Wow. Well, that's surely a horrific experience, or set of experiences - what can I say? I hope your daughter and family will be able to come to terms with this, it must be a very painful thing and I wish you all the best in terms of recovery -

Um... I wanna be kinda "direct" in how I say this, 'cause I mean, this is something very serious we're talking about.

I suppose I could start, with the concept that "blaming God" for everything that happens, is kinda the same thing as "ascribing everything that happens to God".

You know, I'm not sure God works that way - you know, "intervening directly" on behalf of human beings. I mean, it seems to me, that God works more through "natural laws" and things like that.

Or let's put it this way - I have never personally witnessed, an event where I can say with certainty that God has intervened directly in human affairs.

On the other hand, I see the constraints of natural laws, every minute of every day.

So I mean, this "love" concept.... that's kinda of an "attribution", and not an entirely accurate one at that. 'Cause I mean, that's not exactly the same kind of "love" - you know, they've got 17 different words for that in Chinese, and each of 'em have a particular nuance of meaning, but there's only one in English, and it means "all" of those things.

But I mean, as near as "I" understand it, it's kind of a "respectful" love - in other words, God's gonna let you make your own choices, and live your own life, and experience your own pluses and minuses in that regard - 'cause "otherwise", it would be a "smothering" kind of love, and I mean, that surely must be a tough call when your daughter's well-being is at stake, but all I can tell you is, there's gotta be "meaning" in it somewhere -

You know, someday, somehow, you're gonna find out "why" such a thing had to happen - and you know, maybe it's a deep and profound reason, or maybe it has something to do with, you know, the experience that caused your daughter to want to help people and she'll become another saint like a Mother Teresa or someone - I mean, there are all kinds of possibilities, right? You just don't know - "yet".

And that, is part of "faith" - and I mean, it can be maddeningly frustrating sometimes - not to mention the "sadness and anger" part - but I "think", if I'm not mistaken, this is kinda what people mean when they ask the question "how strong is your faith"?

"Personally", if it were me, Id probably "take steps", For sure I'd make sure my daughter gets counseling, and then I'd start calling newpapers about that DA, that's the kinda thing they don't like to prosecute 'cause developmentally disabled kids make poor witnesses on the stand, but I mean, publicity is probably one of your best weapons in that regard - especially if you know who the perp is, then you can do some real damage if you really want to. Plus there's civil action, you can probebly sue that guy for everything he'll ever make in his entire lifetime, assuming you've got airtight proof that it was him that did it. So I mean, "politically", I'd be totally merciless in a situation like that. "Personally", I'd be trying to bring all the "comfort" I could into the world, for my daughter and my family.

Statutory rape is no joke though, I mean, if that kid gets convicted, he's gonna be labeled a "sex offender" for the rest of his life, and he's not gonna be able to go anywhere without people knowing about it - so, um.... that's just something to keep in the back of your mind. 18 years old - you know, I never raped anyone, but um... I did some kinda crazy stuff when I was 18, and in some regards you could probably say that "I didn't know what I was doing" sometimes, so.... you know, "God" is good for stuff like that - when you need a reason to forgive someone.

Once again, I with the best for you and your family, and I hope that you'll find the answers you're looking for.