American United Methodists have their squabbles with media accounts about dissensions between religion and politics, but few face a dispute such as a Liberian conflict that has spilled over to involve United Methodist Judicial Council President N. Oswald Tweh. Longtime church observers of Liberia’s politics say the heated public rhetoric is alarming, because it brings back memories of the country’s long, destructive civil war in which thousands of United Methodists were harmed or killed.
Oswald Tweh
N. Oswald Tweh
The Judicial Council president, Mr. Tweh, is associated with a public conflict between the Daily Observer newspaper and the fraternity known as the Masonic Craft in Liberia. The Masons recently rebutted a March 28 article alleging that newly elected Liberian President George Manneh Weah has been unduly influenced to appoint his political analyst, Charles Bright, a Mason, to a cabinet post.
According to a brief note on Wikipedia, the Daily Observer was founded in 1981 by Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Y. Best. "An independent newspaper, it states that its goals are government accountability and popular awareness of current events. It is noted for sometimes publishing highly controversial articles or stories on current events, officials and other," the Wikipedia entry says.
In an article titled “Is the Presidency Outsourced? Dillon reacts to Charles Bright’s New Role,” Daily Observer reporter William Q. Harmon wrote: “However, this latest action of President Weah, many believe, appears to be a clear manifestation of not only the return of the Charles Taylor Agenda as promised by his ex-wife, currently serving as Vice President of Liberia, but it also signals the return of the Masonic Craft to its former domineering role in Liberian politics.”
Among other unsubstantiated allegations, Mr. Harmon wrote that the Masonic Craft was banned from holding burial services in the local Episcopal parish because its practices were deemed “unchristian.” He also alleged that during the recent Ebola crisis in Liberia, “hundreds of U.S. troops serving with the emergency force were reportedly initiated into the Masonic Craft in Liberia as, according to the source, a way of keeping the lid on what was being speculated in some quarters as field testing of weaponized Ebola, a closely guarded secret.”
In a rebuttal, “Stop Promoting Ethnic Hatred,” the Masonic organization refuted Harmon’s article. Mr. Tweh serves as grand secretary of the Grand Lodge of Masons in the Republic of Liberia, a national branch of the international Masonic fraternity. The article reads:
“The [Harmon] article, which is filled with deliberate falsehoods and intentional misrepresentations, is an obvious and deliberate attempt to invoke and perpetuate the sentiments of the age-old and historic Settler-Indigenous divide which in the past have brought and which still continue to bring unnecessary and destructive national division in our Country,” stated the Masonic response, published over Mr. Tweh’s signature.
The Masons’ rebuttal continued:
“The Daily Observer article also politicizes Bro. Charles Bright’s recent political appointment by President George Manneh Weah. This is an obvious and deliberate attempt by the publication to create disharmony within President Weah’s Government by challenging the President’s right to appoint who in his opinion is the best person to work in the interest of the Liberian people. We believe that the appointment of Bro. Bright has absolutely nothing to do with his affiliation with any fraternal organization but is based on his competence and the trust which he enjoys from President Weah. The age-old principles of the Masonic Craft strictly prohibit the Craft from endorsing or supporting any of its members for political offices. And had the Daily Observer conducted the minimal amount of research it would have confirmed this information which is readily available in the public domain.”
The Masonic response pointed out that its principles are based on concepts of “brotherly love and charity,” and that many of Liberia’s civil and religious leaders have been Masons, including United Methodist, Presbyterian and Episcopalian churchmen.
The Daily Observer’s rhetoric alarms United Methodists in Liberia and elsewhere because of the memories it evokes of the country’s war-torn past. As Reuters news agency describes it, “From 1989-2003, Liberia became for many a byword for savagery as up to a quarter of a million people were killed in a civil war, while thousands more were mutilated and raped, often by armies of drugged child soldiers led by ruthless warlords.”
Liberia’s politics have affected United Methodist proceedings in the United States as well. In 1996, then-Bishop Alfred Kulah and his family were threatened with death by soldiers as they tried leave the country to attend the General Conference in Denver. Since a fragile peace was restored in 2003, United Methodists around the world have been helping Liberia rebuild its economy and society. Hence, church leaders are keeping tabs on how Liberia’s politics continue to unfold.
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011.