Is vengeance really anyone’s?
I am thinking about this while working on a case for the family of a young girl. A stranger discovered visible evidence that she was being sexually abused the last 2-3 years by a much older man. The abuser earned the trust of this undocumented family by offering his social security number to help them get property. He flagrantly abused this trust. The only thing the girl will repeat is “Mami, nos van a echar a Mexico porque yo hice algo malo.” (Mommy they are going to send us to Mexico because I did something bad/wrong). She feels the weight of bringing attention to her family and after law enforcement doesn’t need her, they’re being sent into drug-war chaos with no victim resources unless we, or someone, intervenes.
It is disgusting what he has done and I’m not sure quite how that gets forgiven or made right. I want punishment. I can never decide what “righteous anger” means. I grew up learning that “vengeance is the Lord’s” and that HE’ll get the corrupt-until-death people back with eternal fire, but if those people turn their faces to light at the last second it all just goes away.
So because allegedly God humbled Himself by partially dying, it is okay for child molesters to chill right alongside the saints and this is a miracle? It is both dazzling and repulsive sounding at once. At the very least it is absurd. Most of my favorite beliefs are at least somewhat absurd, but man oh man, how does it make it okay to have scarred these babies because God’s just bleaching out all the evil somehow? “Oh, that’s cool now. It was a necessary part of this whole salvation plan.” WHAT? But maybe my mind is just far too small.
Problem of evil and suffering, round 68493982394263204236234642303.
