Blog – Sane

God Of Divorce

One mess in Christiandom is the misconstrusion of scriptures. It’s dangerous! Because Believers literally live these misread scriptures.

On the 8th of April, 2022, social media reported the death of Osinachi, singer of the popular “ekueme” song. The carriers of her story assert she was in an abusive marriage and wouldn’t leave because “God hates divorce”.

I’ve never really paid attention to the “God hates divorce” teaching, and I can’t recall ever hearing it in any church service I’ve sat in. Maybe because I wasn’t conscious of the harms “God hates divorce ” has caused and is causing.

I thought I should start looking out. No sooner had I taken this decision than I heard a pastor say to a group of people, “God hates divorce when…………”

I was quite a distance away so I couldn’t hear his follow ups but apparently, “God hates Divorce” is popular in Christiandom. Apparently, Christians are enduring physically and emotionally abusive marriages because, “God hates Divorce”.

They say scriptures weren’t originally written in chapters and verses and that, it was introduced later for easy referencing. What does this mean ? It means that, not every verse can stand alone and still retain the central message being discussed. It means that, when we isolate verses, we may end up with totally different, most often misleading doctrines. It’s the case for the “God hates divorce” sentiment.

Apparently, Jewish men were cheating on their Jewish wives who remained faithful to them regardless, they were divorcing their wives just so they can marry as the Message Bible reads; “foreign women who worship alien gods”. Verse 11, 14, 15 and 16 of Malachi 2 reads;

11. “Judah has been unfaithful, and a detestable thing has been done in Israel and in Jerusalem. The men of Judah have defiled the Lord’s beloved sanctuary by marrying women who worship idols.”

14. “You cry out, “Why doesn’t the Lord accept my worship?” I’ll tell you why! Because the Lord witnessed the vows you and your wife made when you were young. But you have been unfaithful to her, though she remained your faithful partner, the wife of your marriage vows”

15. “Didn’t the Lord make you one with your wife? In body and spirit you are his.[b] And what does he want? Godly children from your union. So guard your heart; remain loyal to the wife of your youth”

16. “For I hate divorce!”[c] says the Lord, the God of Israel. “To divorce your wife is to overwhelm her with cruelty,[d]” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “So guard your heart; do not be unfaithful to your wife.”

So the whole of Malachi chapter 2 was God addressing a specific issue ! And obviously, it was more of “guard against the things that cause divorce because I hate it” and not “even if you’re suffering in your marriage, don’t leave! for I hate divorce!”

What would God have people in abusive marriages do ? Fast and pray? Or sow seeds that’ll change their abusers?

Same God who run away from being stoned, wants us to endure abusive marriages because He hates divorce ?

Sometimes, people do not outrightly lack a belief in God or Christianity, the doctrines from our pulpits birth their skepticism.

A.J Kwame

Ghana Vs Gays

Three days ago, I posted on my WhatsApp status “If I were a homosexual and they give me the “who should procreate for you to come and adopt argument”, I’d respond, “you heterosexuals have kids you’re unable to take care of, you abandon them, some are on the streets, some in orphanages, others a place of nowhere, then there’s also the death factor”.I as a homosexual, is solving the problem you create by procreating. See? I’m even entrepreneurial in my sexuality. where is my medal?”

A few people on my list weren’t having it aaaaall. Lol. Why would Joanna come and post this? Is she supporting gays? Joanna please this is a no no no no……Then there was the supporting squad too.

Since the common language Ghanaians are speaking on this whole gay issue is either Christian or Muslim, let’s speak Christian, that’s what I understand.

I think more times we Christians tend to forget or don’t know that Ghana is NOT a Christian country, we only have majority christians. Wait, does that not make us a Christian country? No.

To say a country is Christian or Islamic or X religion makes them theocratic. In a theocracy, the people are officially ruled by the tenets of a particular religion and there may be zero tolerance for the free and open practice of other religions. Theocratic leaders come into power by “divine selection” as opposed to how you give power to the NDC and NPP. For instance, if Ghana were an Islamic state, it’d be LAW for all females to be veiled. Theocracies were common in ancient civilisations than now, talk of the biblical Israel for example. Today the few theocracies we have are Islamic states; Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Iran etc, and the only Christian theocracy I know of is the Vatican city ruled by the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church

Since Ghana isn’t a theocratic state, it will be unjust to criminalise gays based on our Christian and Islamic beliefs. The same is true for our cultural and ethnic values because people are still individuals even when they belong to sects.

“Homosexuality is sin” “homosexuality is wrong in the eyes of God” “remember sodom and Gomorrah”. These are the Christian arguments I hear.

