CHURCH ELDER QUESTIONS KUFUOR, RAWLINGS FAITH AS CHRISTIANS

THE CONTINUOUSLY strained relationship between the sitting President, Mr. John Agyekum Kufuor and ex-President, Ft. Lt. Jerry John Rawlings, the two statesmen of our country and both of the Catholic Church, has led to some Christian leaders questioning their religious principles with respect to scriptural position on forgiveness.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Chronicle, an Elder of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, Mr. Agyei –Baako, who quoted the Scripture, Matthew 18:15 with regard to its position on forgiveness, noted that the two Statesmen stand accused as Christians.

Apart from this, the two have also flouted God's biblical command to Christians on forgiveness and having failed to listen to the Church, was more an indication that they were just not Christians but merely parading themselves as Christians of a particular Church.

To him, he had not chosen to judge the two but to remind them of the biblical injunction on forgiveness the Lord demands from every individual who called himself a Christian.

Mr. Baako however told this paper, “ If you commune with God and you don't know what is forgiveness then what is the essence of you going to Church to commune with God?

Are you a real Christian if you cannot forgive? What amazes me most is that the two attend the same Catholic Church”.

President Kufuor worships at the Christ the King Catholic Church whilst Ex-President Rawlings worships at the Holy Spirit Cathedral, both in Accra.

The Elder quoted the scripture: “If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the Church: and if he refuses to listen even to the Church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector”.

To the Elder, if indeed the two were not merely Churchgoers, as he perceived them, then they should obey the scriptural command on forgiveness by embracing each other before the commencement of the country's Golden Jubilee celebration.

To him, the two political heads could not afford not to reconcile and forgive each other before the commencement of the Jubilee celebration.

Consequently, Christians were beholding them to fulfill the position of the scripture on forgiveness. To him, though the two (Kufuor and Rawlings) are flesh and as such it was not easy for each to embrace the other considering the fracas between them, this was the time for both of them to show that they were real Christians and had absolute respect for the Omnipotent who created them and is commanding them to forgive each other.

The SDA Elder also faulted the Catholic Church for not doing much to reconcile two members of its congregation.

To him, since the Christian Council, an affiliate of religious bodies, failed in its efforts to reconcile the two statesmen, it was now the duty of the Catholic Church to do so.

It would also be recalled that an Evangelist of the Churches of Christ, Brother Dan Owusu Asiamah faulted the Catholic Church for its inability to reconcile the two.

According to him if the Catholic Church could not reconcile the two then “spiritually, it will mean the Church has no absolute control over its congregation”.

But the Catholic Bishop of the Sekondi-Takoradi Diocese of the Catholic Church, Most Rev. Martin Darko defended the Church saying reconciliation was not an external show but something that ought to come from the heart and mind of an individual.

To the Bishop, the Church served as a mother and the two ought to reconcile with each other with respect to the teachings of the Church.