Trinity Theological Seminary at Legon, Rev Prof Johnson Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu,
The President of the Trinity Theological Seminary at Legon, Rev Prof Johnson Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, has bemoaned the fact that Christianity is gradually becoming nuisance as a result of the conduct of some men and women in cassock and their members.
Rev Prof Asamoah-Gyadu, who is a minister of the Methodist Church, Ghana, is particularly worried that some members of the clergy, especially those who identify themselves as prophets, engage in various acts which are not in consonance with the doctrine of Christianity.
“You see them sometimes kicking people, others stripping people naked, stepping on the bellies of pregnant women. So it’s almost like religion or Christianity, which is something that’s to build, has become a nuisance,” he stated at the weekend on Newsfile on Joynews.
“If you read the theology of prophecy, from what Paul says is to encourage, strengthen, it shouldn’t be a source of nuisance to the public,” he added.
Money making
The man who is in charge of the raising of members of the clergy, mainly for the orthodox churches, stated that he had lost faith in most of the people parading as prophets, saying a lot of them had turned the prophetic ministry into an economic venture.
“More than half of the people who consider themselves prophets, I don’t consider them to be prophets. All you have to do is to interrogate what they do in the light of Biblical teaching, and you’ll realise that a lot of them are just doing it either for commercial purposes or economic reasons. Of course, that is not to deny that the prophetic [ministry] is genuine,” he said.
He further condemned the prevailing attitude of some Christians who abandon their various trades to attend church service, especially on working days, insisting that this attitude, if not checked, can have an adverse economic impact on the country.
“I have a friend who established a savings and loans business, and this individual purposely sited this business in the market so that he can loan money to the market women. The business collapsed because these market women took the loans, shut up their shops to go to church on weekdays,” he recounted.
Checks
Rev Prof Asamoah-Gyadu acknowledged the fact that the state cannot prohibit people from freely exercising their religious rights, adding, however, it can institute mechanisms to check the conduct of errant pastors.
“The state cannot stop people from going to church on a weekday, but the institution for which these people work can keep an eye on them and ensure that they are fulfilling their duties for which they are paid.
“So, as much as we need to call out these prophetic figures, for causing fear, panic, and chaos in society, we also need to exercise our civic duty in calling people to order,” he stated.
He encouraged the Inspector General of Police (IGP) and his team not to relent in discharging their duties diligently in relation to the activities of these errant prophets.
“They should not be cowed by the threats in any case,” he added.
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