Weekend Talk: ‘Choose you this day’

My pastor friend and I went to visit a traditional ruler.

This traditional ruler was once a minister of a local church who decided to abandon his ministerial calling to become a chief.

“So, how is life treating you as the chief of this community?” My pastor friend asked his former colleague in ministry.

“Quite fine,” the chief said, adding, “If you’re referring to the ancestors, let me tell you, when we call them, they respond and come to us.”

My pastor friend hadn’t asked him about ancestors but about his chieftaincy.

Why did he rather choose to tell us about his ancestral worship?  Simple: that is what consumed him.

Before accepting the chieftain role, he vowed that he would never sway from his faith despite becoming a chief, but sadly, he did.

Ancestral worship

Therefore, as reported in the July 12 edition of the Daily Graphic, the Catholic Bishop of the Navrongo-Bolgatanga Diocese, the Most Reverend Alfred Agenta, hit the nail on the head when “he expressed concern over the growing trend of some Christians reverting to traditional and ancestral forms of worship.”

To Bishop Alfred Agenta, “the phenomenon reflected a spiritual identity crisis.”

For this reason, “he urged the faithful to recommit to the core values of the Christian faith and reject practices that weaken the spiritual and moral foundations of the church.”

Solemnly, the bishop declared, “We are witnessing a growing number of Christians who are returning to their ancestral homes in the form of worship.

This signals not only a spiritual confusion, but also a weakening of faith.”

Syncretism

One can sense the frustration in the bishop’s submission when he insinuates that the efforts of the church fathers “would be in vain” if all that church members show for their hard work and sacrifice was syncretism.

In Christianity, syncretism is defined as “The merging or blending of Christian beliefs and practices with those of other religions or cultural traditions.”

An example of syncretism “involves incorporating non-Christian rituals or philosophical ideas into Christian worship or theology”.

So a Christian sits in church with a talisman on his waist!

He prays to God and also consults a family deity or a witchdoctor.

Syncretic Christians would have their Bibles at home in addition to their black magical pots.

They give their offerings at church and also visit the shrines to perform soothsaying rituals.

For some people, this situation may seem to be a way to make Christianity more adaptable to different cultures.

But, in reality, syncretism is a corruption of Christian doctrine and a departure from biblical truth.

And Bishop Agenta didn’t mince words pointing out this truth.

Is God a foreigner?

Worshippers of African traditional religion say, “We had our own mode of worship before the white man brought his religion.”

They accuse Christians of worshipping a foreign God, or a white man’s God—as if God is a foreigner! 

Our response to this accusation is simple: Christianity is not a white man’s religion; and Christ, who founded Christianity with his blood, was not a white man.

Christianity was not born in any white man’s country.

Christ, born of Jewish descent, was neither American, European, Asian, nor African.  

Christianity first came to Africa via an Ethiopian, a high-ranking official in charge of Queen Candace’s treasury, who believed in Christ when the evangelist Philip explained to him Isaiah 53 (Acts 8:26-40).

The great East African spiritual awakening that spread across that sub-region in later years had its foundations from the witness of the Ethiopian finance minister.

Many centuries later, European and American missionaries, in response to Christ’s call for believers to “go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), carried the Good News to all parts of the world.

Today, Ghanaian missionaries are moving to Europe, America and Asia, and those who receive their message don’t describe their faith as “black man’s religion.” Christianity is not tied to any race.

Make a choice

Idol worship, ancestral sacrifices and paying allegiance to gods other than the Almighty God are what God detests most, which is the subject of his very first commandment to humanity (Exodus 20:1-6).

Bishop Agenta’s outcry sounded like the challenge Joshua gave to the Israelites when they settled in the Promised Land and began to dabble in idol and ancestral worship—

“Now fear the Lord and serve him with all faithfulness,” Joshua urged them.

“Throw away the gods your ancestors worshipped and serve the Lord.”  

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living.

But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:14-15).

Every Christian must make that single-minded commitment to the Lord we serve, and not pay allegiance to any other deity.

The writer is a publisher, author, writer-trainer and CEO of Step Publishers.
E-mail: lawrence.darmani@gmail.com