatically so – that I very much get disturbed about the rising state of corrupt practices in the governance of this country. The huge financial loss to the state which is as a result of corrupt practices is very much disturbing to many of us – even as supporters of the NDC.

Having said this, I wish to state that it is even more disturbing to have observed these men of god keep quiet over the years for this canker to grow beyond its mitigating levels only to see them talk. And to me their talking now is of no value unless they admit that they themselves are a FAILURE in the fight against CORRUPTION.
And I know that they will not do what I demand of them, because it means telling their congregants not to donate handsomely towards the ‘work of the true GOD’, who will not accept gifts that emanate from naked THEFT and CORRUPTION.
I will touch these fake anointed men of god who are out to fleece us for their comfort – but revere the true ANOITED MEN OF GOD who will tell the truth at all times regardless of the political Party in government.
The fact is that most of them have become PARTISAN POLITICAL ‘MEN OF GOD’ and must be identified as such, nothing less. They should not be allowed to hide behind pastoral clocks to incite the citizenry against government.

Societal development in all spheres – be they negative or positive take a gradual process. The positive ones must be nurtured to grow while the negative ones are tamed from maturing. And this is where we have collectively FAILED in the fight against corruption.

Corruption has been in bed with us over the decades and nobody attempted fighting it effectively. If we have now awoken from our slumber to contain it, let us do so as collectively as we can. Nobody should see him/herself as “HOLIER THAN THOU”.

In concluding this write-up, it is worth drawing the attention of some bishops who have gone public and stated that we have prayed and prayed decades without count but the problem is still with is still with us. Some of them in their messages almost incited the populace against government.
I don’t know what was in their heads! They should have known that if their prayers have not helped matters, then they should have realized that they have all along been pretending to be praying to GOD – indeed they have been praying to someone else and not HIM.

They are, therefore, the WORST FAILURES before any other Ghanaian and the political leadership.

Indeed – if Ghana FAILS, Christian churches must see themselves as the biggest FAILURE.

Camillus Maalneriba-Tia Sakzeesi

Email: [email protected]

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