SEXUAL IMMORALITY WITHIN

By Solomon Belete Haile
February 6, 2015

A friend texted me regarding a story aired on the Voice of America Radio, Amharic Service program on February 2nd, 2015. It’s about a sexual assault allegation. A prominent Ethiopian Pastor and gospel music singer was accused of sexually assaulting a married woman. "If the allegations were substantiated," I texted back to my friend, "it’s unfortunate." Now that I listened to the broadcast, the following is my opinion, and I’d like to share it with you.

You can feel from the outset that the host of the program, Mr. Addisu Abebe appears to be enjoying the murky story. I felt sad when I listened to the back-and-forth between him and the accusers. Mr. Abebe found the poor moral behavior exhibited by these Christians to be potentially newsworthy. He then milked the story as much as he could and prepared a “special report.” After all, these married couples were presenting a vulgar accusation against one of their own. A famous gospel singer named Tekeste Getenet. Thus, to Mr. Abebe and most of his listeners' itching ears, it was a dramatic story. 

As was the case with me and thousands of believers, these detrimental accusations were startling. The sanctity of marriage is highly regarded and widely talked about in our Bible; thus, a story like this evokes a genuine concern among Christians. Hebrews 13:4 reads:

“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous.” (ESV)

The "marriage bed," as referred to in this verse, is sex enjoyed within the boundaries of marriage. It is a gift from God for married couples. That is why this verse exhorts believers to hold sex honorably. As you can see in this verse, judgment awaits those who defile the gift of sex and misappropriate its God-made purpose.

According to our Lord Jesus, the act of sexual immorality in a marriage is the only justifiable reason for a spouse to divorce, Matthew 5:31-32; and this, in turn, explains how serious an offense marital unfaithfulness is when carried out in the form of sexual immorality. Therefore, if we take Mr. Abebe’s words to be accurate and the accused singer owned up to these charges labeled against him, the shame he brought upon the name of The Lord and the body of Christ is enormous. Let alone a renowned gospel singer like him, whom many look up to as a role model, all of us as Christians are expected to display holiness in our lives.

In his first epistle, Paul exclusively warned the Corinthians to:

“Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (6:18-20 ESV)

Physiologically, believers are wired in the same way as non-believers when it comes to being sexually evoked by the opposite sex. What makes a gigantic difference between the two is, however, the grace of God that is ever-present to help the believers subdue and control their sexual feelings, or any other sin for that matter, from getting the best of them. Paul wrote:

“…but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more” (Romans 5:20 ESV)

As a direct result of lacking the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, non-believers solely rely on their carnal mind’s intuition as they grapple with similar exposures of temptation, and they are prone to fall. Likewise, despite being born again, Christians who are not constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18) manifest a high propensity to sin against the will of their Lord, just as the non-believers whose lives are void of God’s Spirit. The self-defense mechanism against the odds darted towards Christians from this world, and Satan is discussed in Romans 12:1-2:

“I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (ESV)

Therefore, when Christians are not led by the Spirit of God, they are laying down their guard against all sorts of temptations. It doesn’t matter how long a person has been following Christ, and it doesn’t matter whether that person is a Bible teacher, a pastor, a gospel singer, or any other type of minister; if they don’t let the Holy Ghost control their life, failure is inevitable.

The best defense against our fleshly desires is the continuous renewal of our minds by the Holy Ghost. This is what the New Testament calls the filling of the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit is different from the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which is a one-time experience. The Lord baptized every Christian with the Holy Spirit when we first believed in the Lord Jesus. Unlike the filling of the Spirit, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is not to be repeated (1 Corinthians 12:13). The sealing of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:13 & 4:30) and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9) are also a one-time experience in a Christian’s life. However, being filled by the Holy Spirit is a daily experience of a born-again Christian, and it is realized when a Christian is engaged in redeeming the time by devoting to studying God's word, prayer, worship, etc., 2 Peter 1:5-15. Only then will we not become as vulnerable and be defeated for worldly attractions like the love of money, unlawful sexual desires, or materialistic greed.

