When I heard of the conjoined twins at Komfo Anokye hospital I wished this was in the time of Jesus. Peter and Mark would rush to the great teacher and miracle worker screaming “Rabbi, Rabbi, you have to come quick, there are conjoined twins that need to be separated.” Jesus would rush to the home of the twins. The distraught mother of the twins would prostrate herself at the master’s feet crying uncontrollably. Jesus would walk to the bed and lay his hands on the babies. He would say a short prayer. Right before the eyes of the small crowd that had gathered, the tissues that joined the two babies would be heard separating. Not before long, it was done! The babies would be separated! The crowd would wonder and marvel and go away praising God.

Unfortunately, this is not the first century. Dr. Boateng Nimako and his team tried their very best at komfo Anokye, but the babies did not survive, probably because we do not have the medical equipment to keep them alive. Collectively, our heart is broken as a nation. Psychologically, we are defeated. We wanted to tell the world that our doctors are capable, that we have arrived, that we are not some banana republic. We wanted to celebrate with the parents and family of the babies. After the Black Stars painful elimination, this would have been a soothing balm to our bruised soul.

As a Christian, several questions come to my mind. Ghana has more prophets and pastors with big titles than any nation in the world, next to Nigeria. How come no prophet came forward to perform a miracle to separate the babies? My pastor says if you believe, you can perform miracles, just like Jesus did. Anytime there is a serious medical emergency like this one, our miracle-working pastors are nowhere to be found. Their best excuse is to ask us to pray for the doctors. They go back to performing their ‘miracles’ after it is all over.

The Yoruba prophet T. B. Joshua is known all over Africa through his Emmanuel TV, for performing “miracles” but when a case like this arises, he is missing in action, he is silent . There is a deafening silence among these prophets and pastors. Are their miracles only on TV? Where is Duncan-Williams and Mensah-Otabil? Where is Rev. Owusu-Bempah? Where are all the men of God?

Jesus performed many miracles. He fed 5,000 people with five loaves of bread. He spoke to a storm to calm down. He walked on water. He put back a soldier’s severed ear. How come no man of God is able to walk on water or calm the seas or put back an ear today? The only miracle these pastors perform is cast out demons. That’s it! They all claim to cast out demons- look for some psychologically disturbed individual and speak in tongues at them, sprinkle holy water on them and voila! You are a great prophet, a wondrous worker of miracles! Is it because this is one miracle everyone can fake? There is also the ubiquitous wheel chair miracle. There is never the healing of someone with withered and twisted legs. Always the person in a wheel chair forced to run across the stage. Can any of these men of God just perform some real miracle for once?

Are there miracles today? It would be great to see a man of God part the Volta into two like Moses did the Red Sea. What about a man of God command fire from heaven like Elijah? A really impressive one would be a man of God making a 90yr old woman have a baby like Abraham’s wife Sarah. God is the same, he does not change, as the Bible says, how come these miracles don’t happen through our so-called prophets today?

We are tired of the healing crusades where all these’ men of God’ do is pretend to cast out demons and make people with normal legs walk. If you note carefully, they never heal the people with twisted, broken legs. They all recycle the same old tired miracle tricks. These are not miracles, these are tricks to take money away from poor and sick people.

Our politicians, NDC or NPP, love these fake miracles because instead of us pressuring them for modern equipment and facilities at hospitals like Korle-Bu and Komfo Anokye, we put our hopes in miracles from the honey-coated lips of ‘men of God’. Instead of questioning the fat salaries of those in parliament, while our hospitals are death traps, we go to church and fast and pray and pay tithes and cower in the self-deluding belief that when there are conjoined twins, we can miraculously separate them in the name of Jesus.

By Kwame Asempa