The Tribune

By IAN BETHEL-BENNETT

We often hear about how good it is to have church-going individuals in the community; that they are blessings, we are lucky to have them. Then suddenly the covers are peeled off and an ugly underbelly that no one ever suspected is revealed. Yet we swear by our people of power and authority; they are incorruptible. Pastors and reverends seem to have a knack for helping themselves to the choicest lambs they lead, yet the elders of the flock defend them vehemently. Whilst the Catholic Church has been dealing with its mess of child abuse, the other groups seem to have used the former as a smoke and mirrors ploy to exculpate themselves.

However, the case of the reverend interfering with the girl he was guardian of, yet his flock defending him and now the latest charge of a lay preacher who has allegedly interfered with boys. Somehow, we take these cases as isolated instances of people being evil instead of a far more common trend of heinous child abuse that permeates our society.

We are far too Christian for this kind of thing to happen! Yet reports of the same are up and cases of the same are also up. So where are we really? The country that refuses to talk about abuse will have to continue to grapple with the skeletons that continue to fall out of proverbial closets and youth violence that speak to terrible incidences of violence in the home, as the studies carried out by the College of the Bahamas have illustrated.

Meanwhile, we continue to condemn our children to abuse and silence by refusing to allow them to speak, by denying what they say and by insisting that the church is beyond repute. Horrifically, church has apparently become a place where people hide behind the cloth and thereby get better access to the lambs of the flock. As one church elder offered as a gratuitous response to charges of abuse: they are strong young people, they can deal with it.

But they cannot deal with it. They should not have to deal with it. By making them deal with it, what society is saying is that we condone such savagery. However, in a community where being “a cutter” is apparently an honour, this is unsurprising. At least it was done with someone who could offer you something. What has the community come to that such disregard for youth’s mental health can be so widespread?

Men are not allowed to talk about their abuse at the hands of family members who are the heads of good homes. They are judged by society as causing it; they are responsible for the abuse. Blame the victim. How do we honestly blame children for their abuse?

Then the moral majority comes out and condemns anyone they see as not living up to the standard that they have set somewhere. Have they looked at the back stories to see what led to any of the proclaimed and condemned depravity? Do they take responsibility for any of the abuse? Of course they cannot because they did not know. However, the signs were there.

People choose not to see them. They choose to place these young people in hell on earth and hold them there by not listening. Yet we all wonder why there are problems with more violence and more gender-based violence. Incest and sexual abuse are violence. They are the worst forms of violence as they destroy the souls of the people who suffer through them.

Yet entire families sit mutely by and permit such depravity yet head to church on Sundays and praise someone who they say justifies such abuse.

Two novels that plainly show the hell that this kind of silence and suffering create spring to mind, one is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “Purple Hibiscus” and “ Cereus Blooms at Night” by Shani Mootoo. The former is set in Nigeria and the latter in the Caribbean, both are tales of massive suffering and violence. Yet society continues to ignore, deny and ultimately condone sexual abuse and violence by hiding it behind the cloth.

If we were to do real number crunching on how many youngsters are actually the victims of abuse and violence the numbers would be astonishing. Yet, a society that holds its Bible fast to its chest, bites its tongue, drawing blood with the intensity of its denial about rampant sexual violence.

When young men act out their pain and suffering, they are sent to prison for being uncontrollable criminal elements, and are unredeemable sinners. Their only sin is often that the cloth has been used to violently abuse them and the flock has encouraged the abuse of the innocent lambs by turning their heads to the sunshine. They are being led by example. Does any of this sound familiar?

• Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett, Associate Professor in the School of English Studies at the College of the Bahamas, has written extensively on race and migration in the Bahamas, cultural creolisation and gender issues. Direct questions and comments to iabethellbennett@yahoo.co.uk.