He taught them how to pray and He did that in Aramaic. In the prayer, which is Awoon, meaning “Our Beloved,” there is this part which prays, “Nehweh Seweeyanakh Akanna Dwashmaya Ap Barah”In direct translation from Aramaic, it says, “Let Be Your Will Even In Heaven Also On Earth.
” This is the Our Father, or the Lord’s Prayer as Jesus Christ taught in Aramaic. In that part we pray, “Your Will Be Done On Earth As It Is In Heaven.”
This is a prayer which every Christian knows and prays and that includes the over 23 million Ghanaians who profess the Christian faith. In a country that can easily be declared a Christian State, one is tempted to wonder whether the Ghanaian Christian understands what he is praying, when he prays the Lord’s Prayer.
We ask that God’s Will in Heaven be done here on earth, including here in Ghana, but it looks like the average Ghanaian Christian does not mean what he is praying and for that fact the Will of God seems about absent on this side of the globe.
According to Romans 12:2, “the Will of God is everything that is good and acceptable and prefect.” This seems absent in this country, because Christians are making sure that it does not become manifest. There are a few reasons.
Environmental Degradation: In Psalm 24:1-2, the Word of God says “The earth is the Lord′s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for He founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.”In Genesis 1, God instructed humans to ‘rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground’, and to ‘fill the earth and subdue it’ (Genesis 1:26, 28).
It is the role of humanity to preserve the environment. Genesis 1:27 clearly asserts that God created human beings and this is fundamental to environmental justice which affirms the social and economic right as well as environmental self-determination.
There are approximately hundred verses in the bible that talk about protection of the environment. Numbers 35:33 starts with this straight instruction “Do not pollute the land where you are…”The Prophet Isaiah, as if talking directly to Ghanaians of this day and age, had this to say in Isaiah 24:5,
“The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgress laws, violate statutes, break the everlasting covenant.” We have a covenant with God to take good care of nature.
Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew had this to say: “We must treat nature with the same awe and wonder that we reserve for human beings. And we do not need this insight in order to believe in God or to prove his existence. We need it to breathe; we need it for us simply to be.” (Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, 2010).
Unfortunately, here in Ghana, the environment is been degraded with such impunity. And even with H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo coming out with a fiat that illegal and unregulated mining should cease, it looks like most of those who are to make sure that galamsey becomes a thing of the past, after promising the president to carry out his wishes, came out mocking him and making sure that this rot continues.
Today, it looks like we are just about crossing the Rubicon and landing Ghana into the same situation El Salvador faced, before totally banning mining in 2017.
The search for gold has made some people go blank when matters relating to preserving our environment is raised.
The New Patriotic Party, besides self-inflicting divisions within the party prior to Elections 2020, lost most of the galamsey areas, because good Christians there did not understand why they were asked to stopped polluting the land and the water bodies. And yet, they claim they profess Christ.
What is even beyond comprehension, is that our forests and water bodies have been opened up to foreigners to come and use heavy equipment to further do damage to what God decreed we must keep clean and well.
The fact, that our laws prohibit foreign from engaging in small-scale mining is completely disregarded by Ghanaian Christians. And recently, it came to our notice that some immigration officers allowed Chinese illegal immigrants to come into the country and watched them move into our forests to degrade the environment.
Not long after that, Aisha Huang, a Chinese national who Ghanaians were told was deported for illegal mining and shootingdead,full-blooded Ghanaians who dared to trespass into her territory, had been reported to be back and in business.
The Ghanaian Christian community seems unconcerned about what could happen to the natural resources of this country. We find Christians in galamsey in churches yelling and shouting unto the Lord for blessings, graces and providence.
Their pastors make a fortune from offertories from these same people who violate God’s law on the environment. Instead of counselling them to put a stop to their unholy ways, these pastors rather bless them and pray for them so that their works would expand and become very prosperous.
Is Ghana a Christian country? I will suggest that H.E. Nana Akufo-Addo suspends all forms of mining, until the land and waters are reclaimed, by which time, Ghana can come out with better forms of mining including small scale mining.
Gross Extortions: The Lord God is against any form of extortion. In Ezekiel 18:18, the Word of God states, “As for his father, because he practiced extortion, robbed his brother, and did what is not good among his people, behold, he shall die for his iniquity.”
Paul wrote to the Corinthian Christians in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10: “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit thekingdom of God.”
When the Lockdown was announced Christian traders shouted praising God, for bonanza has come. Before that, the price of sanitizer was increased astronomically because it was one of the very essential items to cut down effects of Covid-19. So was the price of Veronica buckets.
With rush buying, where people flocked the markets to purchase edibles, fresh and processed, Christian traders took advantage and increased prices to make a windfall and huge profits. It was the vulnerable Ghanaian who could not afford stocking his home with provisions, at those ridiculous prices, who suffered. Meanwhile, these Christian traders got on their knees and praised God for good market.
Today, with the world economic crunch making things difficult, the Ghanaian Christian is taking advantage of high cost of fuel. Inflation in Ghana has gone up. The highest ever in recent history was 122.87% in 1983 while the lowest was in 1967 at -8.42%. Today, it is about 39%. Sincerely this should not have been the case.
Christian traders again will go to hinterland at the farm gates and purchase foodstuffs at very cheap prices but once they get them to the markets in the towns and cities, they can increase the prices at more than ten-fold, not 100%, but more than ten-fold. Meaning a tuber of yam which may cost GH¢2.50 at farm gate could go for more than GH¢ 25.00 in the markets in the cities and towns.
This is what Christians are doing to fellow Christians and they watch on as the country is collapsing.
I will recommend that H.E. President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, in his full constitutional capacity as the Commander-in-Chief of the Ghana Armed Forces, commandeer the military to go into the hinterlands and at the farm gates with their heavy-duty personnel carriers and purchase food stuffs and bring them down to the cities and towns.
I will suggest that articulator trucks could take part in this exercise. They could be parked on motorable roads while the military go through the rough terrains with their vehicles and bring down the foodstuffs to be put onboard these trucksand transported to the urban areas.
I will also suggest that areas are demarcated within the towns and cities where these foodstuffs would be offloaded and sold at affordable prices for consumers. Of course, the market women will come to buy them, but surely, they cannot hike prices, since people will only go to the centers where the foodstuffs will be offloaded and buy them very cheap. In this way, inflation will come down.
Christ is being ridiculed, Christianity is being portrayed as an ungodly religion, leaders of some churches are getting away from acts that violate the moral teachings of the Church and they even go ahead to swindle church members. Meanwhile, they walk free, and go about saying “God is Good,” and when some people complain we are told that “We should not, judge.”
Generally, Christians in Ghana are not making the faith attractive, especially to un-Christians. So, I ask, is Ghana a Christian country?
Hon Daniel Dugan
