THEME: NATIONAL DECAY THROUGH SPIRITUAL APOSTASY AND POLITICAL GREED 

In the Church today, we have ministers and churches that preach, teach, and exhort the worship of money. They treat wealth, possessions, and affluence as proof and veritable evidence of salvation, redemption, and restoration of the human lost glory. They interpret scripture and measure progress and life in terms of material prosperity, worldly success and so-called “restoration of dominion.” 

Apart from the wrong teaching that money and gain, power, riches, wealth, and success are tenets of the Faith and the Kingdom of God, the church is now making the pursuit of the “broadway life” of power, position, possession, pleasure, fame, and vain glory— as an acceptable mission and life agenda approved by God. Consequently, the Cross, sacrifice, and suffering—the true pillars of the Faith are now rejected, sidelined, and ignored in many so-called churches. 

This has opened the door for charlatans, false prophets, and false teachers, people with familiar spirits, and practitioners of divination and sorcery, the occult, spiritism, and esoteric teachings to enter the church creating not only ‘Another Gospel’ and ‘Another Church,’ but also giving room to Satan, the Anti-Christ, and seducing spirits, wizards, witches, and Satan worshippers to deceive, bleed, misdirect, and mislead perishing millions, otherwise seeking Christ for life. They make folks miss on salvation, truth, life, healing, and deliverance, redemption, and restoration that flow from Christ. People rather now flock at the shores of the Deep Sea of Deception, Darkness, and Death. 

Another aspect of this vanity in the church is the open and mad rush for position and power, titles and girdles. Instead of ministers seeking, waiting upon, working righteousness, and faithfulness so to gain promotion in Divine acceptance, unction, and affirmation, men and women are now engineering Divine power and glory, politicizing, and paying for positions, titles, names, and girdles. Some even consult at fetish shrines for power and position in the Church. How sad! In the political arena today, there are mad rush and frantic efforts to gain power and position. This is deemed as a way of or a short route to riches, wealth, fame, and what can be described as ‘institutionalized dignity’. The Honorables and ministers, district chiefs, and the party functionaries granted public authority and power, money and men to use for the service of people and nation—instead spend and distribute the resources to embellish power and office and in the ultimate to consolidate position and power. The MP’s Common Fund, for example, can be seen as a device to boost party loyalty and for the transfer of public funds for the political party machine at the grassroots level. All this is immorality and corruption; all indeed is vanity. Man at his best is altogether Vain, says the Bible 

In this connection, it should not be surprising therefore, the open upheaval at the political party grassroots level in all the parties. Party chairmen, executives, polling agents, so-called ‘foot soldiers’ are crying foul everywhere. In the NDC, they are venting their spleen on DCE’s and civil servants.  All is clear evidence of corruption, abuse of office and mistrust, and of vanity risen in unprecedented scale in the history of the country. But the most alarming aspect of vanity at the political arena is the heavy dose of Intra- and Inter- political party rivalry which is causing much pain. It is raising evil, unrighteous. and unjust conduct, and wickedness in the politics of the land. 

There is intense and untoward rivalry, not positive competitive validation for opportunity to serve. Open confrontations, lies, fraudulent practices, and outright violence have become the modus operandi for gaining political office. Because of the failure of the church and the government, leaders of political parties and the nation to establish sound values, good, and acceptable standards of conduct in the land, the political parties on the whole are weak in public order, sound management and proper disciplined conduct at the party levels. 

Thus, the nomination and election of presidential candidates in all the parties have generated into ‘war,’ not in sound and genuine competition in ideas, measures, and competence, but in insults and acrimony, fraudulent and wicked practices, bad blood ‘altogether! 

We do not need to comment here on inter-party rivalry in national politics. The mention of it is a story in itself. This is an open secret in the land to the extent that handing over from one legitimate elected government to another, is now be-devilled and fraught with much a weight of clamor, acrimony, violence, and wickedness. There are virtually open violations of law and the abuse of office, authority, and power. The whole nation has been made victim of unrighteous, unjust, and wicked operations and governance. 

This is a shameful phenomenon in a nation claiming to be Christian, peaceful, and democratic. Both outgoing President Kufuor and incoming President Mills are supposed to be Christians. It is sad, then, that the Church, Government, and Council of State are all helpless in bringing peace, righteousness, justice, and sanity in the open transgression and discrimination, the display of vanity and violence, clamour, and wickedness. At the bottom of it all, it is tantamount to incompetence and illegality. The confusion is undermining the very legitimacy of government. 

In the next installment, we shall treat the upsurge of vanity in chieftaincy and among the youth in the land. Suffice to state meanwhile that the spirit of vanity is on a rampage in the nation. The Church, the government, and leadership in the nation have all fallen prey and become victims of it. 

Accordingly, spiritual, political, and social order in the land stands in need of serious investigation and review. Otherwise, national development and progress will suffer from spiritual and moral derailment. In the end, Ghana will be overrun by spiritual and moral depravity. There may be trees of physical and technological advancement, roads, schools, and hospitals but without fruit of peace, righteousness, justice, and progress for the honor, dignity and glory of Ghana. 

Life and all will be vanity upon vanity. Yes, all is vanity. 

June 15, 2010.