explain this

[hgh]

Okay so I went to an adult website. Yes I know its wrong but since my boyfriend is away for a long time I was lonely.

I am a real Catholic. Went through all the procedures like Confirmation, etc. Actually planned to be a nun when I was in my twenties but didn’t because my Mom begging me not to.

So I am on this adult website and click on something and end up on a child porn website. We are talking blood, children being raped, scary stuff. I just reported it to some organization that takes reports of bad sites.

But I am sitting here thinking how can God possibly exist when stuff like this is happening. God is all powerful, all knowing, and all good. That is what I was taught. So he knows that website exists, he knows those children are being raped, and he let it happen. And yes I reported it so it will be stopped but he still let it happen in the first place. I know a lot about religion and I don’t see how anyone is going to answer this other than to say something vague like God and his ways are mysterious. But as you can imagine after seeing what I just saw I am not going to find any kind of solace in a vague answer like that. I just took of my religious necklace and stopped short of throwing it in the dumpster. Does anyone have anything real to say that will change my mind? I know my life goes a lot better when I am religious but I can’t help but to hate God right now because I think he exists and he is letting this happen.

Don’t think I am just another person who hates God, I am sobbing after what I have seen and its only natural to think God doesn’t care.

Heather

 

[hgh]

I guess I will put on my catholic necklace even though it feels wrong because as I have learned over and over again when you reject God you become the most unlucky person on the planet. He abandons you and you become what seems at least to be cursed.

Heather

 

[LilyM]

How can my parents exist when I, their child who they made and who they love more than anything, turn out to be horrible, depraved, drug-addicted child molester? Surely no loving parent would permit their child to do evil?

The answer - in the case of my parents and the case of God - is far from being a mystery.

The answer lies in free will and independence. A parent who loves their child allows that child to ‘cut the apron strings’, for good or bad, and make its own choices - in other words to become a fully mature and adult human being, with all the capacity for good and evil that that entails.

Maturity and full humanity is impossible without the option to exercise free-will. For that matter good itself is impossible without the option to do evil as well. In order to BE good it must be willingly chosen. Lower forms of animal can never do good, since they have no option in their actions but are compelled by their instincts.

So suffering is God’s way of allowing us to ‘cut the apron strings’ and become fully human.

 

[Lizziebel]

Praying for all those innocent children being tortured like this, and for all affected by it.

 

[hgh]

Thank you for writing back. Not sure who you think is getting the apron strings cut, me or the children. If you are talking of me I was not asking about me I was asking about what God is doing about these raped children. And if you are saying their parents cut their apron strings, well, I don’t think you would say that.

I think what you might be saying is that for free will to exist there must be the option to do evil and thus that option to do evil is what is being exercised by this child porn site. I do agree that they are exercising their option to do evil but its not the people doing the raping I am asking about. I am asking how God could let it happen in the first place. I think if giving us free will meant having children raped then I would rather give up my free will. Its not worth destroying everything to have it.

I sound like I am criticizing you I guess but its because I hope to get an answer that makes me feel better or explains this. I feel like a hypocrite wearing this necklace now. That is not a fun feeling.

Thank you anyone who attempts to help me. I am irritable because I am bitter about what I have seen.

Heather

 

[Nickkname]

So in other words you admit you did something you knew was a sin, but you want to blame God for every single sin in the world?

And you expect us to explain your irresponsiblity?

 

[hgh]

So in other words you admit you did something you knew was a sin, but you want to blame God for every single sin in the world?

And you expect us to explain your irresponsiblity?

yeah I knew no one was going to see past the idea that I looked at porn and answer the actual question I was asking.

I was looking at porn with consenting adults then clicked on a link that gave me no hint that it was a child porn site. And if you are a guy and have never looked at a picture of a naked woman then you can judge me. Otherwise you can’t.

Heather

 

[Blade_and_Blood]

It’s not that God doesn’t care, it’s just that we have to take responsibility for our actions. Those people who do those horrible things to those children must understand that what they’re doing is wrong.

I don’t blame you for giving up on God; for all we know, He may have given up on us, and is just waiting for us to come Him on our own. Some people turn to God after witnessing such traumatizing images, but a precious few look away from Him when they think it was all His fault. God may be a mystery, but He’s more simple than any of us give Him credit for. There is nothing He can do up there, but that’s where we come in.

You did the right thing in reporting this.

Ironically Yours, Blade and Blood

 

[Nickkname]

yeah I knew no one was going to see past the idea that I looked at porn and answer the actual question I was asking.

