Man is a religious being. Religious, in the sense that Man enjoys a good gathering. Man enjoys fellowship with other men and he is not necessarily a being motivated to building one Pyramid here or there, or is he spurred on by indoctrinating forces here and there to necessarily erect one Cathedral here and another there. One can say that even the prophet of a religion is a Man of immense following. That is, people gather around such a Man, to the extent that Men still gather around the image of the Man even after his death. (When I refer to Man, I refer to both male(s) and female(s)).

A gathering then is key to a man’s religion. Since this is key, it must be carefully understood. What then is a gathering? Is it a Pyramid? Is it a Cathedral? Is it a Mosque? In as much as Men gather around a Pyramid, or gather within a Cathedral or even within a Mosque, it still doesn’t make the places of worship actual gatherings. The Cathedral is not a gathering. Another way to put this is, the location of a stone is not the stone. The location of the Man is not the Man. The place of gathering is certainly not the gathering! In fact, almost all prophets never erected a single building as a place of worship. For good reason.

For instance, Jesus, the Christ, the Man many Christians believe to have been conceived of a virgin and God himself, never built a single church while he lived, and while he preached and while he is said to have performed many miracles. Although Jesus’ miracles remain in doubt—although the man’s own existence remains in doubt—what is certain is that Jesus, fiction or real, never erected a single temple in the name of his father. In fact, on the contrary he proclaimed that he was the very representative of God, of the church, and thus the representative of the idea of the Christian faith on Earth.

Why? Why don’t prophets build their own temples? The answer is a simple one. Prophets are not thieves. Those who write popular works about prophets are actually smarter than those who read these works and who believe every word of them. The writers are Men who understand the doctrine of religion. They understand that if they state that Jesus, for example, built a temple for himself and his disciples, each Tom, Dick and Harry will attempt to build a temple for themselves just so they can behave in the same manner as the Christ. Besides, what has building temples—what at all has building stone and wooden structures—got to do with a man’s faith? Nothing. The writers who wrote about prophets understood this, and so either by dint of conscious effort, or lack thereof, they produced popular works of the prophets making clear that prophets are just about ideas. Not places, not Cathedrals, not Mosques.

To expatiate further, one must appreciate the concept of the Christ for a brief moment. That is, the Christ is the very idea about which Christians must gather and express their religiosity. Man is a religious animal. He needs something to worship. He needs something to make him gather and fellowship with his fellow Men. He needs something for his mind. Better an idea like the Christ than boring himself to death.

Now there’s a difference between prophets and thieves. Prophets die, and they leave their disciples with an idea. Thieves die and leave their disciples with debt. Prophets do not erect Cathedrals, thieves do. Prophets teach their followers to believe in themselves and to strive to build with their fellow Men a gathering of the minds: faith, trust and above all, love. Thieves teach their followers to obtain riches, through rugged individualism, through the individual struggle to be saved before others can be saved. Prophets do not ask for money. Thieves beg for money and they steal your wealth in the name of building you a gathering place.

Which is what Rev. Dr. Mensah Otabil is. A simple thief: a man who’s robbed so many in the name of Jesus in a con game to build churches and schools for himself, only to make blind those who follow him to the obvious truth of a selfless Christ who asked for nothing. (So much for a powerful Jesus looking on while innocent Men are taken advantage of.) You stand Otabil by Komfo Anokye, and by God, I believe that Komfo Anokye will ascend into Jesus’ heaven before any consideration is given to Otabil. Why? Look at the facts.

I seriously doubt—even given the farfetched Christian narratives of heaven and hell—that a sensible God would actually entertain Mensah Otabil. I doubt the Supreme Being would care much for a man who makes the case for hiding under the toil and hardships of other men.

How would Otabil proceed to make his case before any God? “I am Christian, and I follow the teachings of Jesus. I read the Bible every day, and so I believe that the Jews are the Chosen People, and I, only a gentile (their slave)? I beg for money to enrich myself and to build churches. I also build banks so I charge interest on money I never worked for. I twist Biblical logic so I can terrify the flock to empty their pockets before me (the altar). I believe, and I preach, that Heaven will have lions who never go hungry but lots of Angel-slaves laboring around for a lazy voyeuristic God who would have nothing else to do with his time but to watch lazy lions being fed by angelic toddlers?”

Why would a Supreme Being listen to such dross emanating from a man of her womb? Or, yet, on the other hand, can one imagine how intensely the Supreme Being would listen to Komfo Anokye’s Atsiagbekor lessons (the art of war and balance). How much regard would the Supreme Being have for a human being who believed in himself, who believed in the might of his own nation, Asante, and who believed that Asante — and not the English Pirates, and not the Jews — are the Chosen People? A man who charmed a stool made of actual gold from the heavens, real or imagined, and left his fellow Men with the idea of Asanteman as a Nation Chosen by God? What God will not be impressed with the effort of such a man who wanted nothing but to empower his fellow men and to provide the motivation for his fellow men to become a counter balance in a region that saw so much turmoil from European terrorism?

