Pastors thriving on vulnerability of poor, needy in Ghana – Opuni Frimpong

It has become the norm that so–called men of God exploit church members in the name of prophetic ministrations, consultations, etc. to the detriment of these persons and for their own selfish gains. Former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana, Rev. Dr. Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong who sees this as absurd and incorrect has called for immediate action to be taken.

Speaking on the '21 Minutes with KKB' show, he cited some instances where church members, in the name of God and religion, have been subjected to absurd situations.

“As at now, there are churches in Accra who will not allow members to go to school, children to go to school, today, in the name of God, there are churches that will not allow people to go to the hospital and I have had instances, I was on a media platform and she spoke in Twi “I was pregnant and I went to the hospital and when I came, the Pastor beat me”.

“You are a member in that church, you are not supposed to go to the hospital, and a pregnant woman went to the hospital, she came back and the pastor called her in front of everybody and whipped her and she doesn’t see anything wrong, she is happy forgetting that what happens to a pregnant woman can affect the baby in the womb but the woman spoke with joy, she called into Peace FM”, he narrated.

In a separate instance he explained, “A pastor, in the name of prophecy, said that God has given him lotto numbers and he needs 200 people that he is going to give the lotto numbers and each one must pay him 50 Ghana cedis so quickly 200 people lined up, interestingly, the number he gave to you is a different number from what he gave to another. All the 200 people got different lotto numbers all coming from God. At the end of the day, 2-3 won, this is common mathematics. I know a woman who says she paid the 50 cedis 5 times and she still hasn’t won”.

He proposed the establishment of an independent body to supervise the activities of churches to ensure such activities are stopped and men of God involved punished accordingly.

“You’ll realise that in the name of religion, there are people who are thriving on the vulnerability of the poor and the needy in Ghana……We need an independent body to respond to the abuses in our system”, he stated.