Should Noisy All-night Church Services That Disturb Whole Neighbourhoods Be Banned In Ghana?

Though the  very soul of middle-class discretion and respectability, I am pretty sure that even some of my normally staid,  hard-working and stiff-upper-lipped neighbours,   must have been  discomfited  by  the "I-stand-in-the-blood-of-

Jesus" all-night megaphone-din that kept our neighbourhood awake,  a few nights ago.


Unable to sleep myself, and trying unsuccessfully to ignore  the confounded arrogance of semi-literates being belted out at ear-drum-shattering decibel-levels through  loudspeakers, it also occurred to me that perhaps  my  high net-worth neighbours were probably also fretting in their air-conditioned Hollywood-style homes  (sensibly secured against  the unwelcome  by  high fence-walls, incidentally).


Do law-abiding citizens in a democracy have to be subjected to such noise-pollution, by those who feel that preaching God's word somehow puts them above the laws of our nation?


Did Jesus (Matthew 22:21) not say we should:  "Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's"?


Surely,  it is time local authorities  in Ghana stopped tolerating those who claim to be born-again Christians, yet  in reality are  so un-Christ-like:  in their selfish disregard for the right of their fellow humans to a sound  night's sleep, after a hard day's work?


Why does it never occur to those described by a wag I know as "insensitive and selfish hypocrites - who set up their own churches just to make money",  that the residents of  the neighbourhoods they  hold their noisy all-night  church services in, have a right not to be  kept awake all night by noise-pollution, from irritating megaphone-preaching and singing-to-the-rafters?


Does God Almighty not even hear whispered prayers and singing that does not go beyond church walls, I ask, dear reader?


District Assemblies must halt  the  unreasonableness  of those who use  God's name as their  authority and justification for  disturbing  whole neighbourhoods with high-decibel loudspeaker preaching and singing throughout the night, by prosecuting them for noise-pollution.


Perhaps we ought to do what the Rwandan authorities did in similar circumstances - if they refuse to be considerate to  their neighbours, then churches must be forced to soundproof their premises:  or be banned  from  holding noisy all-night church services in residential areas  until that is done?


Finally, dear reader, genuine Christians are ethical in all aspects of their lives - and would never dream of inconveniencing others under any circumstances.


On that basis, and even at  risk of being accused of being an agent of the devil, the question I am simply asking  is: should noisy all-night   church services that disturb whole neighbourhoods not be banned in Ghana?


Tel: 027 745 3109.


Email: peakofi.thompson@gmail.com