The grand era of  stomach evangelism

It was when Reverend Bonke and the Holy Spirit descended on Tema that some of us realised that almost everybody was sick in the part of the body or another.

If you were not sick of chronic hernia, then you might have been suffering from financial lockjaw. If you didn’t suffer from migraine then of course you couldn’t ‘shed load,’ meaning you had chronic constipation and therefore, could not offload even if you were given twenty four hours to do so.

One alcoholic said his mother-in-law was always talking nonsense so he would drag her to Bonke for deliver­ance of the mouth. He was sure the woman’s mouth and tongue would be tamed in the name of Jesus.

What was of more sensation, however, was the case of a well-built woman who said she was going to practically carry her husband shoul­der high to the crusade. Her husband was suffering from locked waist, she claimed.

“For three years now he has not been fulfilling his marital obligations. Even Koforidua bitters could not help. I’m going to carry him to Bonke to un­lock his waist,” she said jubilantly. It all sounded as if Reverend Bonke had some screw-driver he was going to use for the waist job. Or was he going to hammer the waist to loosen it up?

When Bonke asked all those who were sick to raise their hands, almost everybody did. But I guessed not everybody was suffering from physical ailment. Some actually were suffer­ing from the poverty disease and only needed some injections for financial relief.

Yes, assembled at the Oninku Drive Park were natives of Sikaman, illegal aliens and witches from all parts of the country, all ready to taste of the sweetness of the Holy Spirit, to repent and believe in the gospel and to bring their peculiar problem before the Almighty for redress.

In fact, it was rumoured that Bon­ke decided to organise the crusade in Tema because the Holy Spirit had told him secretly that the witches in Tema were professionals and could cause havoc day or night, on land or on sea. They had to be subdued by the holy fire!

At the crusade, you saw people whose faces showed clearly that they were disturbed in marriage, such that their wives or husbands had fallen into wrong amorous hands, and if Jesus did not intercede, they’d decide to go mad by force and dance naked on the streets of Ashaiman.

Yeah, many people are unlucky in love. The story of that young wom­an whose love affair with three men successively ended on the rocks was a pathetic one. She committed sui­cide to end it all. What a pity! But she shouldn’t have killed herself. She should have gone for a Bible and cried to the Lord. The Lord gives succour and relief.

Those who go for the Bible always have hope in life, and somehow it works out for them. So all those who did not commit suicide because they were either sick or worried came to the Lord with white handkerchiefs to meet Reinhard Bonke the witch killer, to deliver the word and work miracles.

The blind, the deaf, the lame, stroke patients were all brought around as Bonke preached the gospel. When it came to time for healing, everyone was excited. He prayed and prayed and later testimonies abounded.

A child sick of bronchial pneumonia who could not breathe started breath­ing easily. A stroke patient walked vigorously on stage. Indeed, the power of God was at work.

I guess those whose pockets were suffering from internal bleeding also got cured and they went home with hopes of a financial breakthrough.

I was impressed with the crusade also for the fact that no collections were asked to be made, bringing home the point that salvation and divine cures are for free. Salvation indeed is not for sale. When Jesus healed, he didn’t ask for payment.

When Bonke was in Tema eleven years ago, I was at the same Oninku Park to receive my share of the mira­cles. At that crusade, collections were asked to be made. Maybe Bonke’s Ghanaian friends wanted it that way so that they could get some money to pay off certain expenses- hotel bills, public address systems, plane fares, etc.

If collections are indeed for such purposes, they are welcomed. But where churches actually sell salva­tion like a market commodity is what some of us are stubbornly against.

Sikaman Palaver investigations have noted a rise in stomach evange­lism – the commercialisation of the scripture for the sake of the stom­ach, the sale for profit of the good news. Christian organisations abroad even send Bibles and volumes of the New Testament to Sikaman for free distribution and people are selling them. What everyone cares about is his stomach not about his fellow human being or the spread of God’s works.

Today Sikaman churches are fraught with embezzlements, quar­rels over women and money, formica­tion, adultery, deception, blackmail and treachery.

Jesus is noting all down, believe it or not. On that dreadful day, we shall see things and hear things. There is an Ewe song which says if you are a good doer, continue doing good. If you also happen to be a bad doer, continue doing bad. -’Each has its own reward.

This article was first published on Saturday Mar 21, 1998.