The Ghana Charismatic Bishops Conference is opposed to proposals by Ghana’s Parliament to have churches in the country regulated.
The conference says such attempts would appear to be a declaration of hostilities between the Church in the country and government which will not be helpful for national cohesion.
Some Members of Parliament (MPs) last week requested for a law to regulate activities of churches solely owned and run by individuals and self-professed pastors who engage in all sorts of illegalities.
The legislators argued that there was a need for Parliament to critically investigate the activities of these churches and pastors to protect Ghanaians from exploitation.
The MPs said churches and pastors have been engaging in all manner of unacceptable practices in the country.
They added that a certain level of regulation is required to prevent these churches and pastors from engaging in abuse, indoctrination and other activities that are not in line sound Christian teaching.
But in a statement, the conference said the government cannot regulate people’s Christian belief and as such, attempts of regulation will be a glaring bias against the Christian faith and religious beliefs of citizens.
While stressing that the government must allow citizens to use their own judgment to patronize churches and prophets, the conference said that government must recognize that the failings in national leadership to provide solutions to issues is what has encouraged Christians in some cases to turn to their God for salvation.
The conference further advised Parliament to focus on more pressing issues such as abandoned health facilities, bad roads and related road accidents, perennial flooding, decline in quality education, growing spate of armed robbery and filth.
“We will encourage Parliament to kindly, rather pay attention to the issues that Ghanaians are forced to have to solve by prayer. We suggest the Parliament attend to the pressing issues in Ghana such as:
- The absence of good roads across the nation and the terrible accidents which occur because of our very poor narrow roads and highways. Legislation about the poor drainage and serious flooding are of great concern to our nation today.
- The decline of the quality of education in the country. Let us rather legislate about the widespread and perennial leakage of exam papers in the nation that characterize Ghanaian education today.
- Let us concern ourselves with curbing the epidemic of armed robberies and murder in the country.
- The government should see to the new hospitals like the Legon Hospital , that stand unused and deteriorating , the poor health care situation in the public hospitals where patients have to bring in their own private nurses to look after patients.
- Let us concern ourselves with legislation about the uncompleted and abandoned building and housing projects scattered all over the nation.
- There are also serious concerns about the spread of slums in Accra and huge rubbish dumps in the city. Laws to regulate the spread of these slums in the city would be most appreciated.
- Indeed, any attempt to regulate or determine who and what is acceptable in Christianity or in the church would be considered as a declaration of hostilities between the Church of God in Ghana and the Government of Ghana. This we don’t think would be helpful for our beloved nation,” the Bishops said in the statement.
About the Ghana Charismatic Bishops’ Conference
The Ghana Charismatic Bishops’ Conference was founded by Bishop Dag Heward Mills, whose ministry now comprises over 3,000 churches on every continent.
It is chaired by Bishop Kwame Yirenkyi Ampofo. It’s General Secretary is Rev. Kwasi Deh.