by Michael Perry Kweku Okyerefo
Is all that Pentecostalism has to offer a parochial religious orientation that has no effect on issues of development or public well-being? Conflating Pentecostalism with the prosperity, or faith, gospel, Paul Gifford argued in 1991 that the sociopolitical effect of that gospel and born-again fundamentalist theology was to neglect or undermine developmental pursuits.[1] Gifford used the term fundamentalism to describe that aspect of Christianity that had “resolutely opposed” development through its manner of “presenting faith [that was] hardly calculated to promote self-help, self-reliance, self-esteem, self-determination, responsibility, and autonomy.”[2] Others, however, including Ruth Marshall, contradict Gifford’s view by demonstrating that Pentecostalism in Nigeria constituted “a self-conscious movement which sees itself as changing society and making history.”[3] While Gifford concedes today that some Pentecostal denominations engage in a modicum of development activity,[4] his analysis of these churches is based on a view of development that mirrors the Western Enlightenment worldview, and that this Blog has often criticized. I assert that development cannot be conceived in economic terms only; human development also includes health, education, and spiritual dimensions.[5]
Two popular Ghanaian Pentecostal churches – Lighthouse Chapel International and Royalhouse Chapel International – engage public culture in Ghana in ways that defy a simple compartmentalization of religion versus socioeconomic development. These two organizations put considerable resources into health and orphan care as well as education facilities.[6] In general, while I share Gifford’s unease about the image of Pentecostalism displayed by some of its adherents, I hope to show that some (not all) Pentecostal-charismatic organizations have taken on new, unexpected roles in African public life.
Contrary to the narrow view of development that blames developing countries for lagging behind, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are as much to blame as Africans themselves for the continent’s failure. The structural-adjustment policies (SAPs) they imposed on African states in the 1980s and 1990s, in keeping with the philosophy of neoliberalism, were a mirage.[7] They lowered standards of living and affected the lives of millions of people. Many people tried to leave Africa, but some could not.[8] As a result of the SAPs, African economies have become increasingly marginalized globally, the meager incomes of the formally employed matched by state-imposed obstacles to pursue informal avenues to the production of wealth.[9] For many, survival depends on immense creativity, which is well-expressed in the Ghanaian idiom of “We are managing.” Many Ghanaians have become self-made managers of their lives in the struggle to survive the harsh economic conditions generated by the SAPs.[10] Given the economic distress engendered by the SAPs, it is no surprise that churches and faith-based organizations have mushroomed to take over some of the functions previously performed by the state.
In everyday life in Ghana, the experiences of the private and the public constantly intersect, making it difficult to draw a sharp distinction between religion as a private or public affair. What is more, the continuing importance of religion in public culture defies the prediction that religion will gradually be consigned to the private sphere in an increasingly modern-rationalist world.[11] The new institutional forms taken by Pentecostals, then, confound critics who doubt the rational expression of this kind of Christianity.
From Student Evangelism to Conquering the World
Lighthouse and Royalhouse belong to the most rapidly growing new churches in Ghana.[12] They share origins in student evangelistic ministries, as depicted in the biographies of their founders Bishop Dag Heward-Mills and Rev. Sam Korankye Ankrah respectively, which explains why membership is largely drawn from the professional classes. Although these churches have become transnational organizations, student evangelism on the University of Ghana campus continues to be the bedrock of their success.
While it is interesting that many university campuses in West Africa have transformed from hotbeds of nationalist and leftist agitation to strongholds of evangelism,[13] new churches’ provision of material welfare should not pass unnoticed. It is a part of a process by which churches such as Lighthouse and Royalhouse have expanded their influence and sought greater respectability for their public image. The proliferation of social-service ministries in the churches demonstrates the growing organizational structure that expands the influence of these churches to broader cultural concerns in the country.
Spiritual Welfare, Material Welfare
Leaders in Lighthouse and Royalhouse are consciously working to gain acceptability and respectability for their churches in Ghana. In doing so, they both respond to and transform aspects of public culture, interesting features that are often neglected in academic literature.[14] In 2006, for example, Rev. Dr. E. N. Tetteh of Worldwide Miracle Outreach in the UK, admonished ministers of God “to desist from the attitude of preaching on material things.” Apostle Kwamena Ahinful, in 2007, challenged these churches to action: “What is the essence of religion if it is unable to solve human and societal problems?”[15] Pentecostal-charismatic churches and ministries increasingly subscribe, therefore, to the social service practices of the mainline churches they seek to differentiate themselves from.
The words International and Continental in many of the names of Pentecostal-charismatic churches and ministries indicate that their founders are seeking as wide an audience as possible, which is aided by Ghanaians’ international migration.[16] Going transnational and launching into social activities, both of which were traditionally associated with the mainline churches, augment the public image of these new churches.