Brethen in the Lord, what’s not sin? Why aren’t we passing an anti-pre-marital sex bill? Why aren’t you and I in collaboration with our MPs and Pastors and Chiefs passing an anti-marital cheating bill? Isn’t it sexual sin we’re coming against?

You see when you’re in the dark (or maybe you’re the type who loves it with lights) having consensual sex with your partner of the opposite sex, “nobody is affected”, it’s same with two gays.

We say we are promoting Ghanaian family values, don’t families value premarital abstinence? Don’t families value marital fidelity? Why is no one proposing a bill to promote these Ghanaian family values too?
Is it okay for me to say we are being hypocrites?

“oooo these gays have anal sex which affects their health!” “anal sex increases the risks of STIs”.

Lol, so you care about them more than they do themselves? You don’t think they know the side effects of anal sex? and oh, did you know there are heterosexuals who have anal sex too? “Aaane mmarima bi di mmaa trumu”.So It’s not only a gay issue.
And, the sex life of homosexuals is not limited to only anal penetration for men, homosexuals kiss, cuddle, masturbate, do head and hand, something you also do as heterosexuals.

Now let’s talk about the Sodom and Gomorrah reference, scriptures never said Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed for homosexuality! But what’s widespread? Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed for homosexuality. That’s exactly how scriptures are misquoted in Christiandom and the Christian masses especially in Ghana here, have believed and are living something scriptures never said or a misinterpreted version of what it says.

Ezekiel 16 : 48 – 49 NIV reads “As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign LORD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughters have done.
49. Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.

See?

Now hear me out please, I’m not here necessarily calling anything good or right or valid, I’m saying that, I do not have the self moral audacity or any other audacity there is to support a bill which seeks to criminalise what two adults willingly decide to sexually do with each other or even speak against them, bill aside.

I’m saying if the state wants to regulate people’s sexual life, they may want to start by proposing a teenage pregnancy bill or something in response to the media reports that Ghana has recorded over half a million teenage pregnancies over the past 5years. Something homosexuals don’t have a hand in.

The anti-gay bill if passed would jail for up to five or ten years people who identify as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, transsexual, queer, pansexual or non-binary(a person who doesn’t identify as Male or female) or advocate for gay rights. We are the same Ghanaians who call “effeminate” men “obaabarima” or “kojo basia” translated “man-woman”, does that not for instance “validate” bisexuality or such a person identifying as non binary?

Then there’s this frail argument, “fine, let’s not criminalise murderers, armed robbers, rapists and paedophiles too”.

You see, always remember the word “CONSENT” okay?, in murder, robbery and sexual abuse, someone is getting harmed, there. is. a. victim. okay? People do not grant that they be sexually abused, robbed or murdered. With homosexuality, it’s two thinking consenting adults. You dig?

Now even if, even o, even if at worst, gay marriages won’t get religiously, culturally and legally recognized in Ghana, dare anyone jail them? Or physically abuse them?

You know what affects you and I? Our poor health system which wont spare your life because you are heterosexual, The bad roads which can kill you and your lover who aren’t homosexuals, our inept educational system which is wasting our time, energy and capabilities, the never ending corrupt and misanthropic governments we’ve had and have, the list goes on.

Would you please get your Pastor, Church, Chief and Mps as well as yourself to take action against these too? Or that’s not sin in the eyes of Lord?

A.J Kwame

P.S : Just for the records, I’m straight, straight like some hard joysticks : – )

And here’s an article that clarifies the Sodom and Gomorrah myth

https://www.news24.com/news24/xarchive/voices/the-story-of-sodom-and-gomorrah-was-not-about-homosexuality-20180719

Allow The Hair

Sigh, I am surprised by the decision of Achimota school to reject a child placed in their school because of his dreadlocks and the comments from ghanaians who support this move. Wait, did I only mention surprised? I’m sad and pissed as well.

See it’s 2021 and our primary and Junior high schools don’t have libraries,science labs or sports complexes, some even don’t have computer labs. The science labs in our senior high schools can’t handle the numbers, they are archaic with equipment from Adam’s time.
We are tolerating this, we are not disturbed by it, it’s not against our rules it’s a child keeping his natural hair that is against our rules. Rules, lol rules. Rules huh?

Why are we so much against students keeping their hair? their own hair, their natural hair, what logical reasons do we have?

At what particular point in time was the “school hair cut” bill passed into law? By whom? For what reasons?I think the conversation about what we can and can not do with our hair in our schools must be re-had.

Way back in Senior High School, we couldn’t even keep a simple afro, our hair was always down, teachers chasing us up and down with canes to ensure that. They’d stick a pen in your hair and of it holds, you’re due for a cut. That was how one barber did me bad.

