A fragment of God and the church in Ghana
Last Tuesday, Parliament reconvened and a short discussion, among other issues, on an age-old public policy issue of returning full control of educational institutions founded by religious bodies back to them, took place.
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The discussion, brief and inconclusive as it was, reflected the deep rift in our society as a result of the place and role of God in our lives on one hand, and the churches and other religious organisations in place to advance our religious beliefs on the other.
We all seem to share in the universal belief that there is a solid connection between religion and morality.
The previous week, an outrage was committed at a famous institution in Cape Coast founded by The Anglican Church which has virtually passed into history unremarked by the secular authorities charged with running our educational institutions.
The outgoing headmaster of Adisadel College, allegedly an Anglican clergyman himself, was lavishly seen off with four rather comfortable vehicles to begin his retirement. It would be good to know if this terrible faux pax by the grateful parents/donors would have been countenanced if the Anglican Church was in full control of the institution; never mind that the beneficiary of this brazen act is a serving priest of the church.
Why was it necessary to parade these private gifts on campus? If the gifts were to inspire others in similar positions, then they should have been displayed rather at a meeting of the Conference of Heads of Assisted Secondary Schools [CHASS]. I am still waiting for the powerful Adisco Old Boys to strike a blow for sanity in this matter, if neither the church nor the ministry will.
This very week, the Diocesan Bishop of my own Methodist Church of the Kumasi Diocese, the Right Reverend Professor Osarfo-Katanka, was reported as calling on the church to introduce the charismatic style of worship to replace the orthodox style allegedly currently in vogue. According to the report, he claimed this will help in the development of the church. Develop into what?
The fastest-growing church in this country is the Church of Pentecost and its varied sects. Its style of worship is pentecostal, evangelical and yes, very charismatic. It abhors the prelatical pretention of the orthodox churches, and preaches a rough and ready gospel tailored to the man and woman in the street, unadorned with any pretence of exotic knowledge, fantastic and ridiculous priestly titles and garments which are all the rage in my own Methodist Church and other churches.
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Add to this brew, the long-running appetite for some of our religious leaders heading churches with outlandish names and practising religious mumbo-jumbo, to declare every now and again, the prophesied demise, illness and bad luck certain to befall identified secular leaders they dislike personally, accompanied with similar doomsday scenarios about the political, economic and social prospects of our dear country because, supposedly inferentially, our leaders and all of us have fallen short of the requirements to be in the good books of God so as to enjoy prosperous, healthy and peaceable lives.
These particular leaders have only un-nutritious, unleavened bread for our people. In reality, they passionately hate all Ghanaians. Not once have they prophesied peace, development and happiness upon us as children of God.
My brother Kwesi Pratt hit the nail right on the head when he bemoaned the replacement of hard, productive work with the seemingly-religious industrial conspiracy to leave our fate to God, the very God who gave us all the necessary faculties to fashion out our own way in the world.
I remember way back in early 1979 that returning the schools to full religious control was one of the campaign pledges of the late Kwaku Boateng, who had formed a party that vanished as quickly as it appeared on the scene, following the lifting of the ban on political parties on January 1, 1979.
Then known as Rev. Kwaku Boateng, he had been an MP and Minister of State for Education and Interior in the Nkrumah regime in the First Republic. He resurfaced in the Fourth Republic as the first leader of the National Convention Party, which chose the late Kow Arkaah to partner President Rawlings as Vice-President in the first government of the Fourth Republic.
It is clear to me that the churches, like many other civil society institutions, farmers and professions, had their considerable incomes decimated by the formation of the Cocoa Marketing Board in 1947 or so, and are in no financial position today to finance the administration of the schools they originally founded. In any case, they were all fee-paying institutions.
The later ‘nationalisation’ of our schools, therefore, was a natural consequence of policy choices crafted in London before Nkrumah came to power in 1951. Of course, these choices, replicated here, gave secular leaders enormous powers over the education of us all, and in turn created new imperatives and justifications which seem trite and incontestable truths today.
As we fumble our way through these difficult choices, we happily confuse ourselves by supposing and acting as if the church as an institution is the only template to appreciate the role of our differing faiths in our personal and national lives. It is not.
Many of our church leaders today, especially those in the one-man sects, are only on egoistic power trips, lavishly funded by poor men and women who need real scriptural food of hope and faith in our God-given capabilities, do not pay for the magnificent lifestyles of these sybarites in rich silk and woollen suits. Some of these charlatans in cassock always travel first class with luggage that Hollywood actresses would envy.
Their egos are so immense that they routinely order otherwise intelligent members of their flock to marry partners they have chosen for them; all in the name of God!
By all means let us continue to seek better ways to run and finance our schools. By all means let us include religious institutions which have blessed this country with some of our finest institutions; but let us beware of those who use the name of God to obscure the debate.