Music in the religious context

Music in the religious context is harmonic,comforting and most importantly angelic.

The modern trend in church music in Ghana is to produce high tempo,entertaining beat mixes. Azonto is now seen as the widely accepted way of moving to the melody of said music. "Jump unto the Lord, Shout unto the Lord, and oddly, blow unto the Lord" are now common manifestations of faith. And by blow I'm talking about Vuvuzelas and not trumpets.

It is true that our religious lifestyles are greatly influenced by our social,economic,political and sometimes cultural obligations. But then, to what extent should these factors influence RELIGION as a parent node to all our varying religious lifestyles....(think this through)

I am a great admirer of the Islamic way of life. They separate to a great extent their religious obligations from everything else. Their prayers are said in Arabic,their songs have suffered a little distortion as a result and the prescribed attire for worship hasn't changed in any significant way too.

Flexibility when it comes to the christian faith is really a source of worry. Rap gospel, tight dresses, unimaginable makeup et cetera  become more tolerable by the second with no certain pre-defined limit to this kind of flexibility in our places of worship created purposely as the houses of God.

Let me try and summarize in this paragraph before I go further off topic. The point I'm trying to underscore is, IN OUR QUEST TO DISCOVER THE TRUE MEANING AND ESSENCE OF RELIGION. WE SHOULD TRY AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE NOT TO CHANGE WHAT WE WERE TAUGHT. ANY CHANGE WE TRY TO MAKE WILL IMPACT GREATLY WHAT WE WILL BE HANDING DOWN TO OTHERS AS WELL. AND, IN OUR QUEST TO REDISCOVER SOMETHING CLOSE TO THE ORIGINAL DOCTRINES, WE SHOULD RE-DIRECT OUR LIVES TO THE ORIGINAL KNOWN FAITH.

..........This actually looked longer on my phone. Ah well

Don't Break The Fence

Not too long ago,the issue of gay unions in Africa was a trending story on the international scene. Almost if not all African leaders expressed their opinion on the matter amidst lynching,killing and mob actions on certain parts of the continent.

I stand to be corrected but to the best of my knowledge when the Ghanaian president back then H.E John Atta-Mills was interviewed on the issue. He clearly stated that he and his nation are strongly against succumbing to western forces and recognizing gay rights . He cited local moral values and religious doctrines of the majority of the Ghanaian population as the reason. The story was no different in other countries like Zimbabwe and Nigeria.

I understand that a young man was beaten severely in Ghana due to his sexual orientation. I was however disgusted to see people massively condemning the action by the mob on twitter but still saying that he was at fault because of his sexual orientation with studies showing that most people have no control over their orientation. Most people "frowned on the act of gayism but don't support the fact that he was beaten ".

We witnessed a similar situation in Paris when the cartoonist Charlie Hebdo was killed for the satirical depictions of revered religious figures and leaders. Did he have the right to represent another man's religion in an insulting manner? Are there any laws in France that allow its citizens to express themselves in this manner? In other words how Liberal is France as compared to Ghana.

Ghana frowns on gay unions but hasn't declared whether they're criminal or not.We can declare that we are a country that takes our moral and religious values seriously and as such, anyone who doesn't live in adherence with our doctrines shouldn't be treated as a citizen. OR, We can decide to tolerate gay unions and prosecute those who in any-way intimidate others due to their sexual orientation. But we can't have a fine mix of both.

A policeman frowns upon stealing. A thief looks to stealing as the only means to an end in his life.As such, there shouldn't be a situation where a police man should be ok with a thief stealing but then comes out to argue when others who are against stealing try to "deal" with the thief when he his caught. If something of this sort happens, it means something major is wrong.

If we declare we are a homophobic state, we should either have laws to prosecute gay people or prosecute those who intimidate gay people. We shouldn't say we are homophobic or not but scared to prosecute offending parties.

Nigeria is the best example for this paragraph. together as a nation, they are against gay unions because Christianity and Islam are the most dominant religions in the country. They are therefore united on the homophobic front. The Boko Haram militant group claiming Islamic roots however has other propositions due to their religious roots they claim. There is a major problem in Nigeria because laws weren't made based on civil reasons.

The Pope was heavily criticized when he said we shouldn't condemn gay people but rather strive to bring them closer to God so that they may find reason to change their orientation if they can.

No man deserves to die because of how he lives. No man deserves to be punished because others aren't comfortable with the way he behaves not because he has violated their rights in a way.

 BE BOLD AND TAKE A STAND BASED ON CIVIL RIGHTS