The General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church, Pastor Mensah Otabil, is troubled the prospects of Ghana rejecting the current acrimonious politics of insults are pretty bleak. He told host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah on Friday that the situation is “scaring and very, very troubling.” “I think it is getting darker and darker and dark. I think it is getting strange and scaring and very, very troubling,” he posited when asked if there is light at the end of the tunnel for politics of consensus building in the country. Even though Ghana is largely perceived as a religious country and for that matter believes in prayers, Pastor Otabil, cautioned that prayers, alone, are not enough to get the country back on the right track. “We can pray but I think we need to do a lot of clear things, and I think we should get probably people to start demanding better from the media, from the politicians, from all of us and we should be nice people, we should be kind, we should be gentle, we should be considerate, we should think of people. “If you don’t want it done to you, why do you want to do to somebody else? Why do you want to hurt the other person? You may not agree with him but should you disgrace him? Should you dishonour him? If the person is down, should you kick him, should you spit on him?” Pastor Otabil also hit at the media for not playing their part well to ease the acrimonious atmosphere, by allowing themselves to be used as conduit to inflame passions further exacerbating the situation. He deplored tagging individuals and organisations who express their opinions on important national issues in the country. He also rejected criticisms of selectivity on the part of religious bodies. The Christian Council of Ghana and other religious bodies have come under fire for failing to condemn utterances and actions certain personalities while they are quick to lambaste others for milder comments. But Dr Otabil said the criticisms were misplaced. He said though religious bodies are “fallible as human institutions and may have errors, I think they have [demonstrated] objectivity and are able to rise above their parochial interest”. He said: “if you follow and do a content analysis of what the Christian Council, for example, has been saying, it is just that the politicians have selective memory. One time if the Christian Council criticize something that comes from the NDC, the NPP jumps on them, and if they criticize something coming from the NPP, the NDC jumps on them, and nobody really gets to do a proper analysis that these people are consistent and are dealing with wrongs when they see them happening. “And I think the media don’t help us to situate things properly, so when there is a blanket criticism we just allow it to go and nobody is able to correct it, to say listen, these people said this last year, last two years, last 20 years and let’s have a proper context for this discussion.” He also charged churches to take up the “huge responsibility” of sanitizing the atmosphere by avoiding the use of “acidic words” to change the rules of engagement. He said it would be hypocritical for a Christian to say he believes in the teachings of Christ but does otherwise, asking, “How can you use those words that Christ cannot approve of?” Story by Isaac Essel/Myjoyonline.com