Shut your mouths, tell somebody to shut your big mouths! The baritone voice of Archbishop Nicholas Duncan-Williams, Founder and General Overseer of the Christian Action Faith Ministries, blasted into my ears from the old radio sitting in the corner of my office.
I became curious, who should shut up? The answer followed as he stressed: “I want to caution every Christian to shut your mouths,” adding that Christians must stop talking about things they did not know about.
This came on the heels of the controversy surrounding the collapse of some seven banks including Capital Bank which board was chaired by Pastor Mensa Otabil, Founder and General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC).
There are some many issues surrounding the collapse of these banks, and Ghanaians as usual want some answers to the unanswered questions. The media have done their best to read and interrogate portions of reports on the various causes of the collapse.
They have given opportunities to shareholders and management of the affected banks to state their case and explain issues to Ghanaians, but still there are many questions than answers.
It is worrying and sad for workers of these banks to wake up one day only to become jobless through no fault of theirs. Reports indicate that about 3,000 direct jobs have been lost in the bank collapse saga.
Some of these people and their dependents, as well as depositors are Christians, they believed in the bank and therefore worked their hearts out and deposited their monies there respectively.
Even though they are Christians and for that matter they are under God’s constitution as Archbishop Williams puts it, it did not immune them from feeling the effect of the actions and inactions of the board and management of the banks.
It is interesting that Christian leaders such as the archbishop and others who are quick to condemn and comment on national issues and other decisions taken by political leaders in time past would prevent and see it as unacceptable when others who are also Christians ask legitimate questions about things they do not understand.
Yes, the bible says in Mathew 7:1-3 that we should not judge, so we are not also judged, I do not think asking questions to unravel the part people played in the collapse amount to judgment.
If Archbishop Duncan Williams does not want to assess the issues, it is his right, but he should remember that where his right ends, other people’s rights also start and that is the reason why he cannot gag Christians because they equally have the right to demand answers and justice for those they stand with.
As he cautioned Christians to stop talking about things they do not understand, particularly when they do not have details of the issues at hand but he forgot that it was because of the same reason (not having the details of the issues) that was why they were asking the needed questions.
I was happy when I heard that Pastor Otabil has armed his congregation with an explanation to give to those asking questions about the Capital Bank collapse after he has indicated in a statement that his position as a Board Chairman was a non-executive position.
It was however disappointing when he declared, “I felt that as your pastor, I owe you an explanation, to come to church and to make a statement of what my views are, so that when you go out and people come out with information, you will have a response to give to them”.
“My first statement is that God is good, my second statement is God is good, and my third statement is that, God is good,” he said.
Is this the best answer we can give to people affected by our actions and inactions? To me, the ‘God is good’ mantra or answer sounds like robbing their sore with salt. I pray that those suffering because of the takeover of the banks would see the goodness of God in their situation.
Maybe as Christians, we need to shut up just because God is good or better still, we should rather open our mouth wide and demand answers because of God’s goodness to mankind.
By Laudia Nunoo Sawer
Source: GNA
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