In the book titled ‘Bible and Sword’, the author, Barbara Tuchman, traces historically the reasons which drew the British to Palestine and the Middle East. According to her, it was for two major reasons: first, to translate the Bible into English, and later, to control the trade route to India and also access the oil in the Middle East.
These twin spiritual and imperial motives, the Bible and the Sword, seem to have defined the biblical path of our Men of God. They use the Bible to teach their members, and they use the Sword to slay the same members.
It is now the norm for the so-called Men of God to take advantage of the spiritual needs of their members to extort money from them. The commercialisation of churches has led to religious leaders living lavishly off the sweat of innocent members.
Despite recognising the constitutional provision which guarantees the right to worship, The Chronicle is indeed appalled by the way churches prey on the vulnerability of their members under the cloak of religion and spirituality.
It is common knowledge that pastors sell bottles of ‘miraculous’ water to their members at inflated prices, where the ‘holy water’ packaged in small bottles have been revealed to be normal pipe borne water.
There have been instances where church members were beaten to pulp on live television for them to confess to offences they had not committed.
The proliferation of faith-based organisations in Ghana has attracted charlatans and imposters who parade as men of God, only to extort money from their members and live extravagant lives. They perform fake miracles, which has been prophesised by the Bible. According to Matthew 24:24, false messiahs and prophets will appear and perform great signs and wonders to deceive the people.
It is in the light of the above that The Chronicle applauds the one-man mission embarked upon by Kennedy Agyapong, Member of Parliament for Assin Central, to expose the fake pastors in our midst. The Member of Parliament has had a running battle with Bishop Daniel Obinim, Head Pastor of the International God’s Way Church, over the past months.
This has resulted in Bishop Daniel Obinim being picked up by the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) and charged in court for the publication of false news and forgery of document, contrary to sections 208 and 159 of the Criminal and other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29) respectively.
The Chronicle waits with bated breath to see how this story unfolds.
Whichever way the case ends, it must serve as a warning to all the Men of God out there not to take God’s word for granted and decide which of the twin spiritual and imperial (commercial) motives, the Bible or the Sword, that they have to apply to serve mankind.
The post Editorial: ‘Bible & Sword’ in the hands of the ‘Men of God’ appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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