Two things have become apparent while researching this depressing and sadly not-so-shocking Two by Twos church scandal.
It is neither the scope nor how long it has been allowed to continue and been covered up, nor the lifelong scars this has left on thousands upon thousands of victims and survivors. These are a special class of survivors – those of religious predation and abuse; individuals whose very spiritual core has been shattered and wounded by the entitlements of male church hierarchies claiming a perverse power and hold over the souls of those they “save” in the name of God.
The words we use
The first is that the word “pornography” does not describe the scourge of child torture, sexual assault and rape that takes place. Most often this is filmed and photographed, and distributed among networks.
Pornography is for adult consumption. This is something much darker and depraved. We should insist on calling it what it is.
Second, surely it is time for the recommendations of the 2017 Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Rights Commission report into the Commercialisation of Religion and Abuse of People’s Belief Systems to be acted upon.
The commission’s recommendations to amend existing legislation to protect congregants and believers, and for religious organisations to register with the government, was resisted by the religious establishment.
Eight years later, in April this year, the commission announced that a Section 22 Committee led by Professor Musa Xulu will work towards the establishment of a peer review council to protect congregants from harm.
There is enough evidence – and it mounts daily – that religion is being weaponised by self-appointed prophets and preachers in positions of “leadership” to exploit “followers”. This greed is performed for either financial gain or political power or perverse sexual enjoyment. Sometimes it’s all three. The Two by Twos pustule that burst globally in 2022 is just one scandal among many.
From deviants in the Catholic and Anglican churches, to the Pentecostal pastors who force congregations to eat grass or touch their genitals during a “service”, many have dark secrets to hide. The victims are, in every single instance, women and children, boys and girls, who are rendered powerless by religious dogma and scriptures set in stone.
In the eyes of these “holy men”, those in the flock lower down in the hierarchy are biblically sanctioned possessions. Apart from registering as tax-free institutions, a matter of debate when it comes to mega-millions mega-churches selling tax-free holy water and underpants, what other controls exist?
What prevents anyone from declaring they are their own Personal Jesus? As did the notorious South African paedophile Gert van Rooyen (alongside his partner Joey Haaroff), who is believed to have kidnapped and murdered six young girls in South Africa between 1988 and 1989, before shooting Joey and himself as the police closed in on him.
Pieter van Zyl details in his book Gert and Joey, how Van Rooyen converted to Christianity while in jail for the rape of two 12-year-old girls and, upon his release, established a congregation that he led.
Van Rooyen operated in the apartheid era, but people like him thrive under the cloak of religious protection today because we live in a secular society where freedom of religion is guaranteed and is a constitutional right.
Surely then the Constitution should protect citizens from horrific and criminal exploitation when it occurs in this realm?
Read more: SAPS and FBI investigate child sexual abuse by secretive Two by Twos Christian cult
“Established” religious institutions in South Africa are allowed a high degree of autonomy and are not subject to government control. That is democracy. As Public Benefit Organisations, there is no need for religious organisations to pay tax, and that is it.
What then to do with the criminals who hide behind the Bible and religious garb? What checks and balances exist to stop such horrific accounts of abuse, over years and generations, leaving broken lives?
Leon van Niekerk, the Two by Twos member who reported abuse to the South African Police Service, shows us how we can use the Constitution to put the fear of the law into abusers of all shapes and sizes.
He understood his constitutional duty to report abuse, and he did it. Whether the system works, we have yet to find out. DM