June (Web-only) 2000

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Leading African Christians have warned churches that they risk being displaced by new religious groups offering a "false gospel of prosperity" unless they provide "more credible forms of support" to local communities."Mainstream churches are losing ground—people are worshipping at them in the morning, but going to the new preachers in the evening," said Baffour Amoa, of Ghana, who is secretary-general of the Fellowship of Christian Councils of Churches of West Africa. "Violence, corruption and moral degradation are on the rise, and this is a serious challenge to anyone brought up believing in good behavior, love of neighbor, and respect for the Ten Commandments. The young are no longer being nurtured on these values, and people no longer have time to teach them."Amoa was addressing Colloquium 2000, an international inter-faith symposium which opened on June 10 at Hofgeismar, Germany.Speaking to ENI after his speech, Baffour Amoa said that Africans had faced a growing menace from the "theology of prosperity" spread by new Western missionaries and religious sects, which told them they could "get rich by trusting God and paying tithes."He said the new "theology" represented a "well-developed form of oppression," which "prides itself on keeping the psyche of people in captivity.… Those who say we are poor through our own fault and guilt speak from ignorance—if they knew anything of our history they wouldn't propound such cheap arguments."The truth is that the conditions imposed on us deny us resources and bar us exercising our God-given talents, and every leader who argues for alternative solutions is challenged, hammered down and even eliminated. Even today, our governments are fundamentally constrained and unfree. But the ...