Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Rape and Abortion - Letter to the Editor - Herald Journal March 23, 2015

Kristen M. Soley

This Letter to the Editor is in response to President Obama’s stance on abortion and rape.

“Rape is rape, and the idea that we should be parsing and qualifying what types of rape we are talking about doesn’t make sense to the American People and certainly doesn’t make sense to me. So what I think these comments do underscore is why we shouldn’t have a bunch of politicians, a majority of whom are men, making health care decisions for women.” - Barak Obama


Oh, abortion is such a tricky subject when we remove ourselves from the simplicity of the act; the intentional termination of life. To me, it is not for us to decide; rather it is God's place. By His hand, and the choices of humans, the unborn, and utterly dependent life is placed in the mother's womb; supposedly the safest dwelling in which He could place a child. 

In the case of rape, whether the child was intended by the mother or not, God created something beautiful out of something evil. That is how God works. We humans, myself included, hurt Him in many ways through sin and He, in His infinite goodness, creates something beautiful from it. The child is an intentional gift, a soul He created, to know, love and serve Him to be with Him eternally. 

I know of women who have been raped. It is horrible, evil, and the rapist hurt the victims to the core. To look at this from Jesus’ eyes, what did He say from the Cross, as He was dying at the hands of his murders? “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing?” (Luke 23:34) The rapist, just like the alcoholic, the murderer, tax evader, is just another soul in God’s garden who was possibly not given the same chance as you and me. Maybe they never had a father figure around, perhaps they were abused as a child and watched his parents as they left their sorrow behind with a bottle or syringe. These people hurt because they are hurting in some way. I don’t wish to make excuses for them, but if Jesus can forgive His murders as they were murdering Him, it makes sense to me that victims of a drunk driver, of abuse, and even rape, could forgive the perpetrator, “for they know not what they are doing.” 

Many women have been raped, and had a child conceived from the heinous act.  These brave women forgave the rapist and lovingly accepted the child God created from the evil. The child, whom they embraced in the hospital was and still is a sign of love, God’s love for us, and He created that soul for a very special purpose! God only knows what His plan is for that soul, and I  pray that as His children, we can cooperate with Him and His plan.

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” 


Again, rape is terrible, I do not mean to make light of it, nor to excuse the rapist. I just choose to see all of His children as God sees us; His children, whom He loves without measure, even when we fall. 

Romans 5:8 “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

If we don’t have law makers standing up for the rights of these children, God’s act of love, and the women are not aware of God’s love and plan for this unborn child, who will protect the innocent life, that God created? 

+JMJ+