2024 Elections, hate speech: Theological perspective

As I sat in one of the back pews at the Accra Ridge Church on Thursday, September 5, 2024, as a participant in this year’s, Pastors’ and Christian Leaders’ Conference on the theme: “Transforming Ghana: Discipling the Nation”, I just kept thanking my colleague from Trinity Theological Seminary who invited me for the programme.

Under the auspices of Challenge Enterprises of Ghana, the four-day conference was guided by Apostle Jude Hama and Brother Gbile Akanni.

While focusing mainly on consciously discipling Christians to evangelise for the Kingdom of God, a core aspect centred on consciously working on fishing out transformational God-fearing Ghanaians to lead the country on the growth trajectories of righteousness and justice – the foundation of the throne of God.

Elections

As it is, Ghana is fast approaching the December 7, 2024 General Election and as a, politician, nationalist, statesman and theologian, I am with sentiments on the need to forcefully “attack” hate speech, misinformation and disinformation.

Hate speech is none other than the conscious and deliberate move to put out extremely discriminatory information (often loaded with falsehood) in various forms (especially using new media), aimed at humiliating, insulting, and directing vile venom at the target person/s.

In as much as the hate speech orbits in the realms of partisan political party interests, the phenomenon in the midst of state Institutions and the actors is what is worrying.

The dark-hearted agenda of some political high-ups to consciously feed on the ignorance/innocence of their addicted followers is what worries me as an active participant in the political stratosphere.

Some leaders of political parties have made it their stock-in-trade to always hang their failures on state institutions – feeding their followers with hateful information.

It is no secret that in the homestretches, it is the Electoral Commission and the Ghana Police Service in particular that become the main targets of the hate speeches.

Scripture

The issue of hate speeches destroying nations is deeply rooted in scripture. In Proverbs 11:11, it is written; “By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted, but is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked”.

Also, Proverbs 18:21 has it that, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits”.

Both scriptures explicitly capture the fact that destruction is a product of what the mouth is allowed to put out without let or hindrance. In like manner, life is also a product of the mouth.

Why allow hate speeches to destroy the nation – especially when it is not a national desire but the desire of a few?

Hate speeches, if allowed to fester unchecked, have only one end; to steal, kill and destroy the peace of the nation.

As it is born out of evil and sadistic inordinate desires for political power, the perpetrators of such acts fit directly into the biblical text of, John 10:10, “The devil comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that you may have life and have it more abundantly”.

As the devil seeks to destroy, it is incumbent on the nation to be alive to the machinations of those who seek to destroy our peace for parochial political gains, and shout aloud to expose them so that Mother Ghana can “have life and have it more abundantly”.

It is extremely critical that all genuine players in the nation-building sphere ensure that there is a safeguarding of the information ecosystem to sustain information integrity.

Hate speech has become an “oppressor”, and per the words of our Anthem, we must “resist oppressor’s rule with all our will and might forevermore”.

Without peace, there cannot be any form of development, so we all have a collective responsibility to ensure that those who want Ghana to burn, are shunned. Amen!