Regulating churches will create confusion – Bishop Agyinasare

According to him, it would be difficult to regulate churches, adding that such a move could end up “creating confusion”.

The preacher was speaking on a special Father’s Day edition of Joy FM’s Christian talk show, ‘A Walk with Jesus’ on Sunday.

He intimated that a move to regulate churches could end up being a regulation of religion as a whole.

“How are they going to regulate Churches? Are they going to regulate religions or the Church? Do they have an issue with the Church? I think we’ve had problems in this country of some excesses of some so-called pastors,” the Bishop said.

“We should be encouraged to deal with the excesses. But to regulate, the government can’t regulate the Church. It will create confusion,” he added.

This comes after the Speaker of Parliament called for a possible regulation of churches in the country.

Last month, Prof Mike Oquaye tasked the Youth, Sports and Culture Committee and the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Committee to develop recommendations on possible regulation of churches.

However, the Speaker’s call was rejected outright by many Christian associations, including the Ghana Charismatic Bishops Conference.

In an official communiqué, the Bishops said: “…we do not support any idea of legislating or controlling beliefs, faiths or religious beliefs of our citizens.”

Although Bishop Agyinasare does not support the regulation of churches, he called on the security services to deal with anyone found flouting the law.