httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H3rNONj1A_w
I often marvel at the tenacity of Ghanaians when it comes to matters of faith, and for the absurd levels we are willing to take our belief in a supreme being. We place too much trust in our men of God, we interpret everything through the lens of religion and superstition, and we are willing to do anything so long as we are sure it enhances our chances of one day ending up in heaven.
It’s a problematic mindset that as much as we hate to admit, remains at the root of most of our ills as a society. We often place too much trust in faith to the detriment of hard work and innovation, whilst we spend fortunes keeping pastors rich whilst we remain in our lives of dilapidation.
South African pastor Lesego Daniel, of the Rabioni Centre Ministries, made his congregation drink petrol because he claimed to have changed it to pineapple juice. It was an exercise modelled on when Jesus turned water into wine (See the video above).
Blind faith as demonstrated by this South African congregation is very worrying. When people slip into mindsets like this, they can be asked to do anything and they would so long as they believe it is in the name of their religion.
I am sure we can all see what problems such a mentality would breed. Blind obedience to a person or deity breeds fanaticism, and fanaticism breeds far worse problems we should all be familiar with.