I was looking at porn with consenting adults then clicked on a link that gave me no hint that it was a child porn site. And if you are a guy and have never looked at a picture of a naked woman then you can judge me. Otherwise you can’t.

Heather

Porn is evil in itself. That’s the Church’s teaching, and as a Catholic, you are required to adhere to the Church’s teaching.

God is goodness itself. He is not the cause of evil. Man, who has a fallen nature, is the one who causes evil by sinning. You sinned. You are a part of the cause of evil. Now are you going to accept responsiblity and stop blaming God for everything?

 

[LilyM]

Thank you for writing back. Not sure who you think is getting the apron strings cut, me or the children. If you are talking of me I was not asking about me I was asking about what God is doing about these raped children. And if you are saying their parents cut their apron strings, well, I don’t think you would say that.

I think what you might be saying is that for free will to exist there must be the option to do evil and thus that option to do evil is what is being exercised by this child porn site. I do agree that they are exercising their option to do evil but its not the people doing the raping I am asking about. I am asking how God could let it happen in the first place. I think if giving us free will meant having children raped then I would rather give up my free will. Its not worth destroying everything to have it.

I sound like I am criticizing you I guess but its because I hope to get an answer that makes me feel better or explains this. I feel like a hypocrite wearing this necklace now. That is not a fun feeling.

Thank you anyone who attempts to help me. I am irritable because I am bitter about what I have seen.

Heather

Destroying EVERYTHING? Aren’t we being a bit melodramatic here? I don’t want to be seen as downplaying the sufferings of these children, nor would I wish anything less than God’s infinite and perfect justice in regards to the perpetrators, but sin and evil do not destroy everything.

I suppose you’d rather that we were all mindless robots, or base animals merely doing God’s will because we were irresistibly compelled to it

You do realise, don’t you, that robots and animals don’t have eternal souls and don’t, because they can’t, go to heaven, which is the destination God desires for us? God created us and gave us free will because without it we won’t be able to share in His eternal joy or the splendours of heaven.

And any amount of earthly suffering resulting from our misuse of free-will (for all of it will pass, as all suffering, and indeed all earthly life, does) is nothing compared to heaven. St Paul, who knew a thing or two about suffering, and also a thing or two about heaven, says as much - ‘For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us’ (Romans 8:18)

For that matter God Himself, who chose that He (His only-begotten son) suffer infinitely more (BEING God incarnate) than anyone before or since, in a degrading and agonising death, reserved for the lowest form of criminal, also teaches us by this that all suffering can be turned to good.

I’m trusting, of course, that as the result of what you’ve seen you will be inspired to support some sort of anti-child-abuse endeavour? That in itself means the suffering wasn’t entirely in vain.

 

[Tantum_ergo]

All of us will suffer at some point. . . suffering is part of life. We don’t know why, but we do know that God is not only all good, but that He has a very special place in His Heart for all who suffer, and that He commands each and every one of us to do our best in helping those who do suffer.

Now I’m not God but here is a thought.

If God were to STOP every single evil that could happen to every person. . .that wouldn’t mean that we wouldn’t stop having free will. . .because people could still TRY to do evil things but God would just ‘zap’ them and make the evil things ‘disappear’.

So you get people willing to do all kinds of evil.
And as far as doing something good? Why would people bother to try? They would know that anything bad that might happen to them would be ‘stopped by God’ before it happened. . .so why try to do good, ‘good’ is going to happen to them no matter what they do. Even if they’re bad people doing bad things, nothing BAD will happen to them, because you don’t want God letting anything bad happen, right?

So not only will the bad people not learn, the good people won’t learn either. Why ‘try’ to do something that is going to happen anyway?

So there will continue to be free will to do evil, and there will be a lessening or stopping of the free will to do good.

God has a reason for these evil things, and believe me, in the end we will not only know the reason, but we’ll know the reason why. And it will be a good reason.

Remember how St. Peter wanted to save Christ from dying on the cross? Not wanting Him to suffer? Doesn’t that sound a lot like not wanting bad things to happen. . .but if it hadn’t happened, where would we be?

Trust in God. Maybe He’s calling you to do more for those poor children. Maybe you’re going to become somebody who will be able to stop this, or at least stop it for many. Maybe this is your calling. But you have to trust God, and you have to accept that maybe you won’t ever understand ‘why’ on earth, but just follow Him even when you are troubled and confused and upset.

And may God bless you.

