Our Religious Leaders Have Failed Ghana!!!- Concern Clergy And Christians Of Ghana
Members of the Concern Clergy and Christians of Ghana (CCCG), have observed with deep regrets, the position taken by the leadership of their colleagues from other religious groups, regarding the acceptance of the two ex-Guantanamo detainees in Ghana.
Below is a copy of their statement:
We, the members of the Concern Clergy and Christians of Ghana (CCCG), have observed with deep regrets, the position taken by the leadership of our colleagues from other religious groups, regarding the acceptance of the two ex-Guantanamo detainees in the country.
The members of (CCCG) see these condemnations and intolerant pronouncements by some of the religious groups, particularly the Ghana Catholic Bishops' Conference and its national President, urging Ghanaians to "hit the street" and demonstrate against the ex-Gitmo detainees as unfortunate and indictment on the clergy in Ghana, as well as the Christian fraternity as a whole.
Have we, as clergymen and Christians in Ghana, who pray every day, given up on God? Where lies the faith of these believers/clergymen, who are asking the detainees to be sent back?
For a man of God/ religious group to say…"they will lead a massive demonstration against government if it remains headstrong on their call to send the Gitmo two back" and "Ghanaians should wake up and take to the streets to show that they are serious," is distasteful.
We ask, should a man of God condemn someone, who God has not condemned [Luke 6: 37] or has the clergy or some of these so-called men of God, forgotten about their Bible which says blessed are the merciful and the peacemakers [Mathew 5: 7, 9]?
We are of the view that, the inability of the leaderships of the various religious groups to encourage Christians through relentless prayer, is creating anxiety among the citizenry.
We have no issue with concerns being expressed by the public, however, we believe our clergymen should not be the ones fuelling and fronting this charge.
Ghana is known to be a peaceful nation, therefore, when persons who are supposed to be men of God are making statements, they should be mindful of their commentary, as they represent God.
As men of God and for that matter Christians, let's talk and act biblically.
We wish to state that, it is Godly expression of Christian virtues to accept these brothers into the country.
This is to prove to the world that, we trust in God and practice His love. As Christians, we believe that God loves everybody including sinners.
What we should understand is, not all the ex-convicts are criminals because in the bible, people like; Joseph (Genesis. 39:20-23), John the Baptist (Mark 6:17-20), Jesus (Luke 22:54-71) are all ex-convicts, including apostles such as Peter (Acts 12:1-10), Paul (Acts 16:23-34) among others.
If these righteous people were all ex-detainees, then we should know that, not all prisoners are criminals. Our focus now should be watching and praying for them.
Let us put our political interest aside and see to the welfare of our brothers.
Conclusion
Like we said earlier, (CCCG) do not have any problem with the politicians, social commentators, pressure groups, and other civil society organizations, who said the government should send the two ex-detainees back.
But for the clergymen and religious groups who are supposed to preach peace and compassion, to be hopping from one radio station to another and championing the deportation of the ex-detainees, is not only unfortunate but disappointing.
But where were these religious groups during the dreaded intra-party political violence and vandalisms which took place recently when innocent Ghanaians were attacked with clubs, guns and machetes without any provocation?
Does these unwarranted attacks and vandalisms not amount to terrorism which deserves issuing of statements to condemn?
We believe that, our religious leaders must not use their positions to clandestinely push the interest of politicians.
To this end, we call on any clergyman, who feels like entering into full time politics should do so, but should first hang the cassock and stop hiding behind the pulpit.
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