Today my attention has been turned to a very appalling canker that is eating up the moral fibre of most citizens of this country and beyond. Ghana is a country that is widely known for her total commitment to religious activities. Citizens of this country are so much enthused with Christianity to the extend that majority of them become unrepentantly sold out to religious charlatans. Religious fanatics has taken the better part of our lives. Godly speaking, it is clearly obvious that every right thinking person in this country would wish that we unanimously organize a funeral ceremony to mourn the death of common sense in our motherland to reshaping our ways of seeking God's favour. It is notably clear that the word of God has been turned into a golden pot for men and women of God to mine from. What an era we are in! This era is enough an indication that there are enormous false prophets in the country as stipulated in the Bible. All the activities being carried out by these people represent everything objectionable according to the Holy book.
Interestingly, the gullibility of most Ghanaians have made it so difficult for them to realize the Biblical fulfilment of false prophets and the happening of weird things that signify the end time. The use of religious fanatics has been the order of day in this modern Ghana. Propagation of the word has been metamorphasied into money making business for some men and women of God. Is it not ironical to have uncountable men and women of God in the country yet social vices are consistently on the ascendency? This is laughable indeed! People must shine their eyes.
It is an incontrovertible fact that Ghanaians are so much engross in religious activities yet poverty, hardship, sickness and other debilitating events still engulf us as a country. What could be the cause? Is it that the men and women of God are not preaching the word of God as it should be preached? It is a clear fact that most of the men and women of God these days preach about wealth acquisition, witch craft attack, non-feasible prophecies inter alia. I can therefore say without any shroud of doubt that these are some of the things that push most of our young people out to pursue their destinies as prophesied by their pastors.
It is not surprising at all to see young men and women on daily bases, moving up and down from one church to the other in search of powerful anointing water and oil to solve their problems. Most of these young people sit under sheds from morning to evening while expecting miracles to happen to them. The lazy attitude of most people coupled with the get rich quick attitude informed the rapidly skyrocketing existence of fake men and women of God in the country.
It is noticeable that a lot of churches dotted across the length and breadth of this country are miracles performing churches. This has led society now entrapped in a restless and relentless consumerism where materialism becomes the new religion, money the new God. The so call men and women of God who are invariably seen at every corner of the street usually fill bottles with unsafe water and name it 'solution water' while frytol oil, call anointing oil. This is what they use to deceive desperate wealth seekers and the vulnerable who think these so call pastors have solutions to their predicaments. These pastors in my own view have caused more harm than good to the nation. They have allowed their parochial interest to mislead the rightful interpretation of the word of God. Evidently speaking, the word of God these days is interpreted by most men and women of God to sweet their personal agenda.
The non-existing miracles anticipated by individuals from their pastors has injected an indescribable laziness in the Ghanaian youth today. It is unfathomable the kind of trust congregations have on their pastors. In their unrelenting quest to have their problems solve, individuals give out the small amount of money they have to their pastors as consultation fee for false prophecies. Others use their last money to buy unsafe bottled water and frytol oil usually christine, 'anointing water and oil', in anticipation of having their problems solved. What a country we live in! The saying that if you follow too much the sweetness of honey, you will find its bitterness is practically manifesting itself in our day to day pursuit of miracles from religious charlatans yet most miracles seekers cannot see it. A pragmatic example is that a number of people spent all their money to consult pastors and bought anointing oil and water with the hope of curing their ailments yet their situations get worse than before. Sometimes such people even find it difficult to get proper food to eat after spending their money on these stomach seeking men and women of God. What a pity!
This broad day intelligent armed robbery is usually well calculated as the perpetuators brilliantly craft mouthwatering and enticing advertisements that easily cajole the general public into believing in the non-existing miracles of these unfaithful servants of God. The rampant social vices we are experiencing can partly be attributed to the astronomical rise in the number of these fake men and women of God in the country. Why do I say so? I said so because these pastors play on our intelligence with their so called prophecies. Imagine a young man is prophesied to be brutally rich within a month; after the time of his richness elapsed without him being rich or seeing any signs of his richness, what do you expect him to do? Certainly he will do everything within his capacity to realize his destiny. Some pastors go to the extend of accusing elders as being responsible for others sickness or death. No wonder others attack and kill their old ladies and old men on the grounds that they are witches and wizards. This has contributed in no small way to social vices in the country. This is notably a bad practice and must be condemned in no uncertain terms.
This dubious way of making money by these broad day robbers is widely known by Ghanaians yet we allow others to fall into their hands. It will interest you to watch a pastor normalizing and moralizing glaring odds which are objectional at every level. Usually, they exhibit zero element of moral equivalence between what they say and what they do. So I wonder the kind of pastors they are. This is completely preposterous. Ghanaians must wise-up and prevent these charlatans from playing ostrich with them. This behaviour has also affected the performance of our students in no small way. These days students heavily relied on the use of anointed water and stickers of their pastors to enable them pass their exams. Interestingly, the stickers of these charlatans portray everything about their parochialism. We see the image of Jesus Christ rather minute on either the sticker or posters while the pastor's image is very big, bold and visible. The cheap ways these days students want to achieve academic excellence is the more reason why they continue to record poor academic performance in our schools. The increasing level of armed robbery, sakawa, murder and suicide cases is the reppling effect of religious fanatics.
It is sometimes surprising to see learned people and scholars with some of these stickers on their cars, fridges, doors etc. Well, I am not against it but let's always look at the motive behind that sticker. What is more surprising is that seldomly will you find people using Jesus Christ sticker on their cars rather they use their pastors stickers. What is the secret behind your pastor's sticker? It appears multitude of Ghanaians have allowed themselves to be manipulated by these charlatans in their convenient game theory of religious deception. In fact, the element of common sense seems to have departed from a number of people. There is the need for us as right thinking persons to rethink our ways of seeking God's favour. The growing appetite that characterize our pursue for worldly things has taken the better part of our lives as a people. There is time for everything and we need to exercise patients for the Lord to do His part. Frankly speaking, laziness and impatient in this country have deeply been ingrained in the minds of most people. Let me make it clear that no man or woman of God has the keys to your success but you yourself. You have the key to unlock your door of success. All you need to do is pray earnestly and wait on God.
In conclusion, it is largely clear that most Ghanaians are being duped and extorted by religious charlatans because of their desperate attitude to get rich quick. I want to use this piece to call on discerning Ghanaians to shine their eyes and save themselves from parochially interested men and women of God. Let me also call on teachers and other well meaning stakeholders to revise their notes on our rich and powerful cultural values and inculcate them into the young people. There is the need for us to revisit our cultural values and make sure that children and youth imbibe them so that we can have a proud society. Let me hasten to remind you of the false prophets clearly stated in the Bible so that you don't fall into their traps of personal aggrandizement.
derbieraphael@yahoo.com
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