After the haircut, he asked me if I had some pomade I use for my hair, I said no,then he responded “no problem, your hair will soon grow back”. I smiled and paid for my cut only for me to get to the dorm and my school daughter starts laughing .

“Ah sister Joanna, what has the barber done to you? Your ‘head back’ nu, oh yawa o, and this side too” pointing to some portions around my ear. It was at this point I understood the barber’s question and his follow up, “your hair will grow back soon”.

An article on myjoyonline.com ; “Let it grow:why the policy against long hair in schools must be abolished ” mentions how schools demanding girls cut their hair originated during the colonial era, when local girls attending the castle schools were forced to shave their heads as a distinguishing feature between them and the mullato children. It says during that era, some African women were also forced to shave their heads because their hair was supposedly confusing white men. Then it adds “It is baffling that this policy initially fashioned by the colonisers to undermine our people is still strictly enforced in many African countries”

In all of my daddy’s school pictures from the 70s, he’s got an afro so I asked him, were you guys not forced to cut your hair?
“No, it wasn’t a thing at the time, we could keep our hair, one guy called Moses had so much hair, his afro was always big so we nicknamed him afro Moses. The outbreak of head lice was what caused some people to start cutting their hair. It wasn’t a compulsory thing”

What changed?
The prevailing defence for this practice is
“Keeping their hair will serve a distraction “
“Instead of learning, they’d be focused on their hair”
“Our type of hair is difficult to manage, it will waste their time”

Let people be the ones telling you their hair is difficult to manage and so they’d rather cut than keep it, or they just prefer short hair. I think students cutting their hair should be a choice rather than a MUST!, a rule they’re supposed to obey .

If we are soo concerned about the child’s hair distracting her, if this haircut rule is soo binding, why do we let Caucasians in these very same schools of ours keep their long hair? Keep in mind they’d have to wash and dry their hair as often as they can to keep it unsmelly and neat.

“Oh that’s how their hair is, it’s naturally long”
No my dear, their hair is not naturally long. Wait, I don’t even know what you mean by their hair is naturally long. Are their babies born with long straight hair? No. Their hair can be cut just like us but they decide to grow and keep it. Same applies to their men.

Instead of enforcing hair cut for all students, we should emphasise keeping it neat, whether it be short, afro, long or locks. We should emphasise students wearing their natural hair in simple styles like buns, ponytails, cornrows and twists which require little time and effort in doing and keeping.

Our high schools can even have salons, run by the kids themselves, trained and supervised by the school of course, where on saturdays they get to wash their hair and wear the simple styles. That’s skill training right there.

If we say our students should not braid with hair extensions or wear weaves especially those in boarding school, it’s fair, because that requires much more time and attention, but to NOT KEEP THEIR OWN HAIR? Please no.

A.J Kwame

Price Of The Bride

I recorded a YouTube video; WHY DO WE PAY BRIDE PRICE?
Someone responded “Joanna, it’s tradition we can’t throw tradition away”.

But we threw some traditions away eh, didn’t we? Like trokosi, widowhood rites, F.G.M and co. Why? Because the eyes of our understanding got enlightened, because wisdom dawned on us, because we realized they’re unsane.

In the case of bride price, they say you’re not buying the woman, you’re just appreciating her family, but who prescribes appreciation?

Why doesn’t our tradition demand both families be appreciated? Say the woman and her family goes to the man’s, announce their intentions(or the reverse) like “ooo your son and our daughter want to get married, we came to inquire if you’re in the known and if it’s alright by you? The man’s family gives a nod then her family goes like “thank you, here, a present from us”
The man and his family in turn appreciate the woman’s too, here a present from us.

That looks more like appreciation. Or? Plus we even take the “appreciation” before giving him what he wants. LoL. What else looks like appreciation is the man himself deciding what to give rather than him presenting items determined by the bride’s family, which is compulsory. Heheeee..

Now talking about the traditions we threw away, widowhood rites for example was maltreatment of women, (I don’t think they were doing widowerhood rites, at least I’ve never heard)same is true for trokosi and F.G.M.

Even dipo which is done to usher a girl into puberty and also ensure she keeps her virginity, I judge unfair, for it places all of the effort in remaining sexually pure on the girl. It takes two to have sex so why don’t we have traditions which usher boys into puberty and ensure they keep their virginity too?

Not all, the people of the old testament caught a woman in the act of adultery, it means they saw both the man and the woman in action, “feeli feeli” , but they grabbed only the woman, brought her to Christ saying the law asks that she be stonned (I’m sure they even mishandled her on the way). Can you tell me why the man wasn’t dragged there too? Or they did but it wasn’t recorded?

