Jeff,

You raise one hell of a point, why should a survivor believe God cared when he didn't intervene on their behalf.

The same concern is shared by Widows of Cancer patients, Children of men killed by war, many other horrible things. I don't pretend to know what motivates a God who is accorded as omnipotent and omniscient. I can say that listening to a Bishop preach one Easter Sunday I heard that if a wife of a man stricken with a fatal illness is praying for his life, that eventually she will stop praying for her will (his life to be spared) and begin by surrendering to God's will (pray for his salvation - Thy will be done). I don't have the answers to the same questions that have plagued Eccleisiastical Teachers, Monks, Priests, Bishops, and Seminary Schools of thought since time immemorial, but I do know that to assume (as I once did) that God doesn't exist because I was not spared from rape, prostitution and sexual abuse did not solve the answer for me.

It could be that our souls (which are said to be everlasting) do not bear the stain of our abuse, nor the pain of our abuse, nor the loss that our physical forms bear. If that is true, what long term effect would our abuse have in our afterlife? If our souls are not marked, then why would God intervene to save us when all we stand to gain is understanding in the long run? All of these questions are difficult to see, ask, and even more so to answer.

Assign not to God what he "should" have done and argue his existence thusly, assign to God the strength we grow from survival, and know that we are his special creations that prove to be an instrument for teaching.

Anyone can see the Glory of God in a sunset or a flower's bloom. Understanding the bittersweet sacrifice and victory of the crucifixion of Jesus is another matter....are we any less important in our own suffering? Is it possible that we are more so because of our humanity? Our capacity for love in spite of the pain, our capacity for forgiveness, our capacity for triumph against all possible odds; these are the things we have been given to show to the rest of humanity.

I regret sharing so much of myself and hope others are not offended, take what you like and leave the rest if that is how it must be.

BDGD