By MagnusEffiong
The National Publicity Secretary of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) and Presiding Bishop of the Calabar-based Christian Central Chapel Int’l (CCCI), Bishop (Dr) Emmah Isong, has charged world leaders to come up with deliberate policies that would ensure religious freedom and rights of the minority.
Bishop Isong said this at the CCCI headquarters, Calabar, Sunday, during the second edition of Africa Spirituality Day, tagged ‘Abasi Akara (God Rules), organised by Inter-religious Association for Peace and Development (IAPD), a global organization that promotes interfaith dialogue and cooperation for peace and developmen
In a keynote address with the topic ‘The Ideal Family,’ the PFN mouthpiece said, “As we gather to pray for true unity and peace in our world, it is important to remind our policy makers, whether in the United Nations, African Union or any particular nation to ensure a solid legal framework that will protect the rights of the weak and vulnerable in the society especially the women and the girl child by abolishing abnoxious cultures and practices.
“They should ensure robust economic policies that will provide basic education and employment especially to the teenage boys and girls so as to mitigate the tendencies for crime and rather promote creativity, productivity and profitability;
“They should also ensure trusted political environment that will ensure the safety of lives and properties and enhance humanity; protection of the minority rights, religious freedom and of speech and lawful associations. Where ones right ends is where another’s right begins, for example cases of forceful conversion and also persecution and discrimination of the willingly converted.”
On the essence of an ideal family to world peace, Bishop Isong maintained that “families were created long before religion and no religion is superior to the family legion, no nation is superior to the family generation, no television is higher than the family vision.
“No country’s constitution surpasses the family’s righteous indoctrination. Great societies rise and fall on the precept of the ideal family relationships’
He noted that God’s ideal family was for “Adam and Eve, and not for Adam and Steve,” to replenish the earth, warning that until the original family values initiated by the creator is upheld and enhanced, the world could continue to remain in turmoil.
He submitted that a family should be ” a home for mothers, not a den for murderers; a base to bring the tension down, not a base to burn the nation down; a place to train godly children, not a jungle to trail gunly children; a place for relationships to thrive, not a place for relations to strife.
“True blessings of God run through the families, true nations are built around the family values, true leaders are first born into families, true love, friendships, fellowships and partnerships are first expressed in families.”
In his remarks, IAPD Chairman, Dr. Taj Hamad, who spoke from United States of America through a zoom platform in which leaders from other faiths joined, said there could indeed be peace in the world if family values and spirituality are upheld.
“A true family is a foundation for happiness; a training ground for the world to achieve love, peace and character, it is also a school of ethics for society to achieve peace. A family, bonded by unity, love and peace is the strongest foundation for the unity of humanity. We need to renew families values to pave the way for world peace,” he stated.
Also speaking, Rev Dr Ogurie George, Africa Regional Co-ordinator, IAPD, said “UN is concerned about religious conflicts. IAPD seeks ways to making man live in harmony despite our differences, religious beliefs and faiths.”
