Religion, Morality, and Democracy in Ghana

Bibliographic Data

ID3933452
AuthorsJ Haynes (0000-0002-8434-6951, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, London Metropolitan University London UK, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume55
Issue1
Pages121-146
Publication date2024-05-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
PublisherWalter de Gruyter GmbH (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1163/15700666-12340300
OpenAlexW4396761442
LanguageEN
References cited15

Many Ghanaians express concern about what they regard as a serious decline in morality and integrity, at both elite and popular levels. The decline is believed to fuel corruption, undermine national development, and diminish faith in democracy as the best available system of government. The paper argues that a close relationship between Ghana's largest church, the Church of Pentecost (CoP), and the country's two main political parties, the New Patriotic Party and the National Democratic Congress, threatens Ghana's secular constitution and the country's three decades of democracy in two ways. First, the CoP wants undemocratically to impose a framework to control Ghanaians' moral behaviour according to the church's values and beliefs. Second, the CoP's influence on Ghana's two main political parties seeks to prioritise power and control over all Ghanaians regardless of their religious affiliation and of the country's commitment to democratic norms and institutions

Constitution · Democracy · Development economics · Economics · Elite · Faith · Government (linguistics) · Language change · Morality · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Theology · Christian Theology and Mission · Law · Pentecostalism and Christianity Studies · Religion, Society, and Development

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access