GPCC, please, what about Jesus Christ? (2)

The number of controversial and fake pastors under the watch of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council (GPCC) keeps growing in leaps and bounds, and innocent and very vulnerable souls who genuinely want Christ are being led the other way, and the GPCC is just looking on while souls are lost, but rather deems it more important to warn politicians to be careful about the utterances they make about their man of God.

We have pastors under the GPCC who, under the name of deliverance, touch and fondle the genitals of women who want the fruit of the womb. Did Jesus ever do that? God only sends the word to such women through His angels and prophets, who do not physically touch the women and they later get pregnant. But today, we have pastors who actually touch the naked dignity of women, and some even go to the extent of having sex with them, stating that, that is the only way the women’s womb will open. Some pastors announce without shame how they had sex with other men’s wives, and even impregnated some. And these are GPCC pastors.

Some of these pastors go on to teach their church members, during packed church services, how to have sex. And the GPCC has never called all these wayward unrepentant sinners doubling as pastors to order, to save what is left of how they have portrayed Christianity to the world, in order to keep holy the Name of Jesus?

Recently, beautiful Belinda Nana Akua Amoah, popularly known as Mzbel, was in tears as she attempted to narrate to the general public what she went through under Prophet Nigel Gaisie, which without any further details can be classified as sexual harassment. Yet, to her, this “powerful” man of God is going about telling the whole world that Mzbel walked into his office and attempted to seduce her. If that was the case why did he lie that he paid a compensation of GH¢500,000 to the artiste? The victim paying the villain to cover up crime committed by the villain? It is only in a world led by a GPCC pastor like Nigel that this can be possible. Sadly, to date, Ghanaians have not heard publicly any word of caution from the GPCC to Nigel Gaisie, calling him to order, yet it deemed it sacred to warn politicians to beware.

Coming to the craving for earthly wealth and desires, the least said about this the better. It is becoming very obvious that the aim of most pastors under the GPCC is not to win souls for Christ, but to create wealth for themselves. Wealth is so glorified here that blessings from God, which are meant to be free (St. Matthew 10:8), are actually auctioned in some houses of God to the highest bidders. Sometime ago, I thought I heard Pastor Mensa Otabil grading blessings with the top ranks in the region of $5,000. The more you pay, the greater blessing you will receive from God, we were told. Is that not misrepresenting what Christ came and stood for?

God’s Word in Deuteronomy 4:2, 12:32 and Revelation 22:18 was set aside when another man of God from the ranks of the GPCC, Eastwood Anaba, told his church members that it is about time tithe is redefined from ten per cent to fifty or sixty per cent. Such a gross distortion, but the GPCC never commented on this.

Tithing has been used as a means to make church members pay out more than their widow’s mite, with the warning that anyone who fails to pay tithes will not go to Heaven. Does the silence of the GPCC on this matter mean it supports what is not in the Bible? Tithing is to put into God’s storehouse money of produce, and the priests are to keep one-tenth of it and give the rest to the poor, needy and vulnerable. It is, in fact, a community mandate for all to bring something which will be shared among members, very similar to what the early Christians used to do (Acts 4:32-37). But in this modern day and age, tithes end up lining the bank accounts of pastors.

The crave for and show of filthy wealth and affluence among some pastors is simply incomprehensible, as they get into competition with one another as to who has more.

Then comes the relationship between pastors, especially those under the GPCC, and politicians. For the sake of being close to the powerful and famous, these pastors will do all they can to win favours from the same people the GPCC is warning.

In election year, these pastors will be up and about predicting the winners, claiming they are prophesying God’s message. Suddenly, the credibility of the Christian God is put to question, as this same God will prophesy more than one candidate winning the elections. Surely, how does the GPCC think other religions will regard Christianity?

Sometimes I wonder why pastors under the GPCC occasionally misrepresent the Word of God. When they feel like, they can attack politicians and those in secular authority and warn people not to follow them. But immediately a politician or any other person questions their conduct, we hear strong words from them like, “Judge Not!” and “Touch Not My (The) Anointed!” As if they do not understand what they read from the Sacred Scriptures, they take things out of context to suit their parochial desires. “Judge not” has been heavily misconstrued, since a believer must be able to discern (judge) between what is right and what is wrong. The “anointed” in 1 Chronicles 16:22 actually refers to all of God’s chosen people. So that poor insignificant looking person in the church, but whose heart is pure in the sight of God, is an anointed one and not the fake pastor of Pharisee-like standards.

Politicians are said to be the bad nuts in society, but the question is where they mentored from? From toddler, pre-school, to pre-teen, the Word is planted in him at Sunday school. From his teenage years he picks up some responsibility in Church and may become dynamic and filled with the Holy Spirit like St. Stephen (Acts 6:5), and is viewed as a future great leader.

He is pushed on or encouraged to take up bigger challenges in life, and how glad the pastors and church leaders will be if he lands a very good job, or becomes a leader in his choice of political party. He will be encouraged to dry cassava while the sun shines, and become wealthy in anyway and in anyhow. How to get rich does not matter, there is no code of ethics here, after all, the head pastor, who was a chairman of two financial institutions, wrongfully used all depositors’ money on himself, ending up having the authorities to close the banks, throwing the poor workers out of jobs. And God continues to smile on him.

So the young man gets indoctrinated and goes out into the world to make it rich by any which way, and no matter how. He becomes wealthy and religiously pays his tithes and offerings, and is always given a place of honour in church as an example to those who want to be blessed by the Lord.

Meanwhile, another young fellow is indoctrinated that the more you give the greater the blessings you receive, and he goes out there to do anything possible to become rich, so that he will be among those acknowledged by the church and receive special blessings after each church service.

If society hates any of these two, they are reminded that Jesus was also hated. They could do anything except say or do things that will attack the image of the church leaders. When they do that they will be called to order in order to save their souls.

I will take any warning or advice on personal and national issues seriously when it comes from a priest or pastor from the Catholic, Presbyterian, Methodist and Anglican churches. I will, however, first access the messenger if he or she is from other churches. I used to have two fine pastors from the GPCC I admired a lot; one I got to know from his secondary school days, and who I still admire. The other used to inspire me a lot with his down to earth teachings until he started doing things I find to be wrong and against what Christ wants us to do, and now I have him off my mind.

I do not subscribe to threats, insults and attacks on anyone, and I will not encourage anybody to do any of these, it is unchristian. National transformation is not what is important and necessary to the GPCC, but urgent transformation of the image of Christianity that has been tainted and rendered a joke by its own pastors and church leaders. This is what the Council should take serious, instead of attempting to remove a speck of dust from the eyes of politicians, while it has timber in its eyes.

Hon Daniel Dugan

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect The Chronicle’s editorial stance

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