Rev. opposes gay rights

Daily Graphic (pg3) Sat., July 3/10

Story: Rebecca Quaicoe-Duho
A Lecturer at the Religions Department of the University of Ghana, Legon, Rev. Dr Brandford Yeboah, has condemned the call for the acknowledgement of the rights of homosexuals in the country, saying it is a dangerous trend that should not be countenanced.
According to him, a crisis of identity is becoming a major issue in the country due to globalisation and if that is not checked, it will hurt the very foundation of the country.
Rev. Dr Yeboah said this in an interview with the Daily Graphic in Accra on the fringes of the second National Media Day of Prayer organised by the Lutheran Media Ministry, in collaboration with the Religious Department of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC).
The programme was aimed at instilling in people the need for personal repentance and prayer and to mobilise the Christian community to intercede for Ghana's leaders and families.
Rev. Dr Yeboah said although democracy was good to an extent, it was breeding freedoms without control, adding that the issue of freedom was getting into the consciousness of people and called for boundaries to be set to limit such freedoms to suit the country's norms.
He said if the negative effects of globalisation on the country was not checked, the nation would lose its national identity to foreign cultures and this, he said, would erode the future of the youth who would have nothing meaningful to contribute to the world.
“We should be Ghanaians first and foremost and we should have our own culture, values, traditions and norms which we should cherish and guard against their infiltration by foreign cultures,” he added.
Rev. Dr Yeboah, who made a presentation on: “How religion is helping the development of the nation”, said the country was currently experiencing a situation where Christianity was experiencing new idolatry in the form of miracles and materialism.
A media consultant, Nana Essilfie Condua, who also spoke on: “How is the media helping in the development of the nation?”, said the media was at the moment being sidelined from projecting policies and programmes of governments, a situation which he said did not allow for development.
He said the media had, therefore, been turned into mere reporters who sat on the sidelines instead of being part of the planning stages of development programmes in the country.
A lecturer at the Ghana School of Nuclear and Allied Sciences, Professor John H. Amuasi, who chaired the programme, said the forum created an opportunity for people to pray for God’s favour upon the nation, saying there was the need for people to pray to understand current happenings in the country.
The Very Rev. Helena Opoku-Sarkodie, the Head of Religious Broadcasting Department of the GBC, in a welcoming address, said the time had come to foster unity within the Christian church and encourage and emphasise prayer, regardless of current issues and positions, for the country’s development.