Apowa (W/R), April 17, GNA - The Western Regional Minister Mr. Paul Evans Aidoo, has appealed to churches to focus on and preach against evil and indiscipline that are sweeping through the Ghanaian society. He said this picture presented great challenges to the church and expressed the hope that God would give Christians inspiration to launch a campaign against indiscipline and other social vices. Mr Aidoo said this in an address read on his behalf at the 22nd Presbytery conference of the Western Presbytery of the Presbyterian Church of Ghana at Apowa on Thursday. The conference serves as an opportunity to deliberate on key national issues, societal challenges and matters peculiar to church and state relationships.

He said churches for some time now had relegated the discussion concerning HIV/AIDS to the background. "It is time that the church plays its leadership role in the crusade for the prevention of the virus," Mr Aidoo said. Rev William Nkrumah Boahen Appiah, Western Presbytery Chairperson, said in the run up to the December 2008 election, the country witnessed a state of polarization that was unprecedented in the country's democracy since 1992.

He said one would have expected that after the election Ghanaians would put behind them all the acrimony, bitterness, insults, the accusations and counter-accusations that went on during the party political campaign but this had not been the case. Rev Appiah said people had rather taken entrenched positions according to their political leanings by insulting and accusing each other in both the electronic and print media. He said the church was very much concerned about this kind of situation which, if not checked, could destroy the nation. Rev Appiah appealed to all politicians, the media and the general public to watch their utterances and behaviour and desist from making comments that would inflame passions. "No one can build our nation for us except ourselves. Let us therefore stop the wrangling and trust in God and pray so that He will enable us build our nation," he added. 17 April 09