Fight a good fight of rape

A chorus is forming in the number of women accusing the lead pastor of the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly (COZA), Biodun Fatoyinbo, of sexual misconduct. Their outspoken complaints, through online communities and social media, have formed a collective protest. The most recent allegation by a former church member and wife of a Nigerian music star, Busola Dakolo, has amplified the victims’ voices.

According to these women, they have kept quiet about their assaults for the better part of a lifetime. They didn’t feel bold enough to come out. The shame of criticism simply kept their heads bowed for many years.

I know it is tough to prove rape allegation, particularly since the violations happened a long time ago and in a country with a rundown justice system. But I say that this allegation, if true, is the most egregious offense that a man of God can commit.

In 2013, when I read the full script of Eze Walters allegation of sexual misconduct against Pastor Fatoyinbo, it was revelatory of abuse of privilege, poor character and pretentiousness nature of wearing the cassock or camouflaging the anointing.

In her account, Walters writes that “at some point, I got really confused about what Pastor Biodun Fatoyinbo and I were doing that I had to ask how he handles it. I will never forget what he said to me. He said and I quote, ‘I will teach you a level of grace that you don’t understand.’ My mind couldn’t fathom that somehow grace was enough covering for not just fornication on my path, adultery on his path and the many lies that was bound to follow what we were doing that was clearly abominable… I got a chance to talk to Pastor Folarin of COZA Lagos Chapter, popularly called Pastor Flo about everything. I made an effort to reach out to him because I realized the right thing to do was talk to an elder in the church and seek some sort of remedy to a wrong I believed had been done me. Instead, Pastor Flo said, Pastor Biodun had confessed to him and they had ‘talked’ about it and somehow that was supposed to be Ok.”

And after analyzing Dakolo’s statements and postures during her interview with Chude Jideonwo of YNiaja, I could imagine the violation and the confusion of a secondary school-age teenager in that overwhelming and overpowered situation.

“He didn’t say a word, forced me onto a chair, speaking only to command me to do as he said. It took me a while to come to terms with what was about to happen, and it was why I didn’t struggle or make a fuss when he pulled down my underwear and raped me,” Dakolo told YNaija.

The Bible is not silent about rape. The accounts that I have read bout rape and justice in the Bible are relevant and I’m obliged to share in a country where the citizens’ capacity for outrage is limited and wanes.

The three accounts of rape in the Bible caused civil wars. For instance, in the case of Jacob’s daughter, Dinah, who was violated by Hamor’s son, Shechem, the brothers of Dinah, Simeon and Levi, became furious and outraged such that they attacked the city ruled by Hamor, killed Hamor, Schechem and all the males in the city ( Gensesis 34). In another example, after a concubine was gang-raped and left for dead by men in the tribe of Benjamin, the other tribes went to war against them upon hearing of her injustice (Judges. 19-21). And after Tamar was raped by her half-brother, Amnon, her brother Absalom killed him, and incited a rebellion against his father, King David (2 Sam. 13).

Finally, these Bible verses are unambiguous about rape and protection of the violated women. I can tell what these Bible verses reveal: the true heart and character of God about rape and sexual misconduct.

In Deuteronomy 22:25-27, the Bible says: “But if in the field the man finds the girl who is engaged, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lies with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the girl; there is no sin in the girl worthy of death, for just as a man rises against his neighbor and murders him, so is this case. When he found her in the field, the engaged girl cried out, but there was no one to save her.”

This Bible verse is very clear about penalty for rape and why a defenseless woman should not be shamed, but protected.

But as the rape rage gains velocity with protesters marching on COZA on Sunday, I was surprised at the arrogance of Pastor Fatoyinbo, who made his boast in his dress sense and not in the Almighty God, when he said “I am the best dressed pastor in town,” in the midst of a scandal rocking his priesthood.  I am simply disgusted at this unwitty response in a crisis situation. It unveils something about the very character of a man of God that is contrary to the words of God that require Christians to be temperate in all things.

Though, I am not on a call out mission, it is important to point the man of God to the Bible. In 1 Corinthians 9:27, the Bible says: “But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”