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The Chairman of the National Peace Council, Most Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Asante, has bemoaned the situation where leaders of the church are tagged as being partisan when they state their position on issues of national concern. He said such tagging of religious leaders and statements was not in the interest of national development and, therefore, asked Ghanaians to build the value of political tolerance as the country prepared for the December elections. Rev. Prof. Asante, who is the Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ghana was delivering the sermon at the 26th anniversary of the Men�s Fellowship of the Accra Ridge Church sunday. He said dissent was indispensable in any democratic state and that it was important that Ghanaians appreciated that fact in order to co-exist peacefully. �Even within the same party, one is bound to encounter individuals with different political views which may run counter to the collective position of the said party. The implication of this is that there is the need for political tolerance, which expresses itself in the willingness to co-exist with others. This system of tolerance unites rather than divides the state,� he said. He said it was important for individuals to build the peace and self-tolerance in themselves first before attempting to build that of the nation as it was impossible for a man who was troubled internally to impact the nation�s peace positively. �It is important for us as citizens of democratic Ghana to respect the ideals of political tolerance including nurturing the ability to peacefully debate issues and exchange opinions without recourse to invectives, political insults and uncharitable attacks on political opponents,� he said. Most Rev. Prof. Asante said intolerance, which is counter to the virtue of tolerance, narrowed people�s perception of politics and subsequently shaped their behaviour, adding that tolerance was crucial to multiparty democracy and had to be nurtured by all. He underscored the role of the Christian community in achieving this goal. Most Rev. Prof. Asante said a majority of Ghanaians believed in either the Christian or Muslim faith and as such if the two major religious groups decided to be tolerant, there was no way Ghana could go down the road of chaos. He said the gospel had a social implication and so the success of the Church could only be measured by how well it was able to positively contribute to solving problems of society. �A living Church in each generation and each place redefines its reason for being, re-evaluates its primary role, seeks to understand the culture, the socio-political and spiritual concerns of its constituency and works out methods for accomplishing its task. When the Church succeeds in doing this, it effects positive change in people�s lives and entire societies are enriched.� The Church fails in its core agenda and weakens with the society in which it exists if it does not achieve this feat, according to Prof. Asante. The President of the Ridge Church Men�s Fellowship, Mr Joseph Cleland, said it was critical the youth, who form a majority of the country�s population, made a firm resolution to stand for peace. He said the youth were the most vibrant section of Ghanaian society and the most vulnerable to manipulation by politicians for violence. Mr Cleland said a free and fair election was a matter of informed choices and, therefore, must be devoid of acrimony, insults and violence. According to him, this informed the fellowship�s choice of �Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God (Mathew 5:9)� as the theme for its anniversary. He said the day�s sermon, on the theme; �The role of the Christian, before, during and after the Presidential and Parliamentary Elections,� was to serve as a wake-up call on all actors in the up-coming polls to foster peace. He said the challenges associated with peace efforts must be seen as opportunities to construct durable peace. He said the fellowship, as part of its anniversary celebration, had already donated an undisclosed amount of items to the Akuapem School for the Blind in the Eastern Region.