Church leaders told to remain politically neutral

The Reverend Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, Chairperson of Asante Presbytery, has called on church leaders to ensure that they remained politically neutral.

This would enable them not only to win the trust and confidence of the political parties and their supporters but also help them to effectively play the role of peace makers.

They should use the pulpit to encourage political tolerance to help protect national unity, peace and cohesion.

He reminded the people that adopting antagonistic political postures could only lead to tension and trigger violence.

The Rev Dr Opuni-Frimpong made the call at a day’s seminar organized by the Kumasi Zone of the Asante Presbytery for senior ministers of the church at the Ramseyer Memorial Presbyterian Church in Kumasi, on Friday.

It was held under the theme: “Promotion of peaceful 2012 election in Ghana” and provided the platform to sensitize the ministers about the need to contribute to the promotion of peace before, during and after the general elections.

Topics discussed included “Causes of election conflicts”, “the political climate in Ghana”, and “the role of the church in ensuring peaceful polls.”

The Rev Dr Opuni-Frimpong urged them to participate fully in the upcoming biometric voter registration exercises and assist to educate the church members to do same.

He advised the youth not to allow themselves to be used by any political party to create confusion and anarchy during the electioneering campaign.

He also called on church members to “keep a prophetic voice, fast and pray” for the nation to appreciate the enormous blessings showed to it by God.

A lecturer at the Political Science Department of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Mr Kwasi Amakye, expressed worry about some utterances and slogans by supporters and leaders of some of the political parties, and said they were a worrying signal about danger and urged the church to rise up and fight that.

Some of the participants called for intensification of political education to help defuse tension ahead of the polls.