By LETRE SWEETING

lsweeting@tribunemedia.net

THE proposed amendment to the Sexual Offences Act criminalising marital rape continues to receive mixed reviews from various Bahamian stakeholders.

Last year, the government released for consultation the proposed Sexual Offences (Amendment) Bill that seeks to criminalise marital rape and redefine the meaning of consent.

The draft legislation continues to be met with mixed reactions from religious leaders, with some believing rape cannot happen within a marriage.

On Friday, more mixed feelings were expressed by various stakeholders, including attorney and former Cabinet minister Elsworth Johnson, recently retired Social Services officer Cheryl Carroll, Devon Rolle of Kingdom Discipleship Centre and Pastor Gregory Munroe of Church of God Temple, Freeport.

The comments were made during a forum for the 58th Annual General Assembly of the Highway Church of God Bahamas under the theme “Let the Fire Fall”.

Pastor Munroe referred to a ruling handed down by Justice J Denise Lewis- Johnson on August 29 involving a divorce case in which a woman claimed her husband would force intercourse and make her feel like a “rape victim”.

While ruling that a husband was cruel for forcing his wife to have sex against her will on several occasions, the Supreme Court justice found that “there is no rape in marriage” under Bahamian law.

Pastor Munroe said that the law of cruelty, which allowed the wife to get a divorce in this case, is sufficient and there is no need for the implementation of new laws that would concern the bedroom of married couples.

“If we look at the Gospel according to 1 Corinthians, chapter seven, (it says), ‘the wife had not power over her own body, but the husband. Likewise, the husband had not power over his own body, but the wife’. Marital rape has been outlawed in countries such as the United States and Canada, and other so-called developing countries,” Pastor Munroe said.

“Our preamble (of the constitution) always talks about a Christian nation and that’s what we are, so I don’t think we should go along with adopting this other stuff that we see from the world,” he continued.

The preamble refers to “an abiding respect for Christian values” and declares the establishment of a nation “founded on Spiritual Values”.

“You have to go by the law, you cannot just haphazardly throw this on the other person. The law of cruelty is in the books already. There is no need for us to go into trying to implement new laws,” Pastor Munroe said.

“We cannot legislate morality. Either you have it or you don’t have it. Simple as that. And if we allow this to go forward, if you have laws that go into the bedroom, how much further will they go?” he asked.

However, Mr Johnson disagreed. While expressing his respect for the sanctity of marriage and the church, Mr Johnson said that if the law stays out of the bedroom, what would happen if women or men are threatened, beaten or murdered in the bedroom?

“In certain circumstances, yes, a man can rape his wife,” he said.

“The law could stay outside the bedroom, but women are murdered in the bedroom. The law could stay outside the bedroom, but women are sodomised inside the bedroom. The law could stay out of the bedroom, but they’re brutally beaten in the bedroom, and women beat men too,” Mr Johnson said.

“Is it fair to say to this lady, who is about to have a baby or who just had a baby and had a C-section, your body belongs to me? We have to be as spiritual as possible, we have to be as sensible as possible and we have to look at these things,” he said.

Mr Johnson also addressed the possible issue of false accusations that may be made should marital rape be put into law, adding that false accusations are a possibility with many of the laws in place now.

“There’s this other concern about false accusations, but there will always be false accusations,” Mr Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Mrs Carroll agreed with Mr Johnson, sharing some instances from her 36 years at the Department of Social Services, where some men and women visited her and expressed their issues being involved in “domestic violence situations”.

Ambassador Rolle said marriage is God’s idea and the constitution sought to capture the intent behind this idea for the institution of marriage and attempt to protect its sanctity.

Ambassador Rolle said despite this, there is always a likelihood of abuse in every institution known to man.

He added that the Bible does not sanction forced intimacy as there should be no need for it. He said sex should not be used as a tool of manipulation or coercion and any law giving unfair authority to any one party is unjust.

Last month, Bishop Walter Hanchell said legislators cannot deny the church “its say” on the issue of marital rape in response to some who criticise the government for continued consultations on the matter.

Earlier this month, Social Services Minister Obie Wilchcombe said he could not confirm a timeline for when consultations for the marital rape legislation will be done, adding discussions are still continuing.