Any attempt to talk about such issues without circumspection may amount to religious sacrilege. That, however, does not underestimate the reality that wherever one goes now-in schools, bushes, market places, offices, etc-there is an overabundance of churches.

That fact, I know is not contentious. My concern is not about the increasing number of such structures that are springing up but the colonizing effect of such organized religious activities (in such structures) on the mental psyche of the Ghanaian and its attendant economic ramifications. Today, religion, more than any other factor, has been the cause of ignorance, poverty, crime, insanity, unhappiness, war, among others within several nations.

Religious exploitation

My stay in the US (for some time now) has added some valuable knowledge to my religious repertoire. At least through relative analysis and distancing, I can assume some agency over issues of this nature. The American is not very religious (as his Ghanaian counterpart), but he does not succumb to religious exploitation.

The American does not succumb to hero worshipping (at least at the level of the church) to the detriment of his personal edification. The "Man of God" in the American religious domain is very approachable. No one fears him but everyone respects him.

I paid a visit to Ghana recently and I was appalled at the Ghanaian's devotion to the created (Man of God) instead of the creator (God). Many people, I saw, consistently trooped to bushes and other centers where prayer camps had been set up, to seek answers to their economic concerns.

Among many of such people were the unemployed, the employed, academicians, women, men including many civil servants who had left their work midstream to attend a revival or their economic fortunes. Such centers end up offering little or no antidote to the ever-increasing burdens of these avid followers.

Where some results were achieved, it was obvious, that, usually if one attended Church X and through the laying of hands at such a meeting, he/she's healed, he/she failed to see that it's God, not the pastor.

Every word from the Man of God becomes the truth. What is even worse is that some of the religious rituals like deliverance, exorcism, self-mortification, and healings at these centers are savage, primitive or childish. One way or the other these practices put us thousand years behind time. But who are you to challenge their spiritual authority?

Cult of the pastor

The avid follower of religion in Ghana will observe that most of these so-called men of God assume positions of over-importance acting as if they just closed from a meeting with God. I am still to fathom why any individual will entrust his or her life to another without any attempt at scrutiny.

Some pastors create such a cult around them that it takes a hectic bureaucratic, procedural process to just have a chance to talk to them. Much of this they do through fear. In their quest for more power and influence, the churches fill their followers' minds with fear, intolerance, greed and hypocrisy, and set bad examples.

I will say again that colonialism left a stinking effect on the African psyche, but the colonial agent hid a valuable commodity from the African (perhaps some Africans)-critical examination.

Of course culture is inextricably linked to this fear phenomenon. The Ghanaian culture makes its people overly submissive making them prone to exploitation and abuse. Through mind games, leaders of such churches succeed in keeping the people's minds off their main purpose in life and instead claim their purpose is to worship and pay offerings and tithes to an imposing person who wants to better his or her economic lot.

Interestingly, the core of the members of the congregation is the poor who end up contributing to the economic well-being of their leaders.

"Charismatic" churches

As a Christian, I find this heartbreaking. Christianity is increasingly occupying the center of societal mockery. How many times haven't we heard of leaders of congregations taking money from their followers only to build ostentatious mansions and buy luxurious cars? The poor followers get poorer in such attempts and this is sickening.

A recent phenomenon is for leaders to exploit their followers' fear of the unknown and take advantage of them. Believers have been silent to the destructive paths such churches are leading their ignorant followers.

For example, some "charismatic" churches even teach their followers to depend solely on prayers to fulfill their needs. Most of their time is spent on begging God in prayer for help and to take away their problems, which they themselves, created in the first place.

Such long prayers are staged at "all-night" sessions and afternoon prayer camps sometimes on "mountains" for several periods of time. This results in waste of man hours and translates into low productivity.

Masses of people have become lazy and therefore poor because someone has promised to pray for them and so no conscious and vigorous attempts are made at seeking employment. Many of these churches that abound (in Ghana) seek wealth and power more than they try to improve the condition of the people

Prayer meetings

God has both spiritual and natural laws that ensure balance. Thus, it is this ambivalence that most people have no idea about. Missing a service/meeting doesn't make one less of a Christian. It's amazing the number of Christians who will refuse to stay behind at work to meet a deadline because they have to go for prayer meetings.

Others will not enroll in a beneficial course at work, because it clashes with youth services while others will not cancel a church appointment to take a friend/neighbor to the hospital because they have a "special" pastor coming at that particular time.

Why start a church?

I have undertaken several missionary activities and I believe in amassing people to do the work of God. Indeed, the nature of the work is so huge, but the workers are so few. Churches are to do that but when a church lives at the expense of its members, it becomes a lethal weapon.

At any rate why start a church when there are other churches that share your vision and believe in your ideals? Is that why people have to go as far organizing their services in hen coops? A lot of people can reach out to help without necessarily starting churches.

Of course no church begins with a multi-million-dollar facility; I believe in humble beginnings; yes a lot of businesses also walked the same path but a hen coop? Please, I beg your pardon.

There are very fine churches and selfless church leaders who instill discipline and the spirit of hard work in their members. Several of those are around. I can mention names but to discuss their contributions to national development and to their members' economic, social, and spiritual development should be a subject for another piece. The shepherd can definitely not eat more than the sheep!

Let's be serious! Hero worshipping begins when people follow priests and their superstitious garbage blindly without reasoning. It's obvious that Ghanaians (and some African countries) have fallen behind because we rely on emotion (blind faith) for progress rather than on reason.