Moderator fires politicians

By William Yaw Owusu

Monday March 22, 2010
The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, Right Reverend Dr. Yaw Frimpong-Manso has lambasted politicians accusing them of “polarizing and dividing the country for their selfish and parochial interests.”

“We have allowed politicians particularly those in the major political parties to divide us and polarize the system. Our walls of love and fellow feeling, traditional values and democracy have been broken, giving way to political divisions, hatred and political polarization,” and asked Christians to “rise up and pray to neutralize the current situation.”

Rev. Dr. Frimpong-Manso said this at a special service at the Rev. Dr. Nantoma Memorial Congregation at Kanda in Accra to induct Festus Ohene Kwafo as the Director of Administration and Human Resource Management of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana.

Preaching on the theme “Let us rise up and build: Building on Christ our foundation”, the Presby Moderator said “as Christians, we should resolve not to allow politicians to divide us. We must speak against politics of division and hatred. It is destroying our beloved country.”

He said the politics of division and hatred had reached an alarming height where even people who are fasting and praying for the nation are humiliated and insulted in the media saying “God wants to see a very prosperous Ghana so Christians will not relent in their effort to pray for the nation for that to happen.”

“As a nation our walls of communalism, discipline, rich cultural values, sound morals and identity are broken, giving way to tribalism, indiscipline, immorality, and loss of cultural identity”, he lamented.

He said “look at Jos-Nigeria, Sudan, the Ivory Coast and many other African countries where people are being killed due to political polarization and religious intolerance. Is that what we want in Ghana?”

“Some of us do not know how to swim so that when there is trouble we can run onto the Atlantic Ocean. We should do everything within our means as Christians to stop the polarization and division of our country. We can use prayers to achieve this.”

He said “we should see this nation as our only nation and always strive to maintain and enhance its image as our common heritage and possession from God. We can only build a strong, purposeful and growing church and nation when we rely on Jesus Christ as our solid foundation.”

Rev. Dr. Frimpong-Manso said the time had come for Ghanaians to reappraise the foundation on which “we have built and continues to build our lives, marriages, businesses”, adding “those built on fraud; corruption, deceit and the rest will not last.’

He entreated the youth of the country to continue to live for Christ saying “when you rely absolutely on the Lord, He will guide your feet and lead you to greater heights.”

He also urged those in positions of authority to strive for knowledge, wisdom be consistent and show commitment as well as show discipline and live above reproach.

The Moderator asked the people to respect the authorities put in place to govern saying “God appoints leaders in a society to avoid the danger of confusion” and also those in authority to respect the will of the people saying “when an individual or a group of people think they have the indisputable mandate to determine the people’s political destiny we would be calling for anarchy in our society.”

Also see : www.dailyguideghana.com