WHY RAPE?

Hello everyone! To start with, I would like to put it out that I feel very disheartened and bothered writing this piece. Not necessarily because I can relate with the rape experience of Ms Omozuwa, or others; but because I can feel the pain and empathise with the families involved – as I am sure many of us can. No one would pray (it is gruesome in itself to imagine anything like it happening to any of my loved ones) for this kind of misfortune. May God continue to deliver us!

Moving on, I would like to clarify what exactly the term “rape” means. The act of raping is “to force sexual intercourse upon another person without their consent or against their will; …” according to the English Dictionary (note the underlined words). The reason why I had to bring up the definition is because there are so many misconceptions out there about the act itself: Some think because clothes have been ripped off, there is a case of rape – this could be a case of sexual assault. Let us take note that all rape is sexual assault, but not all sexual assault is rape.

Speaking about misconceptions; I am aware of the fact that a clueless majority seem to think that rape could be caused by some factors; which I would consider shortly. Majority of these reasons are fallacious and unjustifiable. I know a lot of people will argue that these particular “factors” can, and have caused rape on multiple occasions: I would not disagree with that. I would say that these particular factors could play some roles – but the primal reason runs deeper. What are these “factors”?

Inadequate training/teaching

This school of thought attempts to blame the increasing rape cases on the inefficient training given to the males by their parents. According to Pastor Udoka, the wife of the senior Pastor of House on the Rock; parents should endeavour to raise strong daughters and sons – not daughters that will be “over-burdened, wearied and stressed from fixing themselves and as well as fix an adult who ought to be fixing himself”. According to her, majority of the sons in the society are nonchalant, lazy as well as undisciplined. Well, the cases seem to support her views. She encouraged mothers to put their all in raising responsible sons – in addition to daughters.

Indecent Dressing

Here, the females are the more likely to be blamed. Even though feminists have long spoken against this, we can still see vast number of people protesting that the reason females are raped is because they dress to attract rapists. They continually ask why she had to wear a specific type of cloth, why she went to visit her male friends or why she walked home alone: I mean, the reasons are endless.

While I cannot completely put off these suggestions as baseless and untrue; I can, however, explicitly state that these are not the primal and basic reasons for rape. “So, what then is the reason?” you would ask.

The Heart of Man

“More than anything else, a person’s mind is evil. It cannot be healed. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:9 ICB

Also consider Genesis 6:5 ICB, “The Lord saw that the human beings on the earth were very wicked. He also saw that their thoughts were only about evil all the time.”

According to the founder of UMA, Michael Uduebor: The nature of evil has nothing to do with teachings, preaching or even circumstances. A dog, taught to walk and behave like a man, doesn’t make it a man. It is only a matter of time before the true nature of the being is revealed.

“The questions we should ask ourselves therefore, are ‘What is the nature of evil?’ ‘Am I evil?’ ‘What does evil even mean?’” Unfortunately, that is not a topic for today.

However, the truth remains that it is only the person of Jesus Christ that is able to completely free a man from the very nature of evil. Not by changing you gradually, but by a total exchange of your life for His. What HE offers is a gift no man can offer – Salvation. Have you received Him in your heart today? Have you accepted his gift of love to you? If you haven’t, it is not yet too late.  Believe in him wholeheartedly, confess your sins to Him, accept his gift today – and remain completely free from the nature of evil.