MONROVIA – Since its establishment in 1982, the Liberia Council of Churches (LCC) had always served as the nation’s largest ecumenical advocacy and mediation body, working towards national reconciliation and giving voice nationally to the marginalized, the excluded and underserved groups in the Liberian society, especially during the country’s past ghastly civil uprisings. But, as The Analyst reports, the current LCC, headed by Rev. Dr. Samuel Broomfield Reeves, seems to be veering from the intent of its vision and mission, and is now deeply immersing itself into the political arena, evidenced by the Council’s recent decision to honor House Speaker Richard Nagbe Koon as “Astute Statesman for National Development”, a decision that has sparked outright condemnation nationwide, with prominent Liberian politician, lawyer and humanitarian Charlyne Brumskine calling out the LCC over what she termed “a bad idea” for the Church to lose it moral voice by honoring politicians instead of deserving Liberians.
Joining thousands of Liberians in a cacophonous condemnation of the LCC when it honored House Speaker Richard Koon over the weekend at the Liberia Baptist Theological Seminary in Paynesville during its 35th General Assembly, Cllr. Charlyne Brumskine, in one of her usual podcasts, said her criticism is not against any individual politician; rather, she is speaking as a Christian.
“I think it such a bad idea for the Council of Churches to get involved in the business of honoring politicians. Why would the Council of Churches want to enter into an arena of public disrepute? Because it is inevitable that the Church will now be criticized for its decision to honor certain and not honor other politicians; or even just to honor politicians.
“The Church, and once again, I am talking capital T and capital C, The Church. I am not talking about individual churches. Individual churches have every right to honor members, their parishioners for good deeds, for demonstration of upright moral character. I am talking about the Liberia Council of Churches, the institution that has made the decision to enter into the public arena now. The Church is supposed to the voice of moral authority. If the Church now is getting involved in dealing and engaging and supporting and honoring politicians, where is the moral authority?
“Today you honor this politician. Tomorrow when this politician has done something horrendous, something that is detrimental to the people of Liberia, and you just honored them, what will you do now? So now, you come back and say, ‘we retract our honor’. But now, the Church looks bad. The Church should avoid any appearance of impropriety. The Church is the prophetic voice of the nation. The Church is the one who is supposed to hear from God. We the Christians believe there are prophets in the Church, men and women of God, deacons, and you are supposed to hear from God and convey God’s message to us. Not to get involved in honoring politicians. It gives this appearance of undue political influence. Because, even if it’s not true, even if no politician is giving you money to honor, you know the appearance that you’re giving – that there is some undue relationship between the Church and the politicians.
“I say this with all due respect to the men and women of God who lead our nation, who are members of that Council. I think this was not a good decision. I hope that this action isn’t continued. I hope that the Church separate, completely holy and set apart from the politicians. Yes, I have been one. Yes, we are corrupt. We can do bad things. But it is for you to be separate from us. With all due respect, go and honor the women and men who are living differently; who are of distinct moral character and virtue. That’s who we need the Church to be honoring. Go to JFK and find that nurse, that one nurse who is working day in and day out to save lives. I say with respect to the Church, we don’t want the Church involved in the business of politics,” Cllr. Brumskine said with deep-seated conviction.
“Disgraceful” – former Foreign Minister Akerele, Others React
Joining the fray of condemnations over the LCC’s decision to honor Speaker Koon, Liberia’s former Foreign Affairs Minister Olubanke King-Akerele termed the honor a national disgrace.
In a video footage that went viral over the weekend when the LCC held the honoring ceremony at the Baptist Seminary, Minister Akerele could be seen visibly shaken as she vented her anger and expressed her position.
“This is a disgrace, this is wrong. He’s got no business to be honored”, former Minister Olubanke King-Akerele fumed in the viral video footage, as other prominent Liberians occupying the front row seat gazed embarrassingly.
Other Liberians, reacting to Minister Akerele’s reaction to the LCC honoring of Speaker Koon, were equally angry.
According to Toga Nimely, “former Minister Olubanke King-Akinrele is 100% right to protest this corrupt award of the Liberia Council of Churches to the power-grabbing regime Speaker Koon”.
Quoting renowned American civil right leader Martin Luther King, Jr., Mr. Nimely said: ‘I have tried to make clear that it is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong or perhaps even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends’.
“The Liberia Council of Churches is a shameless organization, nothing like the one we know from 1990. Shameless people in the face of what happened at the House of Representatives in recent months. You have this award going to somebody like Koon, really? What were the criteria for awarding such an award, what??? What is wrong with this country, Liberia? No wonder we are making little or no progress, no wonder!!!???” Nimely blasted.
As for Duke Hamilton Gibson, “The Council shouldn’t be doing such a thing. They should stop awarding politicians. It’s totally wrong and disgraceful.”
“Minister Akerele is right. Prayer service could have been appropriate. It seems like some of these politicians are using juju in Liberia. It’s not normal to have such a program. It’s the same issue with Weah using his church pulpit on Sunday to throw jabs, yet no clergy man has ever condemned it. Now, this is happening,” vented Mer Elsie.
“Who are the Council of Churches? Those gravy seekers, politicians in disguise, Nicodemus calling themselves Council of Churches, honoring one that disrespected the Supreme Court, disregarded the rule of laws? What a joke? Christianity in Liberia is just child’s play and is being used to accumulate wealth. They must remember that God has a special way to deal with such. They who are supposed to guide the country spiritually are there participating in political affairs. They are mostly highly concerned about politics than the Bible. When one sees it like that, they want money. That group should and must be dissolved completely. Hungry gravy seekers!” Julius Richards reacted caustically.
Other LCC honorees included veteran Liberian journalist Kenneh Y. Best and veteran political Dr. Togba Nah Tipoteh.