How a Young Lady Wanted to Blackmail a Pastor

“Rumours are passed by haters, spread by fools and accepted by idiots” Tony Warrick.

Some Christians accept everything they are told, hear or read in the media. A person who believes every allegation made against someone without making any effort to verify the truth or otherwise is not wise.

A wise person or a good judge hears both sides of a case before he makes his judgment. In other words, he hears from both the accuser and the accused before he judges.

This is important because many people tell lies and bear false witnesses to incriminate other people who are innocent.

Remember that even Jewish religious leaders did not fear to tell lies about Jesus Christ. They paid money to soldiers who manned Jesus’ body to tell a lie that “His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep” (Matthew 22:12).

Christians who muster the courage to go to the media to speak ill about their pastors usually consider monetary rewards before they do so.

Either they take money from their leader’s detractors, enemies or they are hopeful of getting money from their leader after threatening to speak to the media about him.

This is blackmail which is defined as “the crime of threatening to tell secret information about someone unless the person being threatened gives you money or does what you want” Merriam-Webster dictionary.

Sometime in 2005 or 2006 , a colleague journalist who worked with a radio station in Kumasi came to me for a discussion concerning a story he needed me to publish in my newspaper, the Daily Guide.

He came with a young beautiful lady and her so-called husband. The story, according to my colleague, was that a pastor (name withheld) had slept with the lady in his car.

He said he had had a discussion with the lady and her husband that the pastor would pay a huge sum of money to kill the story to save his name if I phoned and threatened him with the publication of the story.

The lady accused the preacher of being a womaniser and a false minister who needed to be exposed and disgraced publicly. Surprisingly, however, she could not provide any evidence when I requested it to buttress her allegation.

When I realised the guys’ evil intention to blackmail the pastor, I immediately walked them out of my office and made it known to them that their motive was evil. They were just lying against the man.

Whether the pastor was false and womaniser or not I did not know; God knew it and He alone could judge him. Thus, I had no justification to write against him without evidence; in fact, under the circumstance, I saw no reason to contact him for his comment.

Several  pastors and other people in authority have been lied against in the media and blackmailed. This should caution members of the public not to accept every piece of information they hear about people as true.

They should treat it as a mere allegation, bearing in mind that people tell lies. Moreover, we should know that a person is innocent until he is proven guilty beyond all reasonable doubt.

By James Quansah