FOURTH DIMENSION : Adultery is a social plague

Whereas the Marriage and Divorce bill has been shelved, there are matters that can never be shelved. And neither would these matters be solved by the desired bill. One of those issues that are critical to the well-being of the society is the monster called Adultery. How I wish the consultations were for building a national consensus that declares adultery in every form a crime against society.

Adultery is defined in the dictionary “as a voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and another who is not his or her spouse”. This definition is good but lacking in moral boundaries that would secure the peace of society. We live in the days where the issue of consenting adults is eating away our power to hold people accountable for actions that disrupt social order. Not everything adults consent to is right and good for social integrity.

Then there is the matter of one who is not his or her spouse. We are currently living in a fluid state of spouse acquisition. Whilst the bill intended to define this process, it basically sought to endorse the practices of the people in society. But it’s wrong to build laws based in the errors of the society. It’s wrong to legislate wrong practices.
“This is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead! And because of this, miraculous powers are at work in him.”

In the gospel of Matthew 14, John the Baptist is executed: “For Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had repeatedly told him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” Herod had inherited his late brother’s wife in contradiction to all moral laws.

The moral law required him to take care of the widow and the orphans. It forbade him becoming husband and father to the orphans. Widows are not to pay for the support they receive with their bodies. They are to be protected and supported by their immediate family to live a wholesome life.

The definition of adultery here opens room for polygamy and polyandry. It suggests that if people can come to some form of making their sexual relations acceptable in society, then their sin is done away with. But the Bible is clear that sex is to be enjoyed strictly between one man and one woman at the exclusion of all others. Any addition is not a spouse and is immediately categorized as adultery.

It’s true some religious and cultural beliefs disregard this command of the bible and permit adultery in the name of meeting man’s insatiable lust. But the fact remains; adultery is adultery and destroys the social well-being of any people.

If we all want a better nation and development, we must come to a consensus that any form of adultery is not acceptable. Adultery is a destructive plague that requires a universal opposition no matter the religious or cultural beliefs. The strength of any nation is not in the liberalisation of sex but in the sanctification of sex.

jcmugabi@gmail.com