Grandchildren of God

Ghanaians are an extremely religious people, with the path and principles of Jesus Christ being the way to salvation that a majority in the country has chosen to follow.  Christianity, I imagine, is practiced in every corner of the world, so the fact that it is found in Ghana should come as no surprise.  But the manner in which the religion is observed and expressed here seems quite extraordinary to me, and as such, deserves some special attention.

Offer someone a friendly “Hello, how are you?” anywhere in the city of Kumasi and he or she will almost surely respond with, “By the grace of God, I am fine” or “By the grace of the almighty Jesus Christ, I am fine.”  Whether it is morning or night, Monday or Friday, or a man, woman or child, the response is certain to be the same.  It is not enough to simply offer a short, concise indication of one’s current state of well-being, such as “great”, “good” or “not bad”—it must be made known and absolutely clear that it is only because of God’s immense and everlasting grace that one is feeling so fine.  Thanks for clarifying that.

After such a response, the person will likely add “and you?” to which you, if you are me, will very shortly and concisely say, “great”, “good” or “not bad.”  (If you are Ghanaian, you will likely repeat the words just spoken to you: “By the grace of God, I am fine.”)  “Thank God” will come the last words from the friendly pious person on the street.  This is the standard way that greetings are most commonly exchanged between Ghanaians.

Out of a sense of laziness to which man is so often prone, but in the name of convenience, the standard response to a greeting is often reduced to “By His grace” or even simply to “Grace.”

Imagine this:

Man: Good morning, how are you?

Woman: Grace, and you?

Man: By His grace.

Woman: Thank God.

An exchange like this would not, in itself, be particularly fascinating if not for the extraordinary frequency with which such greetings take place.  One rarely hears an exchange of greetings that does not mention Jesus or God at least a couple times within the few short seconds that the affair lives.

Religion and God are not only heard in the constant exchanges of greetings around the city, but can also be seen virtually everywhere in the names of local businesses.  Just as it is rare to hear a greeting that does not include God, one will also have great difficulty finding a local business of any type whose name is devoid of His name.

As you walk along the street that runs in front of my house, you will pass “It’s not my Strength, it’s God’s Strength” grocery store, which, quite strangely, sits just five feet from “It’s not my Strength, it’s God’s Strength” seamstress shop (the two are owned by different but apparently like-minded people).  Both are on the opposite side of the street from “King Jesus” interior decoration.  Walk a bit further and you will see a small shack selling mobile phone accessories.  The sign at the top read, “Covered by the Blood of Jesus Enterprise.”  At the nearby corner are two more small businesses: “Mary’s Immaculate Conception” copy center and “The Anointed One Touched by Jesus” grocery store.  (I’m not making this stuff up.)  On the next street over is “Dr. Jesus” grocery store, “My Redeemer Lives” catering service and “It is Jesus” electrical contractor.  The effect of such as inescapable onslaught of religion-ridden names can be dizzying.  Finally, at the end of the street, a short breath of fresh air:  “Joe’s" grocery store.  Thank God.

(Side note:  I laughed when I first read the name of a small grocery store near my house: “Good Name is Better than Riches.”  I agree, but apparently nobody told these people that a good name is also better than a bad one.)

As if you didn’t get enough God in the peculiar greetings of everyday individuals or on the signboards that decorate the thousands of businesses in the city, you can help yourself to an additional portion on the taxis and mini-buses that are the heart of the public transportation system.  Stuck to the center of the back windshield or the top of the front windshield of most taxis and mini-buses in the city is a short, sometimes clever phrase made of large, adhesive letters.  And if you are following the point of my writing even slightly, then you have already guessed, quite correctly, that such phrases most often refer to God.  Here are some examples: “Clap for Jesus”, “No Jesus, no life”, “Glory be to God”, “By the grace of God”, “With God all things are possible”, “God understands”, “Pray without ceasing” and the list goes on and on.  (A few slightly-comical, non-religious ones: “Poor boy no friend”, “Fear women” and “No food for lazy man.”)

Start conversing with ordinary Ghanaians anywhere in Kumasi and you will quickly come across some peculiar names that have quite clearly been inspired by faith.  Blessing is a very common name for both boys and girls in Ghana.  I have heard Moses, Theophilus, Glory, Godslove, Godsent, Godsway, Lordia, and my personal favorite, Gifty (as in a gift from God, I presume).  I am sure there are more.

As you can see, religion and Christianity are seen, heard and felt everywhere in Ghanaian society.  Some may describe such wide-ranging expressions of faith as spectacular—a clear indication of the strength of one’s convictions.  I see them as intrusive and inescapable.  They are the signs of a people that appear holier-than-thou but who are, in reality, nothing of the sort.  Allow me to explain.

There exists in Ghana a very strong societal pressure to be pious.  Regardless of the particular faith, most Ghanaians seem to believe that life somehow mandates that one belong to a religion.  And if one doesn’t, there is a big problem.  “It’s not good at all”, “It is really bad” and “Then I can’t trust you” are a few of the responses I have received after telling people that I am not religious.  “But you have to choose one” say most people, referring to religion.  And so a majority of Ghanaians have done just that—Christianity, to be specific, as it is the dominant faith here.

