To be Possessed by the Drum and Maracas: Reflections on Contemporary Ghanaian Christianity (Part II)

Shakahola shook the world. Hundreds of people starved to death to meet Jesus because a “man of God” told them to do so. Eyes were fixed on Kenya, as the number of exhumed bodies increased. But this was not the first time. Many are too young to remember the year 2000 when about 120 people perished in a church deliberately set alight. The Church of the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God believed that the world would end in 2000, and true believers had to surrender their bodies and souls to the purging fire. Whenever stories like this come up, the initial feeling is always one of sincere horror. Then, questions. How can a person’s will be so dominated that they would prefer to die than live? How can a person manipulate another to believe that they need to die to achieve spiritual fulfilment? Is it time to restrict the freedom of religious organizations, damn the difficulty in ascertaining genuine beliefs? After a while, the unanswered questions disappear, and the status quo reverts to what it was: churches operating a loose regulatory environment.

Ghana is not any different. Some pastors have shown their immense power by physically harming the members of their church. Other times, pastors drink a concentrated tonic of condescension and proceed to shame their members. Some exhibit bigotry and others exhibit the unfavorable parts of patriarchy. In public health emergencies, some have called on their members to damn health regulations passed in the public's interest - after all, God is the Captain of Israel’s Hosts.

Many more are best at pauperizing their members, taxing them in ways the Government can only dream of. But members are assured of riches here; they must have the ability to scream mantras loud enough. That is the magic. Many G.Cs are told that their problems are caused by devils, and prayer, extreme fasting and deliverance sessions are the sure paths to the wealth of this world.

Poor people are prayed for, and sometimes, just sometimes palliative donations are made. Larger concerns of widening inequality and structural injustice have lost their place as guarantors of religious legitimacy. Other broader concerns, of climate change, migrants, and poor governance are muted.

In Ghana, one may argue that the symptoms of dysfunctional Christianity are not as extreme as those in other parts of Africa. Whatever that might be, they are still pernicious.

At the core is a theology which places evil at the center of Christian worship. Evil can be a powerful organizing element. It generates fear of the unseen and induces paranoia about sometimes innocuous events. By reorganizing evil and inflating its role in the lives of members, Churches have managed to subdue their members, many of whom are smart, articulate, and intelligent.

Rev. Agbonkhianmeghe Orobator, S.J. on Religion and Faith in Africa colorfully describes this theology as:

The tendency to invent Christology on the basis of a reductionist mindset that juxtaposes good and evil and then reduces the function, role and meaning of the entire teaching of the Gospel of Christ to a weapon for opposing, taming and defeating evil incarnated in a set of malevolent spirits. Besides, it lays an undue stress on the functionality of this Gospel to procure everything that it presupposes is denied or opposed by evil spirits, especially prosperity in the form of wealth and health. Accordingly, Jesus Christ becomes primarily and exclusively the prized purveyor of material prosperity and the great guarantor of victory against the ubiquitous and marauding evil spirits.

It gets worse. Churches collectively are fast losing their moral authority. Men of God are close to corridors of power and brag about the number of Presidents or Ministers of State they have prayed for. Politicians are given the best seats at church events and in an economic crunch, while people suffer in unimaginable proportions, a national cathedral is the most important priority. While members suffer, churches become richer. Perceived through an objective lens, we can see what is wrong with Ghanaian Christianity. Liberation theology is dead, and the prosperity gospel is alive.

The real problem is the abuse of trust. In the first part of this series, I explained that religions play a stabilizing role in a country full of uncertainties, broken promises and choicelessness. I also explained how churches sell hope. Churches operate on the basis that the spirituality of the church covers every single activity of the church and removes the church from the realm of the legal system. I am unable to agree with this wide proposition simply because the actions of churches have real consequences, sometimes bordering on life and death. We cannot continue to shut our eyes to these consequences and say that churches have a blank cheque to cause immense harm.

The relationship between each church and its members is clearly one of contract as explained in part I. Trust undergirds a contract, and in its absence, one party should be able to rescind the contract or enjoy compensation. One trusts that the other party will perform their part of the bargain. Without trust, contractual relationships will be precarious. The reason members suffer is because they are not at arm’s length in the transaction of hope. Evil is used to dominate the will, and the role of the pastor becomes all the powerful. Thus, when a G.C. gives their tithes for a visa, the G.C. trusts that they will indeed get a visa. Yet the pastor knows s/he is not the embassy, and matters of visa belong to the human domain, not the spiritual. The innocent trust of the G.C. is thereby manipulated and the transaction of hope lacks good faith. However, G.Cs cannot free themselves because their wills are subdued, and the disability continues to operate on their minds.

Amid this palpable disability, what is the role of law? This we discuss in the next post.