Absence of a moral compass

With sheer disgust I watched a man apologise to his wife for his unbecoming behaviour … not only as a husband but as a man of the cloth.

He spoke of his seeking redemption from his maker and forgiveness from his wife. If any other man had been accused of anything vaguely similar, he probably would have been lynched.

But this man smiled broadly on our TV screens as he spoke with the eloquence someone who draped his words in faith and the gospel – and so this makes his sins more forgiveable than those of a normal man who had fewer zeroes in his bank account and fewer fans in his corner?

A woman, today aged 21 but then a mere 17 years old, had to ward off the alleged advancements of this crude man!

This “man of the cloth”.

We are a society that turns a blind eye to men who prey on young girls but wants to trip over itself in making excuses for men who cannot control their lust – for it is nothing more than that.

In ordinary households, when Uncle So-And-So is found to have violated a child, a hasty family meeting is convened in order to try and conceal his actions – in order to keep the honour of the family intact.

This revealed itself as Bishop Israel Makamu and his wife were alleged to have offered the young girl’s family wads of cash to never reveal his actions – an attempt to buy her silence – because his “redemption” could be bought.

While we, the unpaid activists and genuinely concerned, spread the message that in such instances we call the cops and not family meetings, this man of the cloth called upon the power of the rand.

The church fails because while it echoes a message of restoration, redemption and forgiveness – it remains mum on justice; justice for a beautiful young lady who most likely was not the only one but had the courage to speak out and refuse the advances of an alleged predator who dared to call her boring because she said no.

Our society and the church need to reassess their attitudes to this sort of behaviour because I am not sure about the moral compass that guides them!