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Religiousity Incarnate
By abg | March 8, 2009
After listening to the umpteenth story by a friend of his tribulations in putting up a house in Ghana, I began to ponder the pervasiveness of the unethical behavior one finds in Ojakrom. The tale is all too common. Supplies going missing, inflated estimates, shoddy workmanship, blatant lying when called to account. Invariably, the culprits are avid church goers who present a sweet and polite disposition to the outside world! Juxtapose such criminality against what you can expect in the US/Northern Europe where you can build a house, renovate a kitchen or finish your basement without expecting to lose up to 40% of your funds to thievery. Yet these Western countries do not go to church at the same rate as we Ghanaians? Religion is therefore not necessary for ethical behaviour by the larger society. My own theory: religion is actually part of the problem. People go to church on Sunday and conclude that all their sins have been written off by their church going and therefore they have a clean slate and can go forth and sin again on Monday!
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