Brando's Seamless Faith

Part of what I most appreciated about Brando Akoto, my dear friend and Yo Ghana! board member who passed away barely a week ago,  was how he lived out his faith.  Like many
educated people in the U.S., I'm wary of discussing religious beliefs in a general forum like this.  Being a Christian is, I hope, at the center of my own life, but I work for a secular institution and head up a secular nonprofit.  And I notice that many people flinch at the mention of Christianity or faith, fearing--often with good cause--that Christians are prone to "trying to ram their religion down people's throats."

But I'm going to plunge ahead precisely because Brando was so comfortable living out a faith that was fundamental to who he was, and doing so with great consideration and respect for others.

I never sensed that Brando drew a distinction between his religious and public life.  Like many Christians from West Africa, he emphasized the healing and forgiving power of Christ's blood.  But Jesus was both example and redeemer to him.  Like St. Francis, he believed that Christians should "preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary use words."  With God's grace came a call to put one's life at God's disposal.  For Brando, that meant showing love and care to everyone he met as well as battling more abstract evils such as poverty, ignorance, hopelessness, racism, and other forms of oppression.  He gave himself to others with a sort of Christ-like recklessness.  I once asked him why he was devoting so much of his time to Yo Ghana!  He replied, "Prof., you give me no choice."  I took this to mean that he believed that if you saw someone doing something you respected, you were obligated to help her or him.  It did not matter how tired you or how many items there were on your "to do" list. Certainly he never seemed too tired to help a friend or a stranger, from spending three weeks of his vacation visiting schools in Ghana to encouraging a street vendor to do better in school.

Brando was a powerful speaker, inside and outside of church, and no one has been more important than him in drawing me into a deeper Christian commitment.  But his most compelling sermon was his life, a compelling witness of what a redeemed life, a soul on fire looks like.

I wonder what Christianity would look like and how Christians might be viewed if we expressed our faith as he did?