“…Rape is Rape…”

I have no patience with people –men and women alike – who say that they believe that women – as human persons – somehow lose rights to their life and limb once they are wedded and are set to be bedded.

But apparently, there are men and women – most of them Negroes – who say that they do not agree with this proposition.

Sadly, some of the Negroes who live in this demented and perfectly backward place sometimes find themselves invited to weigh in with their opinions about this or that matter that is set to be discussed in the House of Assembly.

In recent weeks, attention has been put on legislation that would criminalize some of the savagery that goes on behind closed doors.

At the sounding of the debate bell/ some of the Negroes were off to the races/ some as riders and others playing the part of horses and asses/ but no matter how they presented themselves – male and female alike – many of them were adamant that whatever the government decides to do concerning naming and shaming sexualized savagery behind closed doors/ the last thing the government should do would be to name this savagery as rape.

One little man – who dubs himself Most Anointed – sounded off with some of the most nonsensical nonsense I have heard in the last four decades. He was convinced like the Kingdom Missies he leads that things do sometimes get out of control/ that women and men can become quite sick as a consequence of some of the nastiness that goes on behind closed doors/ and that – on occasion – women are abused.

And then, I heard from the man who spoke as it were – straight from the heart –as to how he should be allowed to hold down his wife and take what was ‘rightfully his/

And then in a private setting/ I listened in as a perfectly respectable man weighed in concerning what he thought were some of the motives behind the proposed legislation/ and as he did he chatted some royal foolishness about the Minister of Social Development; some tripe about Melanie Griffin and some other stuff he heard about how real men and presumably real women went about their sexual ‘bidness’ in the good old days/ those apparently existing in the time of Bertha Butt and her caveman lover.

Now note that/this is a good day/ we live in a perfect society/ and for sure/ whenever anyone claims that she has been raped/ take note and thereafter ask her if she is crazy/

Indeed, if the victim tells you that she was raped by her husband/ please ask her to go and see the psychiatrist of her choice/ preferably a Bahamian man/ born again and filled with the Holy Spirit/ who would help rid her of this demon of lying.

I jest.

But even as I jest, note another man who went further with his gesturing, posturing and anointing oils.

Here note that the story is datelined, FORT WORTH -- A pastor accused of raping a church member at his house last year under the guise of casting out demons has been indicted. 

  "Leonard Ray Owens, 63, who is free on $25,000 bail, is now awaiting trial on a charge of sexual assault, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison. He was arrested in November. 

  "Police began investigating Owens last year after a 22-year-old woman reported that Owens raped her twice at his Fort Worth home. The woman told police that in July, several months after she began attending the Prayer House of Faith, she went to Owens' home for counseling following a miscarriage. 

  "Owens told her that a sex spirit and lesbian demon were inside her and needed to be cast out, police said. The pastor then asked her to lie on the floor and began yelling at her as if she were a demon, saying, "Loose her in the name of Jesus," according to an arrest warrant affidavit.

"The woman told police that Owens pulled down her pants as he called for the demons to come out. When she tried to get up, he pushed her down, the affidavit said. The pastor then began to fight with her as if she were a demon before climbing on top of her, pinning her down and raping her, police have said. 

  "Then Owens, a self-proclaimed prophet, ordered her to wash her face in the name of Jesus and to read Psalm 105:15, which says to do no harm to prophets, the woman told police. 

  "The woman told officers that Owens raped her again a month later, after he asked her to go to his house to pray for another woman. 

  "Owens has denied having sexual contact with the woman, police have said…"

As you have just done, so I have also done. 

As a consequence, I have reason to believe that, Leonard Ray Owens, 63, who is free on $25,000 bail, and who is now awaiting trial on a charge of sexual assault, a second-degree felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison; is as guilty as sin.

And for sure, I do believe that the psalmist David is absolutely correct when he advises that no harm be done to God’s prophets.

By the same token, Owens is clearly no prophet.

He is a rapist; which brings me to an issue that matters.

Here I begin with a conclusion concerning the so-called debate about whether a married woman can be raped by her husband.

Of those who say that this is impossible, I say only - Methinks they doth protest too much.

My reference here is to all those men and women – some of them Negroes – who have been shouting and ranting about that matter that concerns the rape of women who are married.

These fine citizens – some of them Negroes – are convinced that some other word should be found for the abuse that sometimes happens behind closed doors.

Some of this stuff that they spew is built on nothing more [and on occasion, on quite less] than their misinterpretation of the Holy Scriptures.

This makes their ignorance all the more galling.

Now take note of another true story concerning a man, his wife, some rope, a video camera and forced sexual congress.

ORLANDO, Fla. - A 30-year-old man kidnapped, raped and tortured his wife, then hung her from a tree to film a two-hour bondage pornography video, authorities said Tuesday. 

  The man was charged with aggravated assault and battery, sexual battery, kidnapping, and false imprisonment. He was being held in the Brevard County jail on Tuesday in lieu of $3 million bail. 

  "I don’t know how to even explain it," sheriff’s deputy Marlon Buggs said, adding, "the victim will be mentally scarred. He humiliated her." 

  "The couple went on a canoe trip down a canal on Saturday and pulled ashore near some trees, when he began raping her and taping it with a video camera, Buggs said. He tied her to a tree, where she hung naked for several hours, her toes grazing the ground.

"He struck her with the side of a hunting knife blade, leaving bruises, then raped her again, Buggs said. 

  "It appeared the man was following a computer printout describing the crime in detail that was found at the scene, Buggs said. 

  "If convicted, the man faces a life sentence, Buggs said. He will appear in court Feb. 9. His attorney’s name was not immediately known…"

While the rest of this story is not yet history, the fact remains that,

Rape is Rape is Rape – no matter where it takes place.

And assuredly, there are men – some of them pastors and Bahamians – who know it in their hearts that they are [in truth and in fact] rapists.