 

[hgh]

“And any amount of earthly suffering resulting from our misuse of free-will (for all of it will pass, as all suffering, and indeed all earthly life, does) is nothing compared to heaven.”

Okay so you are really saying you think that “suffering from our misuse of free will” (children being raped) “is nothing compared to Heaven”. So its okay they are raped since its a requirement of free will?

I don’t want anything that requires that children be raped.

“But you have to trust God, and you have to accept that maybe you won’t ever understand ‘why’ on earth, but just follow Him even when you are troubled and confused and upset.”

This quote is what I will find consolation in. Because I know that there were things that I thought I would never understand about God but later understood them. But child abuse has always caused me to question my faith.

I am not fighting child abuse but I am helping the world by instead reading until late hours every night so I can fix all the technical problems everyone in my huge company has. The technical problems never stop coming so I will help them work and they can fight child abuse.

I seem to be chained to technical problems.

Anybody who reads this please put me in your nightly prayers and pray that Heather have help with understanding all the incredibly complicated technical things she has to learn and fix. I have to learn stuff that no one else in my technical department can comprehend. I have way too much to learn and figure out and it is so ridiculously complicated.

Heather

 

[Ruthie]

You are in my prayers, Heather. So are the innocent victims of this horror.

Tears in my eyes,

Ruthie

 

[jmcrae]

Thank you for writing back. Not sure who you think is getting the apron strings cut, me or the children. If you are talking of me I was not asking about me I was asking about what God is doing about these raped children. And if you are saying their parents cut their apron strings, well, I don’t think you would say that.

I think what you might be saying is that for free will to exist there must be the option to do evil and thus that option to do evil is what is being exercised by this child porn site. I do agree that they are exercising their option to do evil but its not the people doing the raping I am asking about. I am asking how God could let it happen in the first place.

What, exactly, are you expecting God to do about it? IF God should just zap those guys out of existence, then what about you - should He zap you out of existence, too? Because you sinned, also - and who is to say that the adults in the pictures you were looking at didn’t get there by means of being abused when they were children? It’s not like anybody gets out of bed in the morning and thinks, “Hey, instead of going to my nice safe job at the office, I think I’d like a bunch of strangers to gawk and drool at my naked body, and then stalk me, and try to rape me.”

God has already given us a Bible and a Church, both of which are very explicit on how evil these things are. It’s not like those people are not aware that they are sinning against God. They probably even laugh about the Judgement Day, and tell jokes about going to Hell.

Meanwhile, God is with those children. He’s on their side. He will turn the evil to good, same as how He turned your sin to good, by causing you to stumble on that web site, got you to contact the police, and opened your eyes to the evils of pornography - because you’re part of what happened to those kids, too, by logging on to the adult porn site and paying whatever you paid for that - the kids are in training to be tomorrow’s adult porn stars, and today’s adult porn stars are yesterday’s abused children.

 

[LilyM]

“And any amount of earthly suffering resulting from our misuse of free-will (for all of it will pass, as all suffering, and indeed all earthly life, does) is nothing compared to heaven.”

Okay so you are really saying you think that “suffering from our misuse of free will” (children being raped) “is nothing compared to Heaven”. So its okay they are raped since its a requirement of free will?

Do you think it’s OK that a woman will inevitably, whatever drugs or other things may be done to help, suffer plenty of pain before during and after childbirth, even though the blessing of the child is the end result? Or an amputee when their limb is cut off, even if the end result is that their life is saved?

Recognising that suffering will inevitably happen, one way or another, and that it just might serve a higher purpose, is not the same thing as either condoning or endorsing it. Certainly our obligation is to do all we can to end it, but Jesus said ‘the poor you will always have with you’, and He (GOD INCARNATE!) suffered more than anyone in His life, so it is clear that suffering is inescapable.

I don’t want anything that requires that children be raped.

What’s the alternative? We HAVE life (earthly and immortal), we HAVE free will and we HAVE suffering and evil. You can’t opt out of any of them, you can’t give back any of them. The question is what do you do with the potentially good (your life and free will), to combat the bad (suffering and evil)?

I am not fighting child abuse

You already did by calling the police, no? And you can do more. Why not start now? Maybe you don’t have time to give - so give money. Give prayer if nothing else - offer all your Masses for both the victims and perpetrators.

 

[Molly2000z]

yeah I knew no one was going to see past the idea that I looked at porn and answer the actual question I was asking.

I was looking at porn with consenting adults then clicked on a link that gave me no hint that it was a child porn site. And if you are a guy and have never looked at a picture of a naked woman then you can judge me. Otherwise you can’t.

