The former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana has berated CNN for its report that suggested that the council and Churches in Ghana have been fighting against Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex (LGBTQ+) activities while receiving funds from donor agencies that support these activities.

According to Rev Dr Kwabena Opuni-Frimpong, the report by CNN was not accurate. He said that CNN should have spoken to the Christian Council and the churches cited in their investigative report to get their side of the story.

In an interview with GhanaWeb on Wednesday, December 14, 2022, Rev Opuni-Frimpong said that before any donor organisation supports the activities of the Christian Council and Churches in Ghana, they (the donor) scrutinise the proposal of these entities.

He added that most of the funds received are for targeted social interventions, including refugee and health issues and the issue about the promotion of LGBTQ+ activities in Ghana has never been an issue.

“CNN is a world internationally respected media house, we have known then for that, but on this particular subject, the lady who reported the story has not been fair to Ghanaians Churches. Because even though, she spoke to people, from the video, she did not talk to any church leader on the subject of benefiting from LGBT funds.

“I have been the General Secretary of the Christian Council for five years (2013 to 2018) and we work with both governmental and non-governmental agencies including UNAID, DANIDA, European Union, several of them and their monies are not necessarily for Church people.

“They (the donor agencies) fund your projects that they are interested in. Some of them (the projects) are for all refugees in Ghana, others involve issues of houses, HIV/AIDs, (and) elections. And so, when we want to do any of such social interventions, we send proposals to agencies, governmental and non-governmental. If there are interested in the proposal either they accept it or their review it and then they set up an arrangement for us to implement it,” he told GhanaWeb.

Rev Opuni-Frimpong said that CNN could have called on the religious organisations cited in the report to view some of the proposals they send to these donor organisations to ascertain whether the stance of the Churches in Ghana on LBGT activities has been an issue.

He reiterated that the monies the donor agencies give to Churches are for specific purposes and the churches ensure that they are used for their intended purposes, thus the Churches cannot be accused of any wrong doing because the promotion of gay activities in Ghana has never been a precondition.

The former General Secretary of the Christian Council of Ghana urged the internationally acclaimed media house to engage churches in Ghana to listen to their side of the story.

Source: Ghanaweb