Dr Mensa Otabil has been described as a political preacher–others may agree with this and many others many disagree, depending on where a person belongs.
However, when presented with facts, every reasonable person must come to the same conclusion–and this is what we seek to do with this post.
Though Mensa Otabil, the founder of the International Central Gospel Church (ICGC) remains one of Ghana’s most respected preachers, he is equally the most confused–and his sermons/messages over the years clearly show this.
In a recent sermon, Otabil said, Ghanaians (Africans as a whole) are stuck in the past–adding that we need to adapt to global changes and accept the new ways of doing things.
In a follow-up sermon, he used the popular Ghanaian fufu dish as an example, saying, eating with hands is not only unhygienic but arguments that eating with your hand is African is completely stupid. He explained that the white man used to eat with his hands too–but time changes and a new better way of eating has emerged in response to the moving time.
The above message denotes brilliance–but it clearly contradicts the sort of logic this same man churns out, most times.
A few months ago, this man told his congregation not to accept any scientific theory which contradicts the Bible–remember, the Bible documents old ways of doing things and the ideas of the Bible mirror times like 1 AD.
So on one day, Otabil says we should embrace global changes and new ways of thinking and doing things, and on another, he tells us to live by a book written by illiterate nomads, at a time when they were completely ignorant even about the shape of the earth, diseases and almost everything we know today.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZ38bDH-0UI
Also, Mensa Otabil said we should not be left behind as Africans, and that the world has moved on–accepting new things and ways, yet we are stuck in the old ideas and ways of Okomfo Anokye. This simply captures the fact that, whatever ideas we carry ought to also move with time and what was unacceptable in 1700 can be acceptable today. Similarly, some things which were acceptable in 1600 can become obsolete, citing the processes of making and eating of fufu as an example.
READ ALSO: The Problem With Ghanaians Is That We Don’t Like Change – Says Science Denying Dr Mensa Otabil
The above is brilliant but when measured against some of the sermons of the same Otabil, you wonder whether he has any appreciation of consistency at all.
This is the same man who said that homosexuality is “detestable” relying on the teachings of a book written thousands of years ago–asking us to embrace the ideas and teachings of an era far before the era he describes today as “antiquated” and therefore irrelevant.
So the Ghanaian should move with globalisation, new ideas, new ways of doing things and bring himself in line with the rest of the world–yet, when the rest of the world has accepted scientific theories, has embraced homosexuality and others, we should kick against these things by relying on the teachings of people that even pre-dates Okomfo Anokye’s “antiquated” era.
If Okomfo Anokye’s era is “antiquated” and the ways things were done then should not be how we do things today, why should we take morals or ideas or ways of doing things from Moses’ era which far pre-dates that of Okomfo Akomfo Anokye?
Of course, the man is confused–and increasingly, his confusion is becoming obvious to even the thick-headed.