The Right Reverend Dr. Yaw Frimpong-Manso, Moderator of the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church of Ghana, has appealed to political parties to focus their campaigns on issues and present ideas and solutions to obstacles retarding national progress.
He said deficit in health care, drug abuse, armed robbery, poverty, ethnic and chieftaincy disputes as well as the HIV/AIDS pandemic had gained prominence that needed to be addressed.
Rt. Rev. Dr. Frimpong-Manso said this in a sermon on Sunday at the Ebenezer Presbyterian Church as part of the 8th general assembly of the church.
The one-week assembly is under the theme, "Put on the whole armour of God".
He said Ghana as a developing country needed to elect selfless people who fear God and have the nation at heart.
"As we work towards Election 2008, let us pray for presidential and parliamentary candidates who seek office because they see themselves as a call to serve God and his people and not themselves first", the Moderator said.
Rt. Rev. Dr Frimpong-Manso appealed to churches to pray for peaceful, transparent, free and fair elections.
He expressed regret that Christians had taken things for granted and misappropriated the grace of God to the extent that "some of us who have tasted the heavenly gift of Jesus Christ, shared in the Holy Spirit and tasted the goodness of the word of God, have deserted the faith and become enemies to the gospel today".
Rt. Rev. Frimpong-Manso said Satan had re-packaged immorality, bribery and corruption, ethnicity, alcoholism, among others, "so that they are now called weaknesses worth tolerating".
He appealed to Christians to be watchful and lead upright lives and said "today we encounter forces of division and rancour, sexual promiscuity, murder and crimes as well as forces of family breakdown and breakdown in cherished values of society".