There is also immense pressure to attend church, and not simply on Sundays.  Many Ghanaians visit the holy house of God several times per week, and most churches offer an all-night service from 6pm to 5am where worshippers engage in an exhausting, non-stop session of song and prayer lasting for hours on end.  The public consensus is that those who do not attend church are somehow bad, and surely are not candidates for entrance into the eternal holy land that far too many of us here on this heavenly Earth are far too concerned with.  And so hundreds of churches across the city are packed with hundreds of thousands of worshippers several days per week.

Read the Bible and believe it entirely is the pastor’s instruction at church, so most people do exactly that.  I have spoken to many Ghanaians who are shocked at the idea of questioning even a word of the holy book.  It is said that a good Christian must pray and pray often, and so a majority of people do this as well.  Ghanaians often engage in fasting in order to get closer to God, and they spread the good word nearly every chance they get.

Put all of these facts together and you are lead to only one logical conclusion: that most Ghanaians are very strong and secure in their Christian faith.  Model Christians, you might say, if such a thing actually exists.  Some are surely this way, but I believe that many Ghanaians (I am tempted to say most, but I won’t) are not Christians at all, in a true sense of the word, or are bad ones at the very best.  The evidence lies in the details.

Christ-like is what every true Christian must work consciously and tirelessly to be.  A follower of the religion is obligated to study and know the life of Jesus Christ, and then emulate it.  This means striving to be more compassionate, loving, caring, honest and responsible (among many other things) in all areas of one’s life; to dedicate a portion of one’s time to public service and to helping others; to give charity to the disadvantaged and disenfranchised.  Faith is meant to encourage a person to be a better person—to help one cast out negativity and hatred, overcome hardship and embrace love and interconnectedness.  But when I look closely at the way many Ghanaians speak to one another and treat each other, I see insult, jealousy, lies, discrimination and negativity hidden behind an unstable façade of smiles, handshakes and hugs.

Lying is an accepted and extremely common part of Ghanaian culture—so much so that many locals have told me I shouldn’t trust anyone in this country.  I hear people accusing others of lying, from small children to elderly men and women, several times each day.  It is so frequent, in fact, that otherwise-honest people tell me they have resigned themselves to lying simply because everybody else is doing it.  And few people seem to recognize the damaging and destructive nature of an atmosphere where nobody trusts anybody else.

It is a peculiar fact that it’s illegal to insult a person in Ghana, yet insults are what you will hear pouring from people’s mouths far more often than positivity or praise.  People regularly hurl painful insulting language at others for various offenses serious and small; young children not excluded.

A true Christian would, in adhering to the path and life of Jesus, make a conscious effort to refrain from lying, insulting people and engaging in all kinds of other negative and hurtful behavior that I regularly see average Ghanaians involved in.  At the very least, an authentic Christian would attempt to contain such bad behavior, if a complete elimination seemed too extreme.  But most Ghanaians do not seem to even have the thought in their minds that, as Christians, it is their duty to follow the principles of Jesus Christ and the Bible as closely as they can, let alone actually doing it.  It seems many Ghanaians believe that in praying, fasting and singing songs of worship in church every week, they have fulfilled their Christian responsibility and are free to behave in whatever kind of shameful or negative manner they choose.  This is absurd.  I say this because of the alarming frequency with which I see so many people repeatedly acting in such bad ways, and the lack of remorse or regret they show for their actions.  A true Christian would not and does not behave in this way.

I realize that nobody is perfect, and that all of us are susceptible to negative, dishonest and hurtful behavior at times.  But when such behavior repeatedly comes from a group of people who each publicly profess to be nothing less than best friends with God, and who make no attempt to disguise their condemnation of those who do not pray, fast and worship exactly as they do, it is particularly hypocritical and offensive.

The prevalence of such negative behavior acted out so often, and with little or no remorse, leads me to believe that many Ghanaians have not allowed Christianity into their hearts.  They pray, fast, preach and never miss church service on Sundays; they name their children Blessing and Godsway and they own businesses adorned with the name of Jesus, but they are not Christians.  Why?

Someone once said that God does not have grandchildren, meaning that one must not, indeed cannot, believe in God and worship Him through the influence or pressure of another person.  Rather, one must decide to follow a religion because of an honest and personal belief—a feeling in one’s heart—that that particular faith is right for that person.  I believe that many Ghanaians are grandchildren of God.

There is a powerful and unspoken rule in many African societies that says one must accept and never question what comes from the mouth of an elder.  Strict and complete obedience to the words of elders is taught from a very young age, and has a strong but hidden effect on the way that people in society relate to each other.  Children in most societies are taught to obey their parents and elders, but in developed cultures, that obedience often exists alongside skepticism and healthy debate that creates questions and exposes both weaknesses in argument and new, original ways of thinking.  In Ghana, such obedience appears to be blind.

I have illustrated the fact that most Ghanaians are very overt and extreme in the way that they express their religion.  They pray morning and night, enthusiastically dance and sing songs of worship during church service several times per week, they fast to get closer to God and they preach the word of Jesus while condemning those who do not.  But they do all of these things because they have repeatedly been told to do so by their elders; told to pray, preach, fast and never miss church.  They have been told to be Christians, all the while adhering to that powerful, unspoken social rule and never, even for a second, questioning any of it; never looking within themselves to see if they really feel in their hearts that Christianity and all its praying, fasting and preaching is truly right for them.  In doing so, they have failed to accept and embrace the path of Jesus Christ as their own path in their own hearts.  They have become grandchildren of God.