I am highly appalled at the highest level of hypocrisy exhibited by some “Men of God” under Ghana’s 4th Republic: Very Rev. Professor Emmanuel Martey, Pastor Mensah Otabil etc.
This comes on the back of a critical analysis of the sermons by the above-mentioned men of God between 2011 and December 2016 and the sudden shift in tone of their sermons from leadership problems in Ghana to Ghanaians being the problem.
My frustration and disappointment is succinctly summarized by what Former Prez. Mahama said on March 21st 2018.
He quizzed, it’s unfortunate that “something is pardonable when one government is in power but when another is in power it’s unpardonable.
Things that the media would have been so loud about under my administration, it happens every day and it’s like it’s business as usual.
That is the hypocrisy of our civil society and religious and traditional leaders, everybody is quiet, suddenly some say they don’t watch TV anymore and that they watch animals,”
However, contrary to his assertion of am “now watching animals kingdom on international tv stations”, Paster Mensah Otabil in October 2016, prior to the December 2016 general elections, admonished his congregation to be interested in the politics of Ghana and be critical observers and contributors.
This is what he said, “in the past, Christians have pulled away from a lot of the systems but we have to find a way to step into it and redeem it…we have to step into the corridors of power and not just stop reading and watching them"
I ask, has something changed now, the reason he is personally not interested in the politics of the state (Ghana)? And is it okay to preach to your congregation to do “A” whiles you do “B” as a Man of God?
Speaking at the International Central Gospel Church’s Greater Works Summit in 2013 in Accra, Pastor Mensah Otabil attributed the problem of Ghana to ‘leadership crises’.
He argued “as we see in Ghana today there are many people experiencing frustration and indignity of their life, they have been reduced to begging for their daily sustenance due to lack of vision and poor governance”.
Similarily, in February 2016 Paster Mensah Otabil in one of his sermons and in what seemed liked inciting Ghanaians against the then government argued “We can’t just be happy because a road has been tarred. We can’t just be happy that we didn’t have electricity now we have electricity.
We can’t be happy with minimals”, he said, adding: “…citizens must have an appetite for better,”.
If what Pastor Mensah Otabil said (“The problem of Africa is because folly is set in dignity and the wise have been reduced to nothing.
People who have no business telling anybody anything shoot their mouths everyday and people who have something to say shut up every day and the rest look on”) in one of his sermons in October 2016 is anything to go by, then I ask, Pastor Otabil, is it that currently, “folly is set in dignity and the wise have been reduced to nothing”, the reason for your deliberate silence even in the face of our current caving leadership crises, etc.?
Quoting Sam Jonah, I ask again, “is [your] defeaning silence suggestive that [you] are no longer concerned about the issues [you] complained about not too long ago, particularly when those issues persist…
The molestation of and in some cases…, corruption, the harassment of Anti-corruption agents”. Why were you soo vocal and preaching doom between 2012 and December 2016? Did anything changed and has anything changed now?
Interestingly and very predictable is the rush to his defence by his congregation and close acquaintances.
However, and before you do that emotionally, without a critical consideration of the issues raised above, I hope you don’t want to be remember as one of “foolish born again christians, who are believers and not thinkers... you lie to them, they believe.. & they are the easiest to deceive... wake up Ghana”.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends” and the ‘Good Men’ of our Republic- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where has the moral compass tilted to?
My next episode will be on Prof. Emmanuel Martey (Former Moderator of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana)
Emmanuel Osei, Policy Analyst | Researcher | Management Consultant
Disclaimer: Views expressed are solely that of the author. Thinknewsonline.com will not be held accountable for any malicious content.