Why?

This is a subject that, like no other, severely rattles my strong faith.

I just received an email urging me to forward it on to family and friends in the fight against child abuse. The email contained pictures of one 3-year-old little girl with terrible wounds from her multiple beatings at the hands of her father. The last picture was apparently a coroner's photo of this little girl's back, buttocks, and legs after her death.

She was 3.

Why? Why does this happen? Even if the email was fraudulent and the pictures were altered, even if this little girl does not really even exist, we know that this type of horrific abuse occurs every day. If not more frequently. I don't have the stomach to actually research the statistics. I'm married to a police officer who has seen this kind of abuse just by the nature of his chosen career. I know it happens. What I want to to know is why does it happen?

How can it be stopped? Child protective services and courts routinely return children to their abusers. Unfortunately some people in society still hold the archiac opinion that it's "none of my business" if they see a child who, at the most, is being physically/mentally abused and, at the least, is being neglected.

I saw a news article not too long ago about an 8 year old boy going in to the restroom of a fastfood restaurant while his mom ordered their food at the front counter. A pedophile walks in the door, goes into the restroom, pushes the boy into a stall, and brutally molests him. The whole time the boy's mother is completely unaware of what is going on less than 20 feet from her. She is completely unaware that the man who walked right past her on his way out the door just ripped her son's life to shreds and some how, some way she is going to have to find a way to put the tattered pieces back together. I think of that boy so often. I pray for him frequently that he is healing both physically and emotionally and that one day he will be whole again.

This topic makes me question my faith because I cannot understand why God lets it happen. I know that if I believe in good, then I must also believe in evil. Okay. Fine. But if the devil has control of the pedophiles and the abusers and the scumbags that hurt children, why doesn't God do a better job of protecting children? Why can't He do the superhero stuff where the bad guy gets a wrecking ball to the head when he tries to hurt someone? Why can't God cause the bad guy to trip over his own stupid feet and get stabbed in the jungular with a fork?

And why the hell isn't it legal for me to take my legitimately purchased gun and blow a pedophile to kingdom come? It should be.

This is the one thing that causes me to struggle with my spiritual beliefs. Because I know that in the end, God does not have a good enough answer to my question.