*Maybe this should be in **MPSIMS *? Or the Pit? I don’t know. Just please excuse me while I let loose.
In his horrific autobiography A Child Called It, author David Pelzer says somewhere that his case was the 2nd worst case of child abuse on California record. If correct, then this case must have been #1. (And, God, I hope it still is.)
In 1970, California social workers rescued 13 year old “Genie” – as she became known in popular accounts, her real name kept secret. Since before the age of two she had been kept tied to a potty chair in a single room, alone. Her parents never spoke to her and at 13 she had almost no ability to speak. Any vocalizations on her part were answered with beatings. She subsisted almost entirely on cereal. At night they would put her into a sort of hammock, then in the morning back on the chair.
Her existence only became known after her father died.
As far as I can remember, there was nothing in the room to stimulate her mind. Just an empty room. There was a window and she could hear sounds from outdoors.
Try to imagine it. Go sit in an empty room and stare at the wall for an 20 minutes. Try an hour.
Imagine all of your childhood memories gone and replaced with an empty room, with no one, all alone. No sunshine, no running, no friends, no cartoons. Nothing.
(For more about Genie, here is a transcript of a program Nova did about her: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2112gchild.html
Or read Genie: An Abused Child’s Flight from Silence by Russ Rymer)
We all know life can be wonderful, especially for us fortunate ones in this 21st century Western Civilization. But it is not enough for me to know that. It is not an arithmetical sum, where we add up all the pain and pleasure in the world and hope it is net positive. Nothing can make up for the suffering of a single one such as this. Not the works of Mozart, not falling in love, not the happiness of billions.
Pondering on concrete instances of the Problem of Evil such as this is what really caused me to stop believing in the Christian picture. If God had left it up to me, I would not have created the human race at all – not if it meant that cases such as Pelzer and “Genie” were unavoidable.
But this is coming from one who has not suffered – me. Perhaps I judge too harshly and should listen more closely to those who have suffered first hand. Remember Roberto Benigni’s Life Is Beautiful, an uplifting film about a Nazi concentration camp victim making light of the experience for his son? When Benigni showed it to his father, who had himself lived though such a camp, his father said, “Finally you have made a good movie.” Apparently, his direct experience did not leave him as sour as my purely intellectual one.
Pelzer has said in one interview that he believes in God and that his experiences made him a better person. A psychologist that worked with Genie said she was profoundly affected by her acquaintance with Genie and that she was “the most beautiful” and “the most powerful” person she has ever known. I’m not sure what that means, but it is consistent with the Christian view (as in C. S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain, for instance) that God is working on us through pain like a doctor with a scalpel, and that we ultimately are much, much better for it.
It doesn’t make me feel any better. It twists my innards and makes my head swim to think about some child out there right now beaten and starved by an adult. I just can’t get over it.
Thought you might like to know. Have a nice day.
I have to give lots of thanks and kudos to Adoptamom_II as those kids are the hardest to place and the hardest to help. We need more people like you!