Ginter Botanical Gardens. Copyright 2012: singeronthesand
It wasn't that long ago that we ourselves were stupid
and stubborn, dupes of sin, ordered every which way by
our glands, going around with a chip on our shoulder,
hated and hating back. But when God,
our kind and loving Savior God, stepped in,
He saved us from all that.
Titus 3:3-4
A 17-year-old girl in Soweto, South Africa was reported missing on March 21. Although her mother indicated that the girl was mentally disabled, the police failed to open a missing person's case from that report. They have opened one now, however, after a cell phone video popped up among school kids all over Johannesburg on Tuesday, showing the rape of this girl by a group of men and boys, aged 14-20. One mother discovered her daughter watching the video, confiscated her cell phone, and turned it in to authorities. The men could be clearly identified as they repeatedly raped their victim, and all have been arrested and charged with kidnapping and rape. A local radio station has been flooded with requests for the video to be posted online so that everyone can watch, an unthinkable idea that has been firmly and repeatedly rejected.
The thought of all this boggles my mind, but I realize that it shouldn't. It is estimated that a woman is raped every 26 seconds in South Africa. I have no idea what the statistic is world-wide, but I'm sure it is not much better. Last night, the local news was lamenting a burst of crime in my area with several people murdered, including a high school student. Without an iron-clad moral code to hold one upright, human beings are subject to the whims of lust, anger, hatred, and a whole host of other passions - all of which are destructive if unfettered without restraint. If the anchor of my soul is not firmly embedded in the rock of a Higher Power, then I am anchored only to myself and what I want, without regard to any other human being.
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