Sean Combs: A Revelation of America’s Sin
By: Deji Yesufu
A lady who works in the Nigerian court system told me that whatever happens to a marriage, couples should never venture to come to the courts for divorce. She explained that divorce proceedings are extremely messy. All kinds of sordid details will be revealed. The Judge will request to know certain information, especially in copulation, that normally should never be revealed to the public. Many people are often unaware of this and are taken by surprise when the courts begin to make demands for those details. And the worst part is that these revelations are made in front of family and friends. A Yoruba saying that goes like this: “You never go to court and return as friends”. You remain enemies till death takes your breath away. Some feuds continue after the persons involved have died – with the children inheriting the fights. Many homes have been broken with children split over siding with one spouse against the other. It is terrible. So, when the Sean “Diddy” Combs trials started in the United States of America, those who know the court system would not have been surprised at the kinds of information that are proceeding from it. But even these people cannot but wonder at the depth of depravity that a human mind can reach.
Some of us are children of the American music scene of the 1990s. We were also caught in the East Coast/West Coast gangster rap rivalry that claimed the lives of Tupac Shakur and The Notorious BIG. Tupac had teamed up with the Deathrow Records, led by Surge Knight; while Notorious BIG worked with Sean Combs’ Bad Boys Records. Tupac and BIG had been “beefing” over issues in their private life, and the “beef” had split into their songs. Sometimes in July 1996, Tupac released a single titled “Hit ‘em Off”, where he jettisoned the usual nuances you should employ when attacking a rival in your songs and insulted BIG directly. He said all kinds of unprintable things about BIG and the Bad Boys Records. It was terrible. In September 1996, Mike Tyson was having a big fight in Las Vegas. It was his first fight after coming out of prison. Tupac, Surge Knight and all their gang members were going to be watching the fight live. After the fight, Surge Knight was driving Tupac to another destination when a car pulled up by their side and opened machine gun fire on them. Tupac was hit four times, one of the bullets puncturing his second lungs – which was the only lungs he had. He had lost the first one to another shooting incident in 1994. Surge only suffered a bullet grazing to his head. Tupac was rushed to the hospital and was placed on life support for about a week before his mother requested that he be removed from life support. Tupac Amaru Shakur died at the age of 25. The following year, in March 1997, Biggie Smalls was in Los Angeles for some business. Since the death of Tupac, he had been receiving death threats, which he often ignored. One day, he was being driven on the streets of LA when someone drew next to his car and shot him four times. The Notorious BIG died immediately. BIG was 23 when he was killed. When Tupac was shot in 1994, he claimed that it was Sean Combs who set him up. There are allegations also that when Biggie was killed, he was in the middle of a row with Sean Combs over music contracts. The revelations coming out during the Diddy trials are again making a few people ask questions about the deaths of Tupac and Biggie – two of America’s all-time greatest rappers. But let us return to the courtroom where Sean Combs is seated, having to watch all his dirty linens exposed to the world.
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The prosecution’s case against Sean Combs is that of human trafficking and kidnapping. The prosecution is seeking to prove to the jury and the courts, that Mr. Combs used his immense wealth and connections to make people do things against their will. They are hoping to have Mr Combs convicted of these crimes and put away for life in prison. When the prosecution commenced their arguments, they employed the testimony of a lady called – Cassie: Cassandra Ventura, who is presently thirty-eight years old and heavily pregnant. Cassie’s testimony in court carried some weight because a few years back, the media had published a video from a hotel scene. Sean Combs is seen in the video beating up Cassie: Cassie had successfully escaped from Combs in a hotel room they were sharing, and she was fleeing to an elevator. CCTV cameras caught Combs racing after her, and catching up with her just as she was about to enter the elevator. And then he begins to beat her. When those images were published in the news, Sean Combs made a video where he publicly admitted to having been the person in the video (he could not deny that), and also apologized to Cassie and the public for his behaviour. Cassie would however reveal later that she was running away from one of Sean Combs’ “freak-offs” events. Freak off, which has now entered the American lexicon, are sex orgies. They are carried out in different ways and different manners. Combs is known to organize parties in his homes, where these freak-offs take place. They employ the services of male and female prostitutes and even underage children. Many prominent Americans have attended these parties including former President Obama, Jay-Z and wife Beyonce, Bishop T. D. Jakes, and a host of other celebrities. When Combs was arrested, many of these American big shots requested that their names and reputations should not be connected to Combs. They said that they attended the parties, alright, but did not partake of the after-parties. Many of the freak-offs occurred in the after-parties. Court testimonies from Cassie revealed that on numerous occasions, Combs would employ the services of male prostitutes to sleep with her, while he watched and masturbated. Enough of that for now.
My concern in this essay is not Sean Combs and his freak-offs; my concern is America’s moral compass in the name of being an adult. This is what I mean: Combs is not being prosecuted for his moral failings; the courts hold the position that Combs is an adult and that as long as whatever he does in his private life is consensual with another person, it is not against the law of their land. This is true, at least as far as America’s judiciary goes. What the United States of America fail to realize is that there is a greater law over their land: it is called the laws of God as stated in the Bible. It is as simple as “thou shall not commit adultery”. America has so normalized sex, that they have chosen to up the scale and say that a person has not broken the laws of the land as long as that person is an adult and is not violating the freedom of another person. They fail to see that the moment we minimize sin, the standard continues to fall from generation to generation. In America today, paedophilia is against the law, but there are Americans who are today championing the right to have sex with minors. I would not be surprised if, in another thirty years, America’s moral compass fails to acknowledge paedophilia as against the laws of the land.
Righteousness exalts a nation, and sin is a reproach to any people. America is not going to be the last superpower in the world. At this stage in its history, America ought to study how nations rise and fall. One of the downfalls of the Roman Empire was their violation of the laws of God. They popularized all kinds of sordid sexual sins, and they glorified violence in the name of conquering nations. America attained greatness through their commitment to freedom and innovation. They also utilized their diversities in such a manner that made their country very strong. Unfortunately, the coming of wealth also was a relaxing of their commitment to the laws of God. America is today on a decline because of sin. And some of the sins that America celebrates are being played out in the courtrooms of Sean Combs’s trial. Some people have argued that as terrible as Mr. Comb’s sins, he might even walk out of that court free. The reason is that the laws in the United States are so far removed from the laws of God, and the moral outrage of that country is a lot lower than those of many other countries. The Sean Combs’ trial is revealing America’s sin and that country is so far gone that even repentance might not be able to restore it.
The lesson we must all learn from America’s rise and fall must be this: no country is a superpower forever. Also, we must remember that it is God who grants power to men, and he retrieves it when he deems fit. We must also know that with the coming of power, also comes great responsibility. And finally, God is the creator of the heavens and earth, and regardless of the laws of ae land, the laws of God cannot be jettisoned. A nation cannot celebrate murder and sex and still expect to retain the favours of God. As we all labour to make our countries strong among the comity of nations, we can take a cue from America by ensuring that the laws of God are reflected in the laws of our land.
Deji Yesufu is the pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church Ibadan. He is the author of HUMANITY. He can be reached at [email protected]
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