Heretics hate the status quo. Heretics are truth-seekers. Heretics are truth-seers. Heretics are different. Heretics want to change; most people don’t. They are the ones who know that nature thrives on change and anything that remains unchallenged and unchanged for long cannot be beneficial to the human race or a people. Rosa Parks said ‘my feet hurt,’ refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus and liberated black people across the United States.
Susan B. Anthony knew that it was unfair and unjust to allow only men to vote in the US and led the fight for the women’s suffrage movement, and they won. Martin Luther could not understand why the Catholic Church allowed people to sin for as long as they paid money for it and threw a stone at the mirror of religious contrivance and the folly of organized religion.
Martin Luther King Jnr. was never content with being a church leader. Can’t remain constant and feel fulfilled preaching the gospel only in your local church when things remain unchanged in the larger society and people are suffering.
Every church leader should fight for political and social change that benefits all, and Martin Luther King Jnr. did. The modern preacher is oftentimes concerned about only how much his church makes and the welfare of a select few in the church, not all or the greater society. Martin Luther King Jnr. was different. Heretics hate normal. Heretics feel unfulfilled when things remain unchanged, not improving, not getting better. We should all be heretics.
Copernicus knew the Earth was not the centre of the Universe but refused to speak for fear of being called a heretic–which he was– and excommunicated by the church and possibly killed. I can’t share stories about all the heretics whose footprints are evident in the sands of time for our inspiration and instruction. Heretics are often hated by the larger society, tagged as infidels by the powers that be, but the minority loves them. And the minority can after some time become the majority.
Why do we love heretics?
Because we are all heretics. We all want a better life for ourselves, family and friends. And we want to live in better societies. Our tendency to be heretical only gets stunted when we find ourselves in positions where we can get better and get the things we want out of life while the larger society does not get better. Religion and partisan politics can give you that. Comfort can close your ears and blind you to other people’s discomfort.
If Ghana is to ever get better, we need as many heretics as possible rising. People in the NPP and some of their supporters realising that the Elephant will never make Ghana better. People in the NDC weaning themselves off cult personality worship and working for a better Ghana rather than securing power and wealth for themselves.
We cannot develop with either the NPP or NDC in power.
Happy birthday to the greatest heretic who walked these lands.
Happy birthday to Kwame Nkrumah.
Let’s do this.
By Stan Dugah
StantheStoryTeller
21/09/2021