None of us are indeed perfect. Christians are sinners like everyone else, yet we’re forgiven, people. The fact that God forgives our sins, however, does not give us a license to sin. Paul wrote:

“What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? We know that our true self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. Let no sin, therefore, reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been bought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.” (Romans 6:1-2, 6, 12-13 ESV)

What is equally disturbing in this story is the apparent action of the accusers. It’s not only Biblically inappropriate to drag your fellow believer to a secular court for trivial cases, or it is not only odd to seek a public opinion by presenting your case in public, on a worldwide media such as the VOA, but it’s also embarrassing to the accusers themselves and brings shame to the name of the Lord and His body the Church. Let’s go back about two millennia and see Paul’s reaction when presented with a similar situation. The Corinthian believers' act of dragging each other before the unbelievers’ court and thereby incurring shame to the body of Christ deeply angered Paul. He wrote this to them:

“When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So, if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between the brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud-even your own brothers!” (1 Corinthians 6:1-8 ESV)

We don’t know what happened during the course of mediating these Christians. Looking at where the case ended up, however, one can infer that all the parties involved should have handled the situation better. A better way, something that is not what it is right now: a shame to the name of the Lord and His Church. The pertinent church elders and pastors refusal to go out front on Mr. Addisu Abebe’s radio program, however, is the only wise decision that I observed from the whole story, and we should applaud them for that. Mr. Tekeste Getenet also did himself a favor by keeping his head down and not further embarrassing himself and bringing more shame to the name of the Lord. On the contrary, however, I can’t see the logic behind the decision made by Mr. Melaku Yeshidagna and his wife, Mrs. Hosana Dadaa, to initiate public defamation of Singer and Pastor Tekeste Getenet. In my opinion, they have embarrassed themselves by exposing Mrs. Dadaa’s unwise and unchristian behavior.

I assume that, in everyone’s judgment, the singer-pastor should take the lion's share of the blame for what happened. I agree with that 100%. However, I want to remind my readers the accusing lady, Mrs. Dadaa, also should be held responsible for her role in this sexual debacle. No impartial observer would accept her words and deem her acts innocent; no way! Without getting deeper into the details of the 14-minute broadcast, let’s ask these questions of Mrs. Dadaa’s actions.

What kind of a married, Christian woman, in her right mind, would:

• end up flirting with another married man, who happens to be her friend’s husband (We heard Mrs. Dadaa in her interview with the VOA, admitting doing so with the accused person for about a month via phone calls and text messaging)
• go out with another married man for dinner, alcohol shopping, and ultimately walk into this man’s hotel room;
• after walking into his hotel room, exposing her breasts in a pretense of changing a comfortable cloth;
• for all the while, it took the man to take the pictures he allegedly sent to his friend;
• change comfortable clothes in a married man’s hotel room and in that man's presence;
• seek comfort in his hotel room after dark and
• had a liquor with him in his hotel room;

The answer is that no married Christian woman, in her right mind, would do such things.

Mrs. Hosana Dadaa, however, admitted to doing all of these, not once but again on another day, with this same man, whom she is accusing of sexual assault. Only God and the two people knew how things went the way they did. But as for me, after listening to what she had to say about the alleged sexual assault story, I find it hard to believe Mrs. Dadaa's account unless, of course, she was also consensually walking along with the man.

I’m being cautious here, not to blame the alleged victim unjustly, but come on, she is not a minor, and therefore, we need to equate her acts in the equation. Remember, the grace of God is sufficient not only for the prominent Christian ministers of the word but also for every individual Christian. As it was written, we are all called out from the world to be the aroma of Christ, 2 Corinthians 2:14-17, and therefore, let’s act like it and do not expect Christian virtues from the church leaders and servants alone; this is a Christian life, not a football game; therefore, there are no players and spectators here. As a church, we’re all in it together:

“…betrothed to one husband, to be presented as a pure virgin to Christ,” 2 Corinthians 11:2 ESV.

Scripture tells us that the struggle between our born-again spirit and the flesh will remain a constant battle so long as we’re in this body, Gal. 5:17. The way we can help out our newly created self (2 Corinthians 5:17) is by crucifying our moral fleshly desires. Paul wrote:

“And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:24-25)

Finally, there is a lesson here for all of us; this didn't just happen without reason. However sad the situation sounds, how seriously real people and families were affected by it; still, I believe God uses it as a teaching moment for many. We should learn from this and watch for something that may not happen in our lives and churches. 

Diligently studying the word of God and applying its truth in our daily lives should take preeminence. Jesus prayed:

“Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

Simultaneously, praying without ceasing for the Holy Spirit’s total control of our lives is essential. We need to pray, to be controlled by the Holy Spirit, and not our carnal desires.

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:15-18)

When we pray, let’s also pray for the following individuals:

• For the ex-communicated singer, that he may learn his lesson, understand how much his sinful act defamed
the name of the Lord, and be restored to his ministry following sincere repentance. “For godly grief produces
a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”
(2 Corinthians 7:10 ESV)

• For the accusers of Mr. Tekeste and their family, that the Lord may heal their spirit, body, and marriage.

• For the church elders, that they may be filled with wisdom to do the right thing.