The "Scorned" actress has touched on a very sensitive issue of religion in our society which is most often not discussed openly.
In her latest piece on her blog Lydiaforson.com titled "In Love With Church, But Not With GOD", Lydia wondered how Ghanaians can be so casually hypocritical; walking into church on Sunday, only to leave and resume whatever rotten lives they were leading prior.
Lydia believes people should go to church with clear intension to worship their maker and repent from their bad deeds instead of making it a usual Sunday activity which does not necessity chance their lives.
She wrote… “I find it all amusing personally,how easy it is for people to completely change who they are for a few hours in a week, and immediately go back to their cheating , criminal, adulterous, greedy, bullying ways the minute the service ends.
“I can’t for the life of me understand how people are able to switch between their lives with such ease and no sense of wrong doing on their part. “Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not in any position to expect righteousness from anyone, but my conscience doesn’t permit me to be half as hypocritical as some of these people.”
Of course, this is a truism. For all our protestations of religiosity, the actions we take in this country rarely reflects that. So we have all the worst bits of religion; dogmatic thinking, superstition, extreme gullibility- without even the slightest moral development to serve as a counter. It’s the worst of both worlds, and unsurprisingly, Ghana’s development is stalled.
“…People are more interested in your presence (in church) than they are in your character and whether or not you’re a good person or live an exemplary life” Forson continued.
“And this explains why, for a country so dedicated to God and religion, we’re still so corrupt and under developed with no real indication of it changing soon.”
She then goes on to list several corrupt practices which people indulge in seven days a week, and then go and sit down quietly in church as if they are the best people in the world.
The corrupt police man who took bribe from you this morning was on his way to or from church. The politician that makes promises he has no intention of keeping goes to church.
The journalist that manipulates the truth because he/she has been bribed goes to church. The man that insist on sleeping with a girl before giving her a job goes to church.
The market woman the inflates her prices and sometimes sells expired goods,goes to church. The list is endless, and you know them.
If you ever wanted to disprove the supposed link between religiosity and morality, you can do no better than Ghanaians.
It’s a myth the church (and almost all religions) have promoted for ages, but one does not need religion to be moral. In fact, in many instances, religion leads one to be immoral, such as killing in the name of God, or oppressing others (women, minorities) because one thinks they are sanctioned by divine fiat.
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