Obinim’s Primitive Dogma

If the law enforcement agencies have not already invited Bishop Obinim for questioning, they had better do so and presto.

A video, which has gone virile on social media, has given an important insight into the world of some of the so-called men of God who have turned themselves into what they are not.

The video shows the man whipping two adults for engaging in what he deems fornication and an eventual pregnancy. The magnitude of punishment the Bishop exacted on the two persons was an eyesore, which has prompted a national conversation about the excessiveness of the man, Obinim. We wonder why such crude and primitive punishment is being suffered by adults who had consensual sex and got pregnant. We are unable to determine for how long this has gone on but given the ease with which he was flogging his victims, it appears it is a normal occurrence in Obinim's church.

Since when did pastors start flogging moral defaulters in their churches?

Many inappropriate activities take place in such places without the knowledge of persons outside them, the Obinim adult abuse being a typical example.

It is sad, however, that members of the churches are unable to release such internal developments to the outside world for redress but rather continue to provide the pastor with the membership fuel which encourages him to continue with the buffoonery. Maybe they have been made to believe that such actions must remain within the four walls of the places of worship.

He has succeeded in somewhat hypnotizing them to believe that he is not to be challenged: his spiritual powers too awesome to be toyed with by ordinary mortals like them.

Poverty and ignorance can do a lot of negative things in society, one of them being the Obinim nonsense.

Should the pregnant woman develop some complications related to her condition, the man of God should not be spared the wrath of the law.

People should begin to question strange actions even if these originated from their supposed leaders, be they political or religious leaders. Why would a leader descend upon a couple, one of them pregnant as though he has been bestowed with such authority?

Not even the courts would prescribe such outmoded and primitive sanctions on human beings. Dogmatic tendencies, when they are allowed to fester in society, often lead to such outcomes.

We have learnt that even more serious things take place in some of these young churches. We are aware about the sensitive nature of matters pertaining to faith and how these can be misinterpreted to mean non-conformism.

The church has not authorized such punishment, we can bet. We wish that the Christian Council of Ghana would find a way of intervening in such matters, lest we are saddled with life-threatening outcomes in future. Some of these commercial men of God, as some cynics choose to call them, are running fiefdoms they call churches.