The argument against the National Cathedral is lame but this does not negate the legitimate questions about the motives of government and the approach of execution, which part two of this article will address.

Opponents of the National Cathedral suggest that it is not a priority, given that Ghana is hugely indebted, has a deficit in infrastructure, unemployment is high and many citizens live below acceptable income levels.

That argument would have been acceptable if the absence of a National Cathedral over the years has resolved these issues. As if the cathedral is not built, the money for it will be used to resolve the challenges aforementioned. So what do you lose when the Cathedral comes up?

To be clear, building a Cathedral is not a second priority to “bread and butter issues.” So that assuming we have to choose between building a factory to provide jobs for the people and building a Cathedral, I will opt for a factory. No. I will prefer a Cathedral. Here is why.

Assuming you are religious, which is more of a priority to you? God’s interest or yours? I can understand the disagreements of the atheist and non-religious people. But Ghana is a democracy that accepts majoritarian rule. It’s the majority which carries the vote. The people of faith in this country are far more than those without, whether they be Muslims, Buddhists or what have you.  Again, the right to serve God and belong to any religious persuasion is equally legal and ingrained in the Constitution.  Therefore speaking from a religious perspective on a national subject is not an appeal to emotion but to law and democracy.

So why do some religious people disagree with prioritizing a National Cathedral?

1. For non-Christian opponents it is jealousy or rivalry.
2. For Christian opponents it is ignorance or not being true Christians.

I take these two issues in turn, point two first. To Christians who oppose the building of a House of God, what does the Bible say, God first or what man will eat and drink first?

Read more: Ghana’s new national cathedral: What we know – and don’t know 

This is what Mathew 6:33 says: “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you. In fact, the verses before it adds ‘Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?” Matthew 6:25-26. In other words, the Cathedral first before the supposed bread and butter issue. This is according to the Bible, not me.

Assuming that appears farfetched, hear is what God Himself says of a Cathedral. “These people say, ‘The time has not yet come to rebuild the Lord’s house.’”

Then the word of the Lord came through the prophet Haggai: “Is it a time for you yourselves to be living in your paneled houses, while this house remains a ruin?”

Now, this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways.  You have planted much but harvested little. You eat but never have enough. You drink but never have your fill. You put on clothes but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it.”

This is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. Go up into the mountains and bring down timber and build my house, so that I may take pleasure in it and be honored,” says the Lord. “You expected much, but see, it turned out to be little. What you brought home, I blew away. Why?” declares the Lord Almighty. “Because of my house, which remains a ruin, while each of you is busy with your own house. Therefore, because of you the heavens have withheld their dew and the earth its crops. I called for a drought on the fields and the mountains, on the grain, the new wine, the olive oil and everything else the ground produces, on people and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.” Haggai 1:2-11.  

Now to point one, those religious people who oppose the Cathedral because they belong to another faith and are therefore jealous, to them, I will not say much except that our God will fight for us. Amen.

Christians are the largest population in this country. Obviously, they contribute more in terms of taxes, employment, infrastructure, service delivery, human resources, knowledge, and leadership than any other organized religious group. Is it too much even if just a percentage of what Christians have contributed to the development of this nation is used to provide just a place, one building, that can serve the entire Christian community and the generation yet unborn?

Yet for years people of other faiths and the entire nation have attended hospitals, schools, and been employed in facilities done with resources from the struggles of very poor Christians.