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Opinions of Saturday, 17 November 2012

Columnist: Ashiagbor, Kwaku Kele

The Ghanaian Condition (Part 27).

REV. DR OTABIL’S PROBLEMS HAS MORE TIME TO RUN.

When two otherwise rational and highly respected members of the clergy have thrown all caution to the wind and decide to defend the ‘indefensible’ then you realize there is something really rotten in Christendom.
Archbishop Rev Palmer Buckle’s statement to XYZ News in which he described criticism of Rev Dr Otabil’s press statement as ‘improper and unchristian leaves much to be desired.
Rev Palmer Buckle,in your zeal and desire to support your fellow so-called man of God, you ended up doing the exact opposite and thus bringing your reputation and that of your Church into ridicule.
You only saw what was wrong with the critics of Dr Otabil in the usage of their languages but you have deliberately and conveniently chose to ignore and gloss over the worst form of words that your friend Dr Otabil used in describing his supposed enemies. I am not a Pastor, neither do I pretend to be one.
But for a man of God to call another person ‘evil’ is too much for some of us to take.
As if the comical damage limitation exercise being undertaken by Archbishop Rev Palmer Buckle was not bad enough, up pops the President of the Ghana Catholic Bishops Conference the Most Rev Joseph Osei Bonsu at the same time stating on XYZ News that the Catholic Church was waiting for the President to react before they jump into the fray----what a ridiculous and lousy statement. Is the Catholic Church trying to hold a gun over the head of the President of the Republic of Ghana? How low can you get in trying to defend the indefensible.
Is the Catholic Church the only Church in Ghana? What if our Moslem brothers and sisters also start issuing veiled threats to our President.
These so-called Pseudo Men of God should get it in their heads that Ghana is a ‘Secular State and NOT a Theocratic State’—period.
It will be in the best interest of both Archbishop Palmer Buckle and Rev Joseph Osei Bonsu to seriously and openly begin addressing
the more serious criminal and moral failings within the Catholic Church Worldwide than defending the self-discredited Rev Otabil.
It will be more in line with doing God’s work if these two men of God will focus their energies in trying to do something about the sordid revelations coming of the woodwork in the recent and on-going court case in the Vatican concerning the Pope’s Butler as well as the so many world-wide sordid paedophile cases involving thousands of Catholic Priests over the years------what a record.
Rev Joseph Osei Bonsu,you don’t have to wait for the President’s reaction, just join the fray and let’s see who will come out with mud in their faces. What you two men of God have refused to come to terms with is the central plank of this whole debate. It is about Rev Dr Otabil talking about ‘Free S.H.S Education as captured on a tape.
Remember in his press conference Dr Otabil has not addressed the following;
1) He did not say that the voice on the tape was not his.
2) He did not say that the statement as captured on the tape was not said by him.
3) He did not say where he stands on this crucial matter of this Free S.H.S Education Debate.
Revs Buckle and Osei Bonsu, if you really and honestly want to help your friend please advise him to be bold and sincere to himself and let the whole world know his stand, this will do him a world of good and repair some of his tattered image.
My final advise to you members of the Clergy is not to take Ghanaians for morons or village idiots who cannot reason. Gone were the days when the laity swallow anything hook, line and sinker from the clergy because the preacher man said so. Please we are wise and educated these days.

KWAKU.KELE.ASHIAGBOR