Church is failing rape victims

The new hashtag #churchtoo was trending as women documented how they were violated – but churches and church elders had harboured and allowed perpetrators to slither in the comfort of knowing that they were protected by the forgive-and-forget banter of being a real Christian.

And churches reminded the victims that the Bible simply says turn the other cheek.

Most tweeters told how the pastors and elders were quick to descend on their parental homes to excuse inexcusable behaviour – when the Cressida stopped outside the gate, either it was an illegitimate pregnancy or the pastor had some apologising to do …

This shouldn’t be life! Women are being targeted – and society is not kind to them. There’s what some call corrective rape; a rise in paedophile cases; marital rape; incest ...

Have we allowed rape to become part of our everyday life?

When we have singers, sports stars and the elite accused of rape, we all pretend to be shocked as though rape is not common. It is. When popular names are accused, we see supporters rallying behind them, mocking and throwing insults at victims.

And the main supporters are women …

How do we expect women to report these violations if they must first go through hell with the cheerleading committee? Let me not mention names … Actually, let me. I remember Baby Tshepang, Nwabisa Ngcukana … and so many more.

Baby Tshepang, raped at six weeks, Nwabisa attacked at a taxi rank in 2008 for wearing a miniskirt …

These are women whose lives have been changed for life, but once the media turned off their cameras, their experience was forgotten.

Not nearly enough is done to protect our women.

The men who rape were not born that way. Something turned them that way – but that is no excuse for raping, ever.

Society is failing us and, more so, the church seems to allow itself to be a protective shield to animals in fancy suits with a Bible in one hand and a condom in the other – ready to victimise women.