Reflections: The Christian identity dissonance

According to the 2010 Ghana Population and Housing Census, at least 70% of Ghanaians claim to be Christians or as I prefer to put it, have some degree of Christian affiliation. For a country with such a huge Christian population, it is actually baffling if not confusing to have corruption and deviant behaviours be that pervasive in its societal norms. The Church of Pentecost, one of the largest churches in Ghana, launched a 5-year strategic vision dubbed “Possessing the Nations” late last year.

This is ostensibly to equip its members to be the transformational change agents they ought to be and in effect possess the societies and nations they live in with Christian values and practices. As the Chairman of the church puts it “in spite of the presence of these churches in our societies, Christianity has not yet impacted society adequately in a way that eliminates endemic corruption and rampant social evil to reflect the huge presence of Christians in the country.”

There is this argument that if the church could encourage Christians to move into say national politics then they can influence decisions with Christian views and practices which will then trickle down to a better society with Christian values and practices. But I contend that we already have them in all facets of our society, from trotro drivers, market women, public and civil servants, educated professionals in the private sector, politicians up to the president. I believe that the average Ghanaian Christian has what I term an identity dissonance. We have somewhat consciously or unconsciously compartmentalised sins and depravities into what we believe are grievous and those that are okay or acceptable.

The Apostle Paul in Galatians 5:19-21 makes a list of what he describes as the acts/works of the flesh, sexual immorality (fornication and adultery), impurity (uncleanness), debauchery (corruption), idolatry, witchcraft (sorcery), hatred, discord (contentions), jealousy, fits of rage (outbursts or wrath), selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy; drunkenness, revelries, and the likes.

Typically, we focus more on the likes of sexual immorality, drunkenness, idolatry, witchcraft and revelries while we leave others like corruption, hatred, contentions, jealousy, envy, factions, dissensions as seemingly okay. We have constructed the Christian identity to be one that should live by the first category and ignore the second category or basically find a way to justify them with all manner of explanations.

A church elder in the construction industry struggles to get contracts and he prays to God for intervention. He gets introduced to a politician who has some influence on an upcoming government road contract. He’s encouraged to bid for the project but asked to inflate the contract sum by two-fold, so he could kick-back the excess amount back to the politicians and the decision makers within the civil service structure.

The church elder then looks at his situation and accepts the proposal and proceeds to get the contract. He continues to get similar projects under similar conditions and his business starts to expand. He becomes noticed in the church because on Special Church building offertory days he gives the most. Even when we are presented with evidence of him engaging in corrupt practices we consciously either ignore or justify his actions.

Another example is a church deacon who gets into one of the State Revenue Collection agencies after his undergraduate degree. He was an active member of the church and upright before getting his first job. He’s assigned to a field border team that ensures that the protection of state revenue by preventing smuggling through the examination of goods that go in and out of the country, as well as scrutinizing documents relating to those goods.

Before joining, the field team had a culture of taking bribes from business owners that use the borders and allow them to either smuggle goods or under declare their values which eventually means the state loses revenue due it. These bribes contribute two to three times their monthly salary. The deacon joins the team and he’s introduced to this practice and willingly and gleefully participates in it. As a young graduate, this is exciting for him and he doesn’t see anything wrong with it, after all, it has always been so and most of the team members are Christians as well. This isn’t some sexual immorality or drunkenness or whatever Christian Identity construct he’s used to.

Exodus 23:8 says “And you shall take no bribe, for a bribe blinds the discerning and perverts the words of the righteous.” There are several examples that I can cite including church leaders and members inflating the cost of goods procured for the use of the church with church money and misapplication of church funds. We contribute to the filth in our societies when we litter our environments and dump rubbish into the gutters when it rains.

We then organise clean-up exercises forgetting that we contributed to it in the first place. Post the clean-up exercise we go back to our old ways. We pay for ‘Visa connection’ guys to put us on conference trips abroad with the sole intention of overstaying our visas in developed countries. We stay illegally and live a lie by using the papers of others for years before we can regularise our stay. Within that period, we continue to live as though there’s nothing wrong with what we do asking those with sexual sins not to come for communion while we continue to attend because being deceitful and living a lie isn’t a sin in our minds.

The beliefs and standards a Christian should uphold and what is seen through deeds and actions are not only inconsistent but incompatible as well; I call this the Christian Identity Dissonance. If we are to have the desire impact expected of us we need to hold the principles and values of Christ in its entirety and not choose and pick based on our own selfish interests.

We need to as Apostle Eric Nyamekye puts it “focus on being salt and light in this perverse world in order to transform the spiritual, social, economic and political fabric of the nations.” We can’t give what we don’t have, and we can’t be transformation agents when we are conflicted in our Christian lifestyles. If your Christian fundamentals are weak.