Heather

I don’t think that anyone should judge you for looking a porn site, and because you found and reported something terrible that
NEEDED to be reported I find a tiny bit of grace there.
I think that the person who said that the answer lies in free will may be intellectually correct but that doesn’t resolve your spiritual dilemma.
Why are some children saved from that sort of life and others not?
Only God knows.
Your question has been asked for centuries, no one can provide a satisfactory answer.
However, the fact that you looked at a porn site does not make you more of a sinner than those who appear to be judging you.
The greatest sins are those against charity and I didn’t read a whole lot of charity in some of the response to you.
But of course…I wouldn’t judge them either.

 

[Molly2000z]

Porn is evil in itself. That’s the Church’s teaching, and as a Catholic, you are required to adhere to the Church’s teaching.

God is goodness itself. He is not the cause of evil. Man, who has a fallen nature, is the one who causes evil by sinning. You sinned. You are a part of the cause of evil. Now are you going to accept responsiblity and stop blaming God for everything?

You have no right to judge this person!
Now are you going to accept responsibility for your lack of charity and ask the poster to forgive you?

 

[Molly2000z]

All of us will suffer at some point. . . suffering is part of life. We don’t know why, but we do know that God is not only all good, but that He has a very special place in His Heart for all who suffer, and that He commands each and every one of us to do our best in helping those who do suffer.

Now I’m not God but here is a thought.

If God were to STOP every single evil that could happen to every person. . .that wouldn’t mean that we wouldn’t stop having free will. . .because people could still TRY to do evil things but God would just ‘zap’ them and make the evil things ‘disappear’.

So you get people willing to do all kinds of evil.
And as far as doing something good? Why would people bother to try? They would know that anything bad that might happen to them would be ‘stopped by God’ before it happened. . .so why try to do good, ‘good’ is going to happen to them no matter what they do. Even if they’re bad people doing bad things, nothing BAD will happen to them, because you don’t want God letting anything bad happen, right?

So not only will the bad people not learn, the good people won’t learn either. Why ‘try’ to do something that is going to happen anyway?

So there will continue to be free will to do evil, and there will be a lessening or stopping of the free will to do good.

God has a reason for these evil things, and believe me, in the end we will not only know the reason, but we’ll know the reason why. And it will be a good reason.

Remember how St. Peter wanted to save Christ from dying on the cross? Not wanting Him to suffer? Doesn’t that sound a lot like not wanting bad things to happen. . .but if it hadn’t happened, where would we be?

Trust in God. Maybe He’s calling you to do more for those poor children. Maybe you’re going to become somebody who will be able to stop this, or at least stop it for many. Maybe this is your calling. But you have to trust God, and you have to accept that maybe you won’t ever understand ‘why’ on earth, but just follow Him even when you are troubled and confused and upset.

And may God bless you.

A thoughtful post and one worth reading. Thank you Tantum!

 

[Molly2000z]

“And any amount of earthly suffering resulting from our misuse of free-will (for all of it will pass, as all suffering, and indeed all earthly life, does) is nothing compared to heaven.”

Okay so you are really saying you think that “suffering from our misuse of free will” (children being raped) “is nothing compared to Heaven”. So its okay they are raped since its a requirement of free will?

I don’t want anything that requires that children be raped.

“But you have to trust God, and you have to accept that maybe you won’t ever understand ‘why’ on earth, but just follow Him even when you are troubled and confused and upset.”

This quote is what I will find consolation in. Because I know that there were things that I thought I would never understand about God but later understood them. But child abuse has always caused me to question my faith.

I am not fighting child abuse but I am helping the world by instead reading until late hours every night so I can fix all the technical problems everyone in my huge company has. The technical problems never stop coming so I will help them work and they can fight child abuse.

I seem to be chained to technical problems.

Anybody who reads this please put me in your nightly prayers and pray that Heather have help with understanding all the incredibly complicated technical things she has to learn and fix. I have to learn stuff that no one else in my technical department can comprehend. I have way too much to learn and figure out and it is so ridiculously complicated.

Heather

Heather, is there any way you can use your technical skills to ZAP that evil site?
Just a thought…

 

[Nickkname]

You have no right to judge this person!
Now are you going to accept responsibility for your lack of charity and ask the poster to forgive you?

Thanks for judging me.

Reread the OP and realize that the poster dosen’t really want an explanation. The poster just wants self-justification. I told the poster to stop blaming God for everything and start taking own responsibility for own actions.