Lighthouse, for example, established an orphanage in Aburi, in the Eastern Region of Ghana, in 2006. The home, which operates under the office of the first lady of the church, provides care and education for approximately nineteen orphans, and the church intends to expand it. The institution has an administrator who is also the resident pastor of the local branch of Lighthouse, a fact that indicates a close link between spirituality and development. Five caregivers, referred to as mothers, are members of the church and cater to the children’s daily needs. A social worker, nurse, and medical doctor visit occasionally. The children are trained to acquire skills such as crafts and painting. The institution also has a primary school which the children attend until they are sent to junior secondary school. The orphanage is funded through a canteen operated in its name as well as through voluntary contributions from members. Lighthouse has also opened a basic school in Accra up to the junior secondary level, where some of these orphans may continue their education. In establishing the orphanage, the church sees its primary obligation of prayer bearing fruit by touching human lives. This guiding principle informs all its social projects, thereby asserting that spirituality and development are mutually inclusive.
Lighthouse established a new hospital in 2006 on the premises of Qodesh, a huge religious empire in Accra, with a ward that accommodates up to forty patients. During my fieldwork the hospital was staffed with four medical doctors, two of whom were church members, and nine nurses, eight of whom were church members. Five paramedic staff worked in the X-ray department, eye clinic, laboratory, and pharmacy. The hospital treated approximately twenty patients every day. The services were open to the public irrespective of their faith. Patients from the church’s orphanage who could not afford medical bills, so-called agape patients, were treated free of charge. All other patients paid for treatment. The Lighthouse hospital ministry is reminiscent of the encounter between medical missionaries and converts, the link between the spiritual and the material having a long history in Africa.[17] The hospital staff used the opportunity to share the word of God with patients, an action that they refused to call proselytism. Some patients I met expressed interest in joining the church, if only in appreciation of its good works in offering conventional medicine alongside spiritual healing.
Royalhouse has also started building a clinic, which is intended to provide free medical care for the underprivileged and the vulnerable, such as widows, single mothers, and orphans. As with Lighthouse, these developments affect the lives of members and nonmembers alike. In January 2007, Royalhouse launched the Royalhouse Vanguard Christian Life Assurance, an insurance policy for the future welfare of members of the church. By contributing premiums to the church’s welfare or their personal life investments (or both), members are guaranteed a lump sum in the event of marriage, childbirth, hospitalization, and death of spouse or parent.[18] While the manifest objective of the scheme is to support members in difficulty, the latent objective is to ensure that members remain in the church and are committed. However, if the insurance scheme is successful for the approximately fifteen thousand Royalhouse members in Ghana, it will take some strain off meager state resources, which are unable to support the welfare of a vast majority of citizens. The church’s Feed the Hungry program has to be seen in the same light. And a scholarship scheme entices students to join the fellowship.
More broadly, the church gives participants workshops on leadership formation. Young people are taught skills they ultimately need to succeed, both as good Christians and as citizens of the world. The workshops are designed to promote self-help, self-reliance, self-esteem, self-determination, responsibility, and autonomy. They contribute substantially to the transformation of the individual’s welfare, for “the new spiritual power possessed by the born again individual cannot be disassociated from the ‘practical’ power to transform his/her social and economic world.”[19]
Because these social services are used by Ghanaians of any faith, they are among the means by which these new churches influence public culture, leaving their mark on the services they provide. These churches resemble, in this regard, pioneering missionary organizations by associating welfare services with proselytization. These churches are also increasing their participation in institutional politics.[20] Royalhouse, for example, invited Ghana’s minister of chieftaincy and culture to act as a guest speaker at the graduation ceremony of pastors in 2006.
A naive belief in a miracle-working God, therefore, does not describe what is taking place on the ground in many African settings. The view that Pentecostalism ignores the political and economic reasons for so much poverty in Africa[21] does not do it justice, because these examples show how it can raise the consciousness of people to combat poverty through the skills they have acquired in these churches while all the time committing themselves to God’s blessings. Preachers at Lighthouse and Royalhouse constantly hammer on this message, which drives an already ambitious youth to strive toward economic opportunity and success. This theme ran through almost all the preaching at services I attended during my fieldwork, and runs through the advertisements for youth camps where skills can be learned to further this goal.
The faith clinics and schools run by these churches may not be large when compared to similar initiatives in mainline churches. Moreover, pastors themselves often reap considerable benefits, rising from lowly beginnings to great success.[22] Compared to some of their individual benefits, such as being presented with Mercedes cars, the magnitude of the churches’ social services can be negligible. However, their services point to a shift in emphasis that requires more observation and analysis. Whether we critique or extoll “developmentalism,” the work of these “local” Pentecostal churches needs to be recognized as an integral part of it, in ways that possibly speak to the lives of Ghanaians as much if not more than the transnational nongovernmental organizations that tend to take up scholars’ attention.
