Religion and Ethics: Responses of Some Ghanaian Religious Bodies to HIV/AIDS, Corruption and Environmental Degradation

Abstract

Issues of HIV/AIDS, bribery and corruption and environmental degradation are all life threatening issues which touch on cultural norms and practices, socio-economic and human responsibilities and therefore need to be taken seriously by all. This study discusses these issues and the programmes of activities that have been put in place by the Catholic Church, the Salvation Army, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mission and the Afrikania Renaissance Mission to help civil society fight against them in the country. The study further identified certain factors as being responsible for the thriving of the above moral and ethical issues. The major striking factors, from the findings of the research, being ineffective enforcement of laws and lack of commitment to religious teachings. By the latter, we mean, the adherents of the religious groups who form about 93 percent of the country's population as indicated by the 2000 population census, do not seem to put into ptaC1ice the moral teachings that are given or taught by the leaders in the Churches, Mosques and the Shrines. These and many others are responsible for the prevalence of these moral and ethical problems facing the Ghanaian society. It is recommended, therefore, that the religious bodies need to lake issues of moral education and moral reformation of the individual as priority concerns and act accordingly to help create a moral community in which virtuous acts would be upheld and vices would be abhorred by all.