By Cletus Abaare

The Crystal Clear Lens can authoritatively confirm that members of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana are threatening to go onto the streets and demonstrate against the leadership of the church for reducing the status of one of the most respected churches in the country to a political propaganda tool for the opposition New Patriotic Party.

According to some of the members who spoke to the paper yesterday after Church service in the capital city, Accra and other parts of the country, they were disappointed in the leadership of the church for trying to sink the hard earned image of the church into muddy waters by responding to pressures of the NPP to help it achieve political power at all cost in the upcoming general election. “There is no doubt that the Presbyterian Church of Ghana, arguably, is one of the two biggest churches in the country has contributed immensely to the politico-socio-economic development of Ghana from the pre-independence era to date. Thus, every Presbyterian can be proud to belong to such a distinguished religious denomination. So we will not sit and watch our leadership dent our image by engaging in politics, one of the aggrieved top persons told us”

According to them, the leadership of the church has for sometime now dragged the name of the church in the mud and brought its good name into public ridicule. This, the aggrieved top and senior members of the church who would prefer their identities undisclosed explained that over the years, the leadership had shamelessly taken a particular partisan position in our national discourse, clothing this body of Christ in NPP colours.

“They have, in the eyes of many ordinary Ghanaians, turned the church into a wing of the NPP. They issue communiqués and statements against the government only when the NDC is in power. When the NPP is in power, they see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil of the (NPP) government if they do the very things for which the church condemned an (NDC) government.

It is on record that they never condemned the Kufuor-led NPP government for the brutal murder of the late Ya Na, Andani Yakubu II and forty of his elders in broad-day light nor did anyone hear a whimper from them when Alhaji Issa Mobila and Roko Frimpong were brutally murdered all under the NPP”, he noted.

Another member who did not mince words on the leadership which we will reproduce here angrily remarked, “My brother the hypocrisy of our leaders is becoming too much and we ill not allow it and very soon if something is not done about it we will organize a massive demonstration against them.

Just a few years ago, the then moderator of the Presbyterian Church, Rev. Yaw Frimpong Manso, was involved in the writing of a letter condemning Former President Rawlings for allegedly likening President Kufuor to Ataa Ayi, a notorious armed robber. They conveniently chose to forget that Kufuor started it all in the Western Region when he said Rawlings was ‘sasabonsam’ (Satan).” It should clearly noted that the moderator and leadership of the Presbyterian Church saw nothing wrong with Kennedy Agyapong’s genocidal speech, calling on Ashantis to club Ewes and Gas on the head.

The leadership of the Presbyterian Church failed to condemn Akufo Addo’s ‘All-die-be-die’ mantra. They have failed to speak up against Anthony Karbo’s assertion that if the NPP is not declared winners in the December elections, there will be an Afghanistan kind of war in Ghana.

The leadership of the Church was also when former National Chairman of the NPP, Peter Mac Manu, said NPP supporters will go into the December polls with guns, cudgels, stones and machetes.

Today, we are witnessing another double standards and hypocrisy from the leadership of the Presbyterian Church. The Moderator, Rt. Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey, in a communiqué by the church on Monday advised the Chairman of the Electoral Commission not to embark on the creation of the 45 constituencies as it would plunge the country into chaos. Also, he called on government to do everything to stop the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) from total collapse.

Clearly, these two comments, as usual, are in support of the stance taken by the NPP. In the case of the creation of the 45 constituencies, how could their creation plunge the country into civil strife? Did it in 2004 when 30 new constituencies were created under the Kufuor administration?

About the NHIS, is the scheme really dying? So far, only Nana Akufo Addo, flag-bearer of the NPP and the Moderator of the Presbyterian Church think it is dying. The vast majority of Ghanaians obviously do not think so. They continue to access health care under the scheme. With more and more people getting on the scheme because of the confidence they have in it, it is natural that the schemes’ finances will be under pressure. Whenever there is population increase, resources are under pressure. This is basic common sense and must not be lost on the leadership of the Presbyterian Church, especially its Moderator. Rt. Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey and the leadership of the church should realize that hundreds of thousands of its members are supporters of the NDC just as they are of the NPP. They joined the church in their quest to seek salvation. They are in the church with the hope they can be in tune with God because the Good Book declares that “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am in their midst.”

Most people have become members of the Presbyterian Church in their search for the peace and serenity in their lives. They see the church as a sanctuary from the political and economic world of chaos. To therefore seek to bring politics into the church is want to destabilize their well being. Is that what the Presbyterian Church is for?

Any attempt therefore to turn the church into an appendage of the NPP will be resisted. The Presbyterian Church is bigger than any individual, group of persons or political party. It is God’s church. It is the body of Christ. The double standards and the hypocrisy that is being visited upon it by Rt. Rev. Prof. Emmanuel Martey and the leadership is therefore an eye sore. It is nauseating!