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Inside <strong>February</strong> <strong>26</strong>, 2018 .qxp_Layout 1 2/23/18 8:01 PM Page 5<br />
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HERITAGE MONDAY, FEBRUARY <strong>26</strong>, 2018<br />
WWW.DAILYHERITAGE.COM.GH<br />
African Pentecostalism<br />
encourages laziness<br />
BY NANA BRAM OKAE II<br />
T<br />
here is this perception<br />
in Ghana that<br />
religion or spirituality,<br />
(let me put it that<br />
way), has taken the<br />
centre stage of our<br />
lives and for this reason many<br />
things that happen are ascribed to<br />
spirituality and not explained in<br />
real physical terms.<br />
Spiritual reason<br />
A 79-year old person dies and<br />
there is a spiritual reason given for<br />
it; one would have thought that the<br />
death of a 79 year old person<br />
would rather call for celebration as<br />
the person has passed the 70-year<br />
mark believed to be ordained by<br />
God. So also is there a spiritual<br />
reason for a 30 year old who dies;<br />
never mind whether he is a sickle<br />
cells anaemia patient or not.<br />
There is always a spiritual reason<br />
given for motor accidents in<br />
this country but we don’t question<br />
the excessive speed at which most<br />
of our drivers go so they lose control<br />
when an obstacle crosses their<br />
path.<br />
Mental illness<br />
Somebody has a mental illness<br />
and instead of taking the person to<br />
a medical facility for proper diagnosis<br />
and medication, the person is<br />
taken to a prayer camp where the<br />
illness grows from bad to worse.<br />
This is because the pastor of the<br />
prayer camp has no medical idea of<br />
what is afflicting the person and<br />
believes saying prayers only will<br />
bring about healing of the mentally<br />
challenged person. This will not<br />
work.<br />
Another person is observed losing<br />
weight by the day. His or her<br />
relations tell him/her that it’s the<br />
devil at work for which reason he<br />
or she must seek spiritual intervention<br />
immediately. So, he or she is<br />
taken to a ‘powerful’ pastor and<br />
the condition doesn’t get better. In<br />
fact, it gets worse.<br />
Diabetes<br />
A member of the family suggests<br />
that the person should be<br />
taken to the hospital for the doctor<br />
to examine him. And lo and behold,<br />
when tests are run, it is discovered<br />
that the person has<br />
diabetes and hypertension, a condition<br />
that has nothing to do with<br />
the devil.<br />
The expression: ‘Your life will<br />
never be the same if you come for<br />
prayers’ as heard from the mouth<br />
of bishops, founding overseers,<br />
apostles, pastors and what-haveyou,<br />
is mistakenly believed by<br />
gullible Ghanaians to mean that<br />
hard work is not the answer to<br />
problems.<br />
Lazy<br />
Many Ghanaians have been<br />
made to believe that going to<br />
church premises twice or more a<br />
day and saying prayers at the top of<br />
one’s voice will bring about miraculous<br />
answers to problems. They<br />
therefore become lazy and rely<br />
only on prayers for solution to<br />
their problems.<br />
People throng to churches and<br />
prayer centres in anticipation of a<br />
quick fix to their financial problems,<br />
their marital problems, their<br />
work place problems and many<br />
other problems, including social.<br />
To their dismay and disappointment<br />
however, nothing significantly<br />
happens to their lives and<br />
because the pastor keeps on urging<br />
•Congregants in prayer mood<br />
them, they keep hope alive that<br />
they may have their break-through<br />
sooner or later through prayers.<br />
Miracle<br />
This miracle will not happen.<br />
You will only get impoverished if<br />
you visit the pastor everyday. You<br />
part with money any time you call<br />
on the pastor and any time you attend<br />
church service.<br />
This should tell you that you are<br />
adding to the swelling of the wallet<br />
of the pastor any time you do this<br />
while reducing the size of your<br />
own wallet.<br />
You may have realized that the<br />
church you attend founded by a<br />
single individual has a very magnificent<br />
edifice and up-to-date musical<br />
instruments and well decorated<br />
