The Concerned Clergy Association of Ghana has described as discriminatory parliament’s move to pass a legislation to regulate churches in the country.
President of the group, Bishop Prince Benny Wood, speaking on Adom FM’s morning show Dwaso Nsem, Friday opined that parliament must hasten slowly in its quest for legislation.
“I think the decision by our parliamentarians is discriminatory and must be condemned. They are just not being fair to churches and pastors as a whole and so there is the need for them to think critically before taking any decision that would destroy the nation,” he said.
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Mr Wood’s warning follows calls by some Members of Parliament for a law to be enacted to regulate activities of churches solely owned and run by individuals and self-professed pastors termed as ‘one-man churches’ who are engaging in all sorts of illegalities.
The legislators argued that there was the need for parliament to critically investigate the activities of these churches and pastors to protect Ghanaians from exploitation since they are alleged to have been engaging in all manner of unacceptable practices in the country.
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They added that a certain level of regulation is required to prevent these churches and pastors from engaging in abuse, indoctrination and other activities that are not in line with sound Christian teaching.
But, Mr Wood said any attempt to control the activities of religious groups will be an affront to biblical teachings and the basic freedoms of the Ghanaian.
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To him, he expected the parliamentarians to rather investigate and find out how many of the churches and pastors are involved in unlawful acts and deal with such pastors rather than generalising the issue.
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“They need to collate ideas and speak to stakeholders who matter and not generalise. There are laws in Ghana that deal with pastors seen as fake but adding all churches means they have isolated a group of people which won’t be fair to some of us,” he cried.
Source: Adomonline.com | Dorcas Abedu-Kennedy