At this point the whole Duncan Williams and Lydia Forson saga has been discussed to death, with people taking their stance on the entire issue and defending it to the death.

The entire argument comes from two angles, those who feel offended by the Archbishop’s words and those who feel offended that people are attacking the Archbishop based on his words. For those in the latter category, the import of the Archbishop’s statement does not come into it, he is a man of God and thus that’s it.

And you see that is the problem with Ghanaian society today, the unquestionable irreverence reserved for these men of God which makes them unaccountable for their actions. In any enlightened society these words would leave Duncan Williams isolated on an island like Robinson Crusoe, but the bigger society behind places Duncan Williams on a pedestal, and that makes him immune to criticism.

This immunity has also detracted from a societal debate on women’s empowerment that his comments should have sparked. Feminists, hell females, all over the country should have been up in arms against a man of God who can pass such comments from a pulpit unabashedly. But whenever religion gets mixed up with critical thinking people give their faith the benefit of the doubt. Affirming feminists principles would mean taking on the ‘anointed one’ and that is just a taboo too far.

All right thinking members of society should sit down and consider why comments essentially from the first century has not received as much scrutiny as they should, and then honestly tell themselves society does not shelter these men of God too much!

Lydia Forson took a stand, and inexplicably she became the subject of opprobrium amid accusations of a publicity stunt. Did she misconstrue what Duncan Williams said, I hardly think so; so why not treat her comments on the merits of the arguments raised instead of petering her with pointless ad hominem attacks?

Or maybe the larger truth is we condone those comments, which is why we cannot make any contrary arguments. After all we live in a society where a woman becomes a target if she remains unmarried at a certain age. This puts massive pressure on the up and coming young ladies, sometimes leading to the situation where they feel they should get married by a certain point and then forces their lives to fit into that schedule.

A non-free thinking society, or a misogynistic one; neither is a particular appealing option, but we are either one or the other. Perhaps both…

I was crawling through social media earlier and on an article on the whole saga, someone came to ask if ‘Duncan Williams has forgiven Lydia Forson?’ I was incredulous, but that’s the kind of thinkers we breed in this society of ours.

The real question is ‘why have the people of Ghana forgiven Duncan Williams so easily?’ Within the answer, lies the secret to our malaise.