God’s voice mum as Eve’s brutalised

Stephen Mpofu, Perspective
WOMEN are a majority in Zimbabwean society but suffer wanton verbal and physical brutalities that include sexual violence in the private and public sectors by the minority in our country.

For example, schoolgirls sexually ravaged and impregnated by gallivanters may drop out of school, or forego examinations which navigate their future career choices and their roles in national development, while waiting to give birth.

Yet law against all forms of violence exists in our statute books but tragically its presence or visibility to deal with the rot in point remains a far cry, hence activism against gender-based violence underway right now has become a norm.

But more tragically the absence of a no-nonsense legal omnipresence to deter brutes has led to activism against gender-based violence becoming a norm in Zimbabwe.

Even more tragically ironic, the Church as the body of Christ and therefore God’s voice on earth, has remained ominously silent when it ought to instil fear of the wrath of God among perpetrators of gender-based violence about which no sign of its end is in sight right now.

A man of God who cannot be named in this discourse for his protection, noted sadly in Bulawayo this week that the Church concentrated on preaching the Bible instead of speaking with one voice against the brutalities that women in our society suffer at the hands of men they are supposed to help and be protected by them as ordained by God when He created Eve as Adam’s helper in the garden of Eden.

Indeed, the Lord says in Ephesians 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it.”

Verse 22 of the same book says: “Wives, submit yourselves into your own husbands, as unto the Lord.”

But nowhere in the two scriptures no hint exits about violence being used to enforce God’s instructions, for love and orderliness are His nature.

The man of God mentioned above said the Church must rise and speak with one voice against all forms of violence perpetrated against women, which is anathema to a God of love, peace and cordial relationships among his people.

Or has the Church’s loud silence on violence including sexual harassment on women encouraged some church leaders to indulge in sexual offences against members of their denominations in stark contravention of God’s dislike of adulterous relationships among His people?

Cases of gender violence against wives in particular and women and girls in general have been prevalent during the Covid-19 lockdown as more men remained home bound and therefore in contact with their wives and other female relatives.

But surely should the safety of wives and other women from gender-based violence be guaranteed by men’s distanciation from home and the victims on account of their call on duty away from home?
Curiosa or curiosa.

From the ongoing violence against women, it appears that the Church must mount crusades against all forms of the brutalities in point which are no doubt abominations to the God that Christians claim to worship.

Moreover, the Church is present in every province, district, branch and cell where its leaders and other members live so that it must be imperative for these people to socialise the general public against gender-based violence as they evangelise; otherwise without also preaching God’s dos and don’ts to society as contained or understood from scripture the Church’s role in society becomes synonymous with William Shakespeare’s play: MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

Similarly, politicians must also be in the forefront in our country’s activism against gender-based violence.
Come to think of it, as the majority in our society, women’s votes no doubt help in sending more men than women to positions of power politically.

As such, it therefore behoves on all men to protect the linchpins of their political power from all forms of violence, be it verbal, sexual or bodily harm.

The man of God cited above in this discourse also pointed out that when school going girls are violated sexually, for instance, they become pregnant and therefore drop out of school or perform dismally in their school work as a result of the psychological stigma onslaught resulting from their bestial assaults by men on assignment from the devil.

But perhaps people may wonder why some men, political or religious, resort to sexual ravishment of the girl child when they seem to have come from decent families.

The answer to this question will no doubt be that socialisation of young people in the home was Greek to their parents so that they were not inculcated with the fear of God and the fear of the laws of the land that shape the young into future responsible citizens.

Right now there have been calls for the creation of more centres to deal with cases of gender-based violence.

Implied and understood from these calls is a belief among many Zimbabweans that gender violence cases have become a norm and will thus continue in our society in the same way that people call for more health centres to deal with various cases of diseases as if these, like gender-based violence, are the products of the devil’s machinations.

But, of course, all forms of gender-based violence are creations of human wilfulness at Satan’s behest, and the onus is on perpetrators of that violence to not run with the devil but dread the wrath of the Almighty by respecting the rights, safety and freedom of fellow human beings, or be damned along with that thief, killer and destroyer on judgment Day.