I think most human beings are masochistic. But, the madness gripping the world today prompts me to ask, “AREN’T WE OVERDOING IT A TAD?!”. If the recent beheading in broad day light on a London street was not enough to bemuse the brain, the recent story on the CNN website on the ‘Hunt Debate’ certainly is. What really scares me, is that with the volume of controversy and perversion roaming through homes unchecked, I sometimes worry that I may not recognise the truth when I see it.

The Hunt case is an interesting one. Two teenagers had consensual sex; not a big deal today unfortunately, but the issue is not that these kids are 14 and 18 years old…they’re also both young girls. So the media madness is blitzing in its attack, “If it were an 18 year old BOY and a 14 year old GIRL, the sanctioning would never have been so bad!” they cry. It appears that as the matter involves two women, the media has conveniently forgotten what the real issue is; child predators and sexual abuse, and made it all about homosexuality and discrimination against same-sex intercourse. Uhm no, it’s not that. Many Nigerian shops operate on a single and a simple policy; “Break and Pay”. A similar concept should apply to the law. If you break the law, you must pay; old, short, gay, kneegroe, gentlefolk, whatever.

I read the Hunt case and just thought to myself, “Why does everything have to fall unto discrimination grounds though? This is a simple issue of law breaking, please accord the appropriate sanctions as deserved.” Let me tell you what fascinated me the most, the vitriol spat at the 14 year old’s parents. I mean, on what grounds? That they feel that the 18 year old Ms. Hunt is a predator who had sex with their underage daughter and ought to serve the requisite sentence as determined by the law? Now, they are being called all sorts of uncomplimentary names on the grounds that they are homophobic. How?! A predator is a predator is a predator.

When I am a mother, you best trust and believe that like that 14 year old’s mum, I will protect what is mine with my life’s blood. I swear, challenge me and die. I love that the mother of the 14 year old stood her ground and said that despite the insults and hate poured out, she is a mum and her sole duty is to protect her child from predators, man or woman old or young. Good woman!

Some of the comments on CNN were so disturbing. I mean, I live in the real world and so I ought not to have been surprised but I could not help but be flabbergasted not merely surprised, by the things supposedly enlightened people were saying in defence of the 18 year old Hunt. An 18year old is not a predator because a 14 year old is old enough to have sex anyways?! As there is no chance of pregnancy in lesbian sex, there is no real risk in engaging in consensual sex with a child?!

HOLD UP, how can sex with a 14 year old even be regarded as consensual?! I understand that there are parts of the world were young girls have been brought up to be women from an early age; taking care of siblings, cooking, cleaning and so on. This is still child abuse, as no girl should play the role of woman. BUT even then, a 14 year old American sub-urban child is often not in this group of young girls forced to adulthood earlier than most…and so is even less mentally and emotionally equipped to have sex.

*Insert long suffering sigh here* A 14 year old is a girl, she is not a woman whether her body sings otherwise to the highest heavens. Marilyn Monroe figure or not, a 14 year old does not own herself enough to have sex without repercussions. Young people have always been in a hurry to grow up. Why? Why are we allowing our children forfeit their childhood in exchange for transient enjoyment? Call me conservative, traditional, prudish *Kanye-shrug*, it’s my party and I can cry if I want to.

The Hunt case just made me realise something. I have never understood the homosexuality debate particularly its tendency to show up uninvited to any event that involves gay people. You cannot compel anyone to have the attitude you perceive to be right. Black as I am, I cannot force a racist to stop being racist simply because I dislike his attitude. I’m very much a proponent of the, “If You Like It, I Love It” school of thought. Do you as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone.

Many gay people understand what it feels like to be side-lined and marginalised because of their beliefs, they know what it is to suffer intolerance and live with people with dogmatic opinions…YET, so many gay people are so quick to bash, heckle and demonize anyone that does not share their views on homosexuality, they are unable to let people with opinions that are different from them live. How ironic.

How can the simple fact that someone does not agree with you automatically equate to the person being narrow-minded? I think it’s a form of positive discrimination and quite unfair to think for instance, that organisations founded on conventional principles and based on what its members consider wholesome, must be forced to adopt what they don’t believe in or face being accused and victimised for discrimination. If a church for instance, doesn’t want to marry you because same-sex marriage violates their belief, then find somewhere else…in the end its about you two and your God, not the church. Tell everyone to mind their business and do you boo!

Don’t make your life a continuous point of contention; fighting with everyone that doesn’t agree with you or want to believe what you do. Please, have an everlasting seat, aint nobody got time for that. The debate on homosexuality is too excitable, it stays forever bubbling and almost always seems ready to erupt at the very first instance that anyone dares to voice a personal belief opposing homosexuality. Why? Why are you so concerned if someone opposes your view? Why are you allowed to have opinions on ‘rightness’ but no one else is? Narrow-mindedness is now no longer the postion of the conservative right, it is now a feature of the liberal left. As soon as someone doesn’t agree, the person MUST be a bigot, a hater, a narrowminded, ancient prude. But might not the person be simply different?

To be really sincere, if both camps are so convinced of their positions, what impact does anyone with a dissenting opinion really have on what we sincerely believe?

If for instance I say that I don’t support gay marriage, what does that have to do with two men who truly love each other and want to get married? They are going to be happy and live fulfilled lives despite my thoughts. I think a collective chill pill should be taken by both the liberal lefties and conservative righties (I just diluted the seriousness of these two groups with those names, I know). Every dispute involving a gay person should not boil down to sexuality and discrimination. Analogously, an argument involving a black man should not always be made to be about race.

I for instance, am well aware that there are a ton of closet racists in the world but I couldn’t care less. Think about it, apartheid in South Africa was only ended in 1994! Did people raised steeped in the murky waters of colour-coded living, surrounded by racism as a normal way of life, suddenly all die out? There will always be people markedly different in thought, vision, paradigm and ideas from me especially when it comes to the colour of my skin, but what a mistake I’d be making if I pulled out the race card every time there was friction between me and anyone with skin lacking in melanin.

To be honest, most of us don’t care either way and we love people we love regardless; gay, straight, white, black, male , female. So, live your life fully, don’t attend every argument you’re invited to simply because the other doesn’t agree with your own opinion. If in the end the entire world is converted and everyone believes in homosexuality for instance, we would lose our heterogeneity and the multifariousness that makes our world so colourful. Our world is beautiful in its diversity of thought, please let us just live and let live.

I don’t really care either way what anyone wants to practice and I am unlikely to hate someone solely on the grounds of sexuality…I mean, do you boo! To be honest, as Christians, we are not called to be condemners. We are really supposed to be intercessors for the rest of the world; gay or straight, white or black.