President Mahama: “Let Us Count Ourselves Lucky For Religious Tolerance”

President Mahama President John Dramani Mahama on Sunday called on Ghanaians to count themselves lucky for the continuous inter- and intra-religious tolerance that the country had enjoyed over the years. He said: “Elsewhere in the world, there have been numerous religious conflicts, between Muslims and Christians and even sometimes intra-religious conflicts, but due to your intercessory prayers we have avoided that in this country.” President Mahama said this when he addressed the closing ceremony of the one million Bible project, organized by the Bible Society of Ghana, where he presented the one millionth Bible to Miss Sandra Frimpomaa Quarshie, a former JHS student of Forces JHS, Burma Camp. The one million Bible project was initiated by the management of the Bible Society of Ghana with support from the national council of the society, under the chairmanship of Dr Joyce R Aryee, to distribute one million Bibles to Junior High School Pupils in Ghana. Apart from using the project to commemorate Ghana’s Golden Independence anniversary, the project was also to stimulate and instill religious morals to the pupils to grow up to become useful citizens that would continue with the development agenda of the country. President Mahama expressed confidence that Ghana would continue to grow and develop because of the religious tolerance and the acceptance of the word. He said the distribution of Bibles was synonymous to distributing life and prosperity and pledged to pay for the printing and distribution of one thousand (1,000) Bibles to members of the Ghana Armed Forces. The President appealed to religious leaders to be resilient in the performance of their duties, irrespective of the challenges they meet in disseminating the word of God. Reverend Erasmus Odonkor, General Secretary of the Bible Society of Ghana, said the distribution of the Bibles was a bold contribution towards the strengthening of the moral foundation of Ghana to guarantee a future that is founded on the virtues of truth, Godliness and brotherliness. “It is a bold contribution towards the strengthening of the moral foundation of our nation….which upholds peace, brotherliness, hardwork, entrepreneurship and prosperity for Ghana.” He added. He gave the assurance that the Bible Society of Ghana would continue to translate the Bible into many languages as possible to give everybody the opportunity to read the word of God in his or her own mother tongue. Dr Joyce Aryee commended the entire management and council for their initiative in coming out with the idea to distribute free Bibles to school children. “Let us reveal Jesus to other people..and thank Very Reverend Kofi Owusu, Former General Secretary of the Bible Society of Ghana for allowing God to use him as the instrument of evangelism to get other Bible believers board,” she added. Miss Sandra Frimpomaa Quartey, the recipient of the one millionth Bible thanked the Bible Society of Ghana for the opportunity, saying “I believe this will help us to develop our spiritual lives in Ghana and beyond.”       Source: GNA