Now how would the Supreme Being look upon both human beings? How would he judge Anokye and Otabil? How would he judge the man who made his own people become a force to reckon with in the face of European terrorism, and how would the Supreme Being look upon a man who freely terrorizes his own, who dupes his own people, with the prevailing insidious and unsolicited idea of European Missionary Terrorism? Who is a prophet and who is the thief? That answer is clear as water. I think you know the answer too: God will send Otabil to Hell and Anokye to the world of the Ancestors, where Anokye will re-incarnate again one day. Anokye will live again. Otabil has one life, he must enjoy it while it lasts. Or he can learn, and repent!

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~ Success is a horrible teacher. It seduces the ignorant into thinking that he can’t lose. It seduces the intellectual into thinking that he must win. Success corrupts; Only usefulness exalts. ~ WP. Narmer Amenuti (which names translate: Dances With Lions), was born by The River, deep within the heartlands of Ghana, in Ntoaboma. He is a public intellectual from the Sankoré School of Critical Theory, where he trained and was awarded the highest degree of Warrior Philosopher at the Temple of Narmer. As a Culture Critic and a Guan Rhythmmaker, he is a dilettante, a dissident and a gadfly, and he eschews promotional intellectualism. He maintains strict anonymity and invites intellectuals and lay people alike to honest debate. He reads every comment. If you enjoyed this essay and would like to support more content like this one, please pour the Ancestors some Libation in support of my next essay, or you can go bold, very bold and invoke them. Here's my CashApp: $TheRealNarmer

20 COMMENTS

  1. Except to say the fabulous story of Anokye is as doubtful as that of Jesus! Man always want to believe in fables, better than bore himself to death!

  2. It is not in my place to judge anyone. In fact, I have not yet fully embraced what the world offers to worry my soul over judging others.

    However, I don’t think your post answers very fundamental questions on the basis of which one can question the existence of Christ or anything around him. It’s either your believe or you don’t. You can’t question the existence of Jesus and yet use the account about his works on earth to judge two people! No it doesn’t work like that!

  3. Creative intellectualization of faith vis a vis religiosity….symptomatic of a continuous search mode for the ultimate reality….ramble on,Iya! The arrival soon dawn!❤?

  4. It’s painful to read a very long speech….only to realize it’s very shallow.

    1. Jesus Christ is symbolically the Church… why must he build one ?

    2. Jesus Christ had 33years to live…. 3 years to complete his entire salvation ministry.

    He had to prepare disciples to spread his mission…. gather believers…. Where do you expect them to worship together…. in the market ?

    Churches must be built for believers just as schools are built for students…

    Even my 5-year old niece understands this.

  5. Ebei!! Now I wish there was a real critical mass of people doing this sort of criticism of pastors in Ghana. Their churches would change, big time overnight.

    But of course, the more vital point you make is not lost on those who care to read a little deeper: That is, the idea that nation building, cultural advancement and geopolitical influence must be the prerogative of the high-minded (of the super-religious) so to speak. And that by definition those who claim to be high-minded, or super-religious, like the Christ, like Anokye, like Muhammad (peace be upon him), but who are not occupied with the building of formidable ideas, and are rather swayed by material acquisition, and material growth, by conning others out of their wealth, are invariably just a bunch of thieves. The article really has nothing to do with Heaven and Hell. But most folks will miss the import, and they will crown themselves more knowledgeable than you in Biblical Chew-and-Pour (Recitation). Again, Na’ our educational system for you!

    Well written, my very very dear friend!

  6. good try….trying to create an impression he is a deep thinker and as he said those who read it and think it is such are the foolish ones.

  7. Biological Jesus couldn’t be man and god at the same time…if he as the Bible suggested was born from a form of “artificial insemination” with half his genes begotten from some Jewish god and the other half from a peasant woman; then Jesus isn’t a man nor can he hold man to his standard or judge him by his standard because he is clearly a different species…

    Accordingly, his alleged “high mindedness” is beyond the realm of natural man begotten of man… although at the end of it all, on the principal question of how man should live, the said Jesus doesn’t bring forth any new ideas but invokes the already well established so called “golden rule” that had been stated prior to Jesus coming by Conficius and Hillel the elder and possibly many others…do unto others as you would like to be done unto you…

    So Jesus brand was very ordinary and man-like and presumably needed to be propped up by its Roman sponsors with a sprinkling of “miracles” here and there and a controversial child “sacrifice” (akin to the Babylonian cult of Marduk camoflaged as Yahweh in the old testament) which contradicts the very words of Jesus that his God is not “carnal” and is therefore not pleased by material offerings or sacrifices of the flesh…but Jesus goes right ahead to sacrifice his flesh… to please his god… that the god may forgive man for being man…

    If the nature of man is conflicted then man is “god’s mistake” having claimed to have made him as such… but if the said god is perfect then man’s nature is not a mistake and thus has no need to be forgiven…or alternatively nature itself is the author of man and man has merely inherited the substance of conflict abound in nature…

  8. Very enjoyable thread of comments (except the poor 5yr old niece). I’m laughing myself to either heaven or hades!
    Also enjoyed the post as well as other posts of the author.

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