Michael Okyerefo is Head of Department of Sociology, University of Ghana. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Vienna. Dr Okyerefo’s research area is sociology of culture and sociology of religion. His interests range from the sociology of literature to the interface of religion with a host of socio-economic, political, and health processes in contemporary Ghana and human-capital formation among Ghanaians abroad.
[1] Paul Gifford, “Christian Fundamentalism and Development in Africa,” Review of African Political Economy 19, no. 52 (1991): 9–20.
[2] Ibid., 10.
[3] Birgit Meyer, “’Delivered from the Powers of Darkness’: Confessions of Riches in Christian Ghana,” Africa 65, no. 2 (1995): 252; Ruth Marshall, “‘Power in the Name of Jesus,’” Review of African Political Economy 19, no. 52 (1991): 37.
[4] Paul Gifford, Ghana’s New Christianity: Pentecostalism in a Globalising African Economy (London: Hurst, 2004), 161.
[5] See also Donald E. Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori, Global Pentacostalism: The New Face of Christian Social Engagement (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
[6] I conducted fieldwork in Accra between February and September 2007, conducting interviews and observing participants in addition to perusing media products and written documents.[6]
[7] James Ferguson, Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006), 11.
[8] Paul Stoller, Money Has No Smell: The Africanization of New York City (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2002), 17.
[9] Ragnhild Overå, “When Men Do Women’s Work: Structural Adjustment, Unemployment and Changing Gender Relations in the Informal Economy of Accra, Ghana,” Journal of Modern African Studies 45, no. 4 (2007): 541.
[10] In Ghana, as elsewhere in Africa, many functions that were traditionally the prerogatives of the state have been taken up by foreign donors and religious and nongovernmental organizations. See Nicolas van de Walle, African Economies and the Politics of Permanent Crisis, 1979–1999 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 276. The consequences of the belt-tightening liberalization policies in Ghana since the mid-1980s included a drastic reduction in public spending on health and education. The SAPs came to be replaced with Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers, whose drafting was expected to involve more collaboration between African governments, civil society, and international and lending institutions. On closer inspection, the process has continued to impose donor-driven constraints on democratic governance in countries such as Ghana. See Lindsay Whitfield, “Trustees of Development from Conditionality to Governance: Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers in Ghana,” Journal of Modern African Studies 43, no. 4 (2005): 641–64.
[11] The narrow view on development I criticize here finds a parallel in the Habermasian notion of the public sphere that represents, in Marleen de Witte’s words, “a modernist discourse that emphasizes rationality and leaves no room for the passions, desires, emotions, and ’magic’ that that are also part of modernity.” Witte, “Altar Media’s Living Word: Televised Charismatic Christianity in Ghana,” Journal of Religion in Africa 33, no. 2 (2003): 173. Distinctions are drawn too sharply in this notion of the public sphere, because the British, French, and German polities that Jürgen Habermas wrote about were not devoid of emotional expression any more than Pentecostal-charismatic Christianity is entirely deficient in rational, critical debate. Cf. Craig Calhoun, “Habermas and the Public Sphere,” introduction to Habermas and the Public Sphere, ed. Calhoun (Cambridge, MA: MIT, 1992), 3.
[12] Duncan Williams’s Christian Action Faith Ministries International (Action Chapel, founded in 1979) and Mensa Otabil’s International Central Gospel Church (founded in 1984) are older, more established, and the subjects of more previous research[12] than Lighthouse and Royalhouse, which scholars are only beginning to explore.
[13] Ebenezer Obadare, “White-Collar Fundamentalism: Interrogating Youth Religiosity on Nigerian University Campuses,” Journal of Modern African Studies 45, no. 4 (2007): 517–37.
[14] However, see David Maxwell, African Gifts of the Spirit: Pentecostalism and the Rise of a Zimbabwean Transnational Religious Movement (Oxford: James Currey2006).
[15] E. N. Tetteh, Ghanaian Times, September 21, 2006; Kwamena Ahinful, Daily Guide, July 21, 2007.
[16] See Margaret Peil, “The Development and Practice of Religion in an Accra Suburb,” with K. A. Opoku, Journal of Religion in Africa 24, no. 3 (1994): 201.
[17] Adrian Hastings, The Church in Africa, 1450–1950 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994), 275–78.
[18] Royalhouse Chapel International, http//:www.royalhousechapel.org.
[19] Marshall, “Power,” 36.
[20] Marshall, “Power,” 35; Maxwell, African Gifts.
[21] Gifford, “Christian Fundamentalism,” 13–14.
[22] Dag Heward-Mills, The Mega Church (Accra: Parchment House, 1999).