Faith as a matter of fact remains potent at the highest level in Ghanaian politics today with critical political leaders identifying with certain faiths as a proposition of Divine will to lead. An interesting trend is the rise in belief that our leaders are subjects of certain prophecies which gives their elections an aura of inevitability.
Following the foray of prophetic debate about who can prophesy accurately the eventual winner of the 2024 elections, I will like to draw certain biblical parallels concerning the life of Jesus Christ referenced from the bible by the greatest of all prophets according to Christ.
In Matthew 11, the story is told of John the seer, prime cousin of Christ, and an important precursor of the Messiah, who was described as the greatest of all prophets born of a woman. His very name is titled “the Baptist” because he got the singular opportunity of publicly immersing Christ as the son of God in the Jordan river with Divine approval when a voice was heard confirming the identity of the carpenter’s son as the Messiah.
As a man in the wild, he stayed with little and often fed spirit instead offlesh, eating honey and wild locusts as recounted from the Bible. He came from a family where both his father and mother had had angelic encounters. As a matter of fact, miracles were not new to his order, his mother was described as barren and advanced in age before her conception and his father was also a recovered, delivered dumb priest who only spoke again at his christening.
With this background and his personal encounters with Christ, I have always questioned the rationale of his doubts exposed in Mattew 11:3. John the Baptist sends to enquire of Christ if He is actually the one sent to deliver mankind after baptising him. Obviously banged out in a little cell without any proper provision and waiting for the day of his beheading, one can not fault his doubts with regards to second guessing his own declaration and prophecy regarding Christ. Life is an interesting phenomenon, sometimes conditions and situations thrown at us makes faith and even experiences with the elixir ordinary.
Just as he was not worthy to lace the sandals of Christ on the day of His baptism, so am I not in any position or understanding to question his doubt about Christ especially in the condition of adversity he found himself in.
My experience with family expectations suggests as cousins, he in the least expected Christ to visit him in the cell if not outrightly, to configure a miracle to break the chains of iron in prison and stale all gates for him to come out unharmed. Yet the response Christ gives to his messengers was that Go and shew John again those things which ye do hear and see: The blind receive their sight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me. The latter of Christ admonishing is what I want to emphasise on in the debate of prophetic U-turns as witnessed recently from certain religious leaders on the outcomes of the 2024 polls.
Christ is very clear about the dangers of nurturing offences in the high office of prophethood. Remember He commended his cousin as the greatest of all prophets that ever lived, yet, He cautioned him about being offended by his assignment and mandate.
Can we, therefore, ask if God’s mind concerning certain outcomes, when revealed to senior prophets at specific times changes again when these same prophets begin to encourage doubts as a result of a pertaining condition? My humble take is that if the greatest of all prophets according to Christ, was susceptible to this guilt, then Prophets should kindly watch when they doubt their own prophecies because certain conditions prevail!
Conclusion
Since cultural conditions and situations are not static, the risk of allowing ‘prophet-gods’ into our politics and in particular elections are similar to when the greatest of all prophets according to Christ begins to show clear signs of doubt about the very thing he was born to do.
If faith and religion are allowed into politics, it divides the populace into fine identifiable boxes or schisms. These labelled boxes by our Prophets and religious leaders often blind and lead us to cling unwittingly to simplistic religious categorisation based on their individual circumstances solely.
In such an environment, others’ views become very difficult to comprehend due to colours of faith attached to their identity by our religious leaders. However, what we should never lose sight of is the fact that, Christian, Muslim, Traditionalist or other, we are one people with a collective aim to develop this darling land Ghana.
We live in communities where people work together collectively irrespective of their faiths. These conditions in our society produce a coherent class consciousness without deepened barriers of faith. We must, therefore, not allow politics to re-draw our map for us on the lines of faith because seldom has faith garnered the rationality to accept another’s belief if not sanctioned by its practising authority.
Therefore, the nuances of a faith-based election this time around should be avoided at all cost, while patriotism, unity, policies and resulting developments are emphasised. When we allow faith lenses to guide our perception and judgement about others, we lose the blood of neighbourliness. In Ghana we are all one people irrespective of faith or creed.