‘Don’t bow to foreign pressure on homosexuality’

The National Director of Evangelism of the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church, Ghana, Rev. Emmanuel Antwi- Tumfuor, has said the government should never bow to any foreign pressure to legalise homosexuality in the country.

That, he said, was to save the country from God’s anger for legalising such abominable act.

“The church will continue to be loud and clear in condemning such attempts aimed at promoting homosexuality in our society.

“No amount of aid promised by the developed world should make Ghana adopt that abominable act to save our beloved country from God’s anger. Let our actions as religious leaders paint good image for our various religious groups and give glory to our Creator,” he said.

Rev. Antwi-Tumfuor, who is also the Pastor in charge of the Elom Parish of the Evangelical Presbyterian (EP) Church at Ho-Bankoe in the Volta Region, said this in his New Year’s Message.
Sanitation

He called on Ghanaians to join forces to deal with the sanitation problem facing the country to prevent the outbreak and spread of diseases as result of poor sanitation practices.

According to him, poor sanitation was still a major national concern and that there was the need for all to come together with a resolve to deal with the problem through the proper disposal of wastes.

“This will save the millions of cedis spent treating diseases contracted from poor sanitation”, he added.

National unity

Regarding peace, Rev. Antwi-Tumfuor said Ghanaians needed to be tolerant and always work towards national peace and unity, irrespective of their religious, ethnic, educational and political backgrounds.

“Our common identity is and should always be Ghana first, where we explore the strength of unity in diversity to accelerate development.

“It is in this regard that we as a church should continue to pray for our country so that all communities can feel part of the national development agenda,” he said, adding that “our people irrespective of their geographical locations deserve good source of drinking water, good schools, hospitals, roads, accommodation and employment opportunities”.

Partnership

Rev. Antwi-Tumfuor called on the church to partner the State to develop entrepreneurship as a strategic goal in all forms of training including apprenticeship programmes, for young people to have the passion for self-created jobs.

He said the strategic entrepreneurship agenda should be backed by vigorous patronage of made in Ghana products to motivate increased production for domestic and foreign markets, thereby generating more revenue for national progress.

Job creation

“We as churches in our programmes must also continue to explore socioeconomic ventures to complement government’s job creation agenda. One area with huge potential for employing majority of our young people is a well-coordinated agricultural sector and its value addition chain integrated with current ICT infrastructure.

“It is no secret that our churches and other religious bodies are found across the country. So with purposeful coordination of agricultural initiatives among the various religious groups we can generate employment avenues for our teaming youth. This will give us the moral right to use our church and other religious gatherings to discourage our young people from embarking on those hazardous journeys outside our shores for better lives,” he added.

Rev. Antwi-Tumfuor noted that the unemployment situation was a major development challenge which called for a pragmatic approach and commitment at all levels of national life to tackle it, saying that the large numbers of young people desperately looking for jobs were exposed to some heartless individuals who exploited them with the promise of securing them non-existent jobs abroad.