Today, some countries have laws which prevents a woman from passing her citizenship onto her child. How does that even make sense? The child I carried in my womb for 9 months doesn’t belong where I belong(so if a woman from such a country has a child with a man from another country, the child is a citizen of the man’s country, never a citizen of the woman’s.)

Even in some of our cultures, we are told a child belongs to his father and so you come from where your daddy comes from not your mom.

Why can’t a child equally belong to both parents? Why can’t I equally come from where they both come from?

Infact if we want to be fair, who should the child belong to? Yes, you’re right not the one who carried it in her womb and bore all the pains.

In the face of all these and more, you turn around to tell me a woman is special, she is of high value and must be treated as such hence the payment of bride price.

We are special eh? So the people of old and the people who made discriminatory laws against women didn’t and don’t realise our specialness?

A.J Kwame

BELIEFS AND DOUBTS

You say God and some ask; “which God are you referring to?, ’cause there are a lot of them”. Fortunately or unfortunately, I know only One and He’s the one I refer to as God in this opinion piece – The God of Salvation who is the God of the cross who is the God of creation who is The Word who became flesh and was made manifest amongst men. That One.

I don’t know if there are people who never have questions for God. Me, I do do.

Listening to atheists and theists argue the existence of God, it is that, atheists don’t believe in any form of spirituality or the supernatural. This may not be true for all of them because some have room for spirituality and the supernatural which fits within their boundaries.

From watching them argue, I’d say atheists mostly come against Christianity. They hardly throw shots at the other spiritual beliefs and maybe that’s because we christians are the ones all over the place asking people to quit their believes and get in with us.

In one of Jubilee, a YouTube Channel’s video titled “Do Atheists think the same way?”, a lady mentioned how she found Mormonism oppressive at a point in her life. She calls it lies. Another guy shares a similar experience; He was in a Jehovah witness family and recalls people losing their lives because of their believes, one being refusing blood transfusion in the name God.

I think some people become atheists because of unsound Christian doctrines they are exposed to. Others by reason of reading and understanding cosmology, evolution and anthropology, are convinced the existence of this world was or is not caused by some powerful Being living in the heavens or some God who doesn’t exist. Same studies led others to God tho. For another group, the case of evil is the chasm between them and believe in some supposedly loving God.

Going back to unsound Christian doctrines, I chanced on this video of an atheist saying Christians should ask their God to repent, He is the one who needs repentance from His wickedness, his wickedness of placing people on earth and telling them He’ll send them to hell for having sex before marriage, drinking, being homosexuals, etc. She was mentioning “vices”.

Sadly, this is exactly what most Pastors preach. You’ll go to hell if you do “bad”. If you don’t give up sinning and live a righteous life, you’ll not make it to heaven.

Such teachings are unbiblical, they come from a place of scripture misinterpretation.

They hinge spending eternity with the Lord(God) on our morality and preach repentance as behavioural change meanwhile, the word repentance as used in the context of salvation, is the greek word “metanoia” which means a change of mind. At this point, I recommend a 7 minute video of Joseph Prince on YouTube titled “GRACE LEADS TO TRUE REPENTANCE dated 6th may 2012. ( https://youtu.be/TDgqUP2-FOw) Read the comments too. Lol

Now Lemme do a little preaching.(no I wasn’t preaching earlier)
Praise the Lord………….

John 3 :16 that we all know. Let’s say it together.
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

It didn’t say whosoever believeth and liveth a sin free life, should have everlasting life. It says whosoever believeth! and that’s on period! That alone.

As a Christian, you believe God forgives all your sins or more accurately He forgave all your sins because of the cross abi? Now why would He punish you for the very same sins He forgave you? That’s double jeopardy! Ain’t it? The law people tell us it’s wrong. How much more God?

Personally, I feel humans and the universe as a whole is too complex to be just a happening, there must be some intelligence behind it. Dont you think so too?

I think doubts and questions concerning our beliefs when taken care of, makes us informed believers, hence, they’re useful.

I came into contact with these YouTube channels at a point I had questions and I got answers. I got enlightened on other issues too.

1. Joseph Prince (Preacher, this man I personally love him)

2. Dr. Frank Turek (Christian Apologist)

3. Inspiring Philosophy (Christian Apologist)

4. Mike Winger ( preacher/ apologist)

5. Dr Abel Damina ( Preacher)

Even if you’re omniscient and don’t have questions, they can still be of help.

A.J Kwame

P.s : I don’t claim these channels are in all their videos indefective. Just incase you find anything unconvincing. Think too while you listen. Peace.