09 Sep 2013

Participants at Botswana Police Service's multiple concurrent partnerships (MCP) talk show in Francistown recently have suggested that churches should talk more about sexual issues and stop labeling them as immoral.

The organiser of the talk show, Constable Thandie Malebang who is a member of the chaplaincy unit at Kutlwano police station noted that there were a lot of divorce cases happening within the church. 

Some pastors, she explained, were being caught in the act with members of the congregation, and at times when their spouses would be thinking they are doing pastoral duties. 

She noted that church leaders avoided discussing issues of sex with their congregation or teaching about them as they were in most cases themselves the culprits.  

As such, sexuality issues remained taboo in the church and were largely considered sinful.  Constable Malebang informed the audience that temptation was everywhere and made no distinction between a Christian and non-christian.

She also noted that silence around MCP issues continued to be the main driver of HIV/AIDS and countered government efforts to fight its spread. 

Mr Eddie Oageng of True Men said churches needed to engage more in issues surrounding the spread of HIV virus because despite being viewed as men of God, church leaders were not spared from the virus and were also implicated in MCP.

He noted that countries such as Uganda which were once listed as the hardest hit by the HIV virus in Africa succeeded against the disease because they resorted to behaviour change which included reviving their religion and creating a conducive environment for open discussion of sexual issues within the church.  

Mr Oageng suggested that if churches in Botswana could also adopt a similar approach where played a meaningful role in the fight against AIDS as compared to the current situation where people committed adultery behind the pulpit, the country’s 13 500 new annual infection rate could be reduced.

On other issues, he said partners or spouses should communicate on sexual matters because their observations during counseling sessions showed that lack communication between partners was one main factor which led to MCP’s. Often he said, one partner could not find sexual gratification because the other gave excuses for not meeting his or her demands. 

He therefore suggested that spouses should be aware of and meet each other’s sexual needs at all times to prevent the other partner from seeking satisfaction elsewhere. ENDS