God must be crying!

Fraudulent lifestyles, cheating and indecency are not new to Ghana. We have always had all these vices but the level that it has grown to, is what is worrying and the time has come for us to fight it. Otherwise, we will be doomed as a country.

In all these, one would have expected church leaders to be at the fore and take action to bring down the growing vice-infested living that has engulfed the country.

But that is not to be because, some of the pastors themselves are neck deep in it. It is a really sad situation that those who should be the leaders of God’s flock on earth are those who are going against Him in every way.

A lot of pastors have gone wayward in every sense of the word and one wonders what made them decide to take up that vocation in the first place.

It is a very difficult job to be a pastor because you must be seen to be doing the right things all the time. The position of leadership is not forced on those who have decided to wear the collar that marks them out as Men of God. It is their free will and so, why would they go against their calling and support the vices that they have vowed to fight?

It is for this reason that a good friend of mine once said, each time it rains, it does not mean that God is showering blessings on us, rather, it means He is crying to alert us to our wrongs so that we may change from our bad and sinful ways.

From my friend’s thinking, that is the reason why, it takes so long to rain. This might be a joke, but from all l see around me, l think God must be crying a lot. Most of us may not see it like some of us do, since He may crying within.

The “Old Man Above” is in pain because of the criminal things we do daily without any remorse. Take the pastors who commit adultery daily and yet have no shame and still stand in the pulpit to preach the “good news.”

Think also of the pastors who take everything from the very poor among their congregation in the form of “sowing seeds.” Then, think and think again of the pastors who use church funds contributed by the poor members to build mansions fit for royalty. Why won’t God cry?

These “Men of the Collar” or “Men of God” who have decided to go wayward do so, because there is no way of determining who has the calling of God and who hasn’t. There are many who should not be pastors in the first place, but we have no way of knowing because there is no means by which ordinary mortals can judge who has the spirit or not. That is why the Swahili proverb says, Ajuaye ni mungu, which can be translated as “the one who knows is God. God knows the unspoken secret.”

That is why, a crook can simply use tricks to become a Man of God and lead a congregation. These are the men whose preaching make you question where they were coming from.

Sadly, in matters of the spirit, there is no peer review. Sometimes, l wonder if the Christian Council and the Association of Pentecostal Churches have a way of correcting their wayward members. It isn’t for nothing that the Scripture says in Exodus Chapter 20 verse 7, “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name.” Despite this admonition, the Men of God who use the Bible to teach us the followers, go against the wishes of God daily and all they do is to stop us with “Thou shall not touch the anointed” as if, anyone with the anointing is insulated from sin.

Some of these pastors think that by having huge bank accounts and wearing the latest designer clothes, they may be able to hide their darker sides. God, they have forgotten, is omnipotent and omnipresent. They may not have heard of the Zulu proverb that says, “the most beautiful fig may contain a worm.” They are well dressed but are filled with worms. Making wealth is good, no doubt about that, however, a Tanzanian proverb cautions that “make some money but don’t let money make you.”

It is the waywardness of the church leaders that has brought us to where we are. If pastors do not show any conscience, how can we blame the followers when they sin? That is why church members do not have any qualms when they steal state properties and funds.

Some of these stolen funds find their ways to the pastors as “Blessings” and instead of asking questions, these gifts are received and those offering it are prayed for. If we were asking questions, no reasonable church leader will receive a top-of-the-range vehicle from a member whose life income does not come near the cost of the gift. Unfortunately, we have become so materialistic that nothing matters more than what we can flaunt.

In some homes, there is no peace because husbands and wives do not trust each other. Those who have tried to seek the help of Men of God realise too late that they were rather inviting the devil into their homes. Why is it so? It is all because of the lies that some Men of God have perfected into an art-form. Some of them are able to use the Scriptures to defend all the crooked things that they do.

The consequences of all this is that children have no real role models to learn from or inspire them. That is why straight from school, our children find nothing wrong in cheating in examinations. After all, they see their parents and notable figures in society do the wrong things and no one complains.

That is the reason why a police officer would have no shame to openly demand money to hide a crime. That is why a customs officer would take money to allow an importer to pay less duty. And that is the reason why, an immigration officer would allow a foreigner into the country without the necessary documents. All these vices are committed without listening to the voice of conscience.

I have watched the Minister for Lands and Natural Resources, John Peter Amewu, almost in tears trying to fight all the ills that have been done to the country’s environment and wonder if this can be sustained? Similar crusades have taken place in this country and ended abruptly because those whose duty it is to ensure that the right thing is done simply compromise their positions for personal gain. We know them but in some cases, applaud them because at the end of the day, these are the people who show the wealth and material things that we love to worship.

This country would have been a wonderful place to live in if we had not allowed greed, avarice and vice to control our lives.