interior.<br />
Several cars<br />
You may also have realized long<br />
ago that your pastor/founder has<br />
several cars, some of which were<br />
bought brand new. His wife also<br />
has cars and each of his children<br />
who have attained their majority<br />
also has their personal cars.<br />
Have you stopped to ask for<br />
one moment where the pastor got<br />
money to buy all those things?<br />
You see, it’s the collective contribution<br />
of all the members of the<br />
church that has made it possible<br />
for the pastor to do all these<br />
things. The church building is even<br />
registered in his name and so when<br />
he dies it devolves on his children.<br />
Therefore, never take it literarily<br />
if a pastor says ‘if you come to me,<br />
your life will never be the same.’<br />
It’s an attempt to woo you to the<br />
I’m afraid African Pentecostalism is not encouraging followers to<br />
work hard as espoused by Jesus, our Lord. Rather, it’s encouraging<br />
followers to look up to the pastors for miracles which never<br />
materialize while at the same time fleecing the congregants for<br />
their unacceptable personal life styles and opulence.<br />
church to part with your money<br />
and make him richer and richer<br />
while you get depleted.<br />
Salvation<br />
You must rather look for salvation<br />
and that is what the Bible says.<br />
And that is what Christianity is all<br />
about and not riches.<br />
Christianity<br />
Christianity is about the teachings<br />
of Jesus Christ as recorded in<br />
the Bible. That is to say, a Christian<br />
must mandatorily be a scrupulous<br />
adherent or follower of the teachings<br />
of Jesus Christ and such a<br />
person must subscribe to everything<br />
Jesus said or taught. Anything<br />
short of this is unchristian.<br />
Many people have formed their<br />
own churches and are doing exactly<br />
the opposite of the teachings<br />
of Christ. Jesus Christ abhorred<br />
the use of the church for commercial<br />
purposes but in our day and<br />
age, the church is the commercial<br />
house where the name of Christ is<br />
used to fleece money from gullible<br />
and unsuspecting church members.<br />
Advise yourself, dear reader;<br />
salvation lies in your own hands<br />
and not in the hands of any pastor<br />
who will lure you to sow seed or<br />
part with money to make life better<br />
for himself and his family.<br />
Hard work<br />
Jesus Christ likes hard work as<br />
illustrated in the Parable of the<br />
Talents. The person who had 5 talents<br />
turned things around and had<br />
them doubled. The one who had 3<br />
talents also traded with them and<br />
doubled the stakes.<br />
But the one who had the least<br />
talent dug the earth and hid it there<br />
and reproduced it when the master<br />
returned from his trip, without<br />
working with it. He is a lazy person<br />
whose attitude to work Jesus Christ<br />
used to admonish us.<br />
Jesus Christ says if you are a<br />
lazy person and you do work to<br />
earn money for yourself and family<br />
the little that you have will be<br />
taken away from you and those<br />
who have more by dint of hard<br />
work will have more added to<br />
theirs.<br />
I’m afraid African Pentecostalism<br />
is not encouraging followers to<br />
work hard as espoused by Jesus,<br />
our Lord. Rather, it’s encouraging<br />
followers to look up to the pastors<br />
for miracles which never materialize<br />
while at the same time fleecing<br />
the congregants for their unacceptable<br />
personal life styles and opulence.<br />
Achimota Forest<br />
Take a stroll to the Achimota<br />
Forest at noon everyday and you will<br />
see crowds of people coming out of<br />
the Forest after prayers—working<br />
hours. Why have they put their petty<br />
trading and other jobs aside on<br />
working days to pray for miracles?<br />
I live in a place where several<br />
churches abound. On several occasions<br />
members go on prayers-spree<br />
morning, noon and night neglecting<br />
anything they can do to bring bread<br />
and butter to the table for their families.<br />
Prayers without hard work will<br />
bring disaster to anybody who indulges<br />
in that. And African Pentecostalists<br />
should know this and stop<br />
fleecing the flock.