I received the following myspace bulletin from a family member of mine:
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" A girl went to a party in Sexy clothes and she ended up staying longer than planned, her boyfriend got drunk and passed out and had to walk home alone. She wasn't afraid because it was a small town and she lived only a few blocks away around the corner of 4th & 16th.

As she walked along passing "MacDonalds" Mary asked God to keep her safe from harm and danger. When she reached the alley, which was a short cut to her house, she decided to take it. However, halfway down the alley she noticed a man standing at the end as though he were waiting for her. She became uneasy and began to pray, asking for God's protection.

Instantly a comforting feeling of quietness and security wrapped round her, she felt as though someone was walking with her. When she reached the end of the alley, she walked right past the man and arrived home safely. The following day, she read in the newspaper that a young girl had been raped in the same alley just twenty minutes after she had been there. Feeling overwhelmed by this tragedy and the fact that it could have been her, she began to weep.

Thanking the Lord for her safety and to help this young woman, she decided to go to the police station. She felt she could recognize the man, so she told them her story. The police asked her if she would be willing to look at a lineup to see if she could identify him.

She agreed and immediately pointed out the man she had seen in the alley the night before. When the man was told he had been identified, he immediately broke down and confessed.

The officer thanked Mary for her bravery and asked if there was anything they could do for her. She asked if they would ask the man one question. Mary was curious as to why he had not attacked her. When the policeman asked him, he answered, "Because she wasn't alone. She had two tall men walking on either side of her."

Amazingly, whether you believe or not, you're never alone. Did you know that 98% of teenagers will not stand up for God?

Repost this as (your city) if you truly believe in God..

PS: God is always there in your heart and loves you no matter what

'If you deny me before man, I shall deny you in front of my Father'

STAND UP FOR HIM

98% wont post this repost this with your city"
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Aside from the fact that I don't think this story is suppose to be true and that it's obviously lifted from chain-letter email it helps to link to the snopes article on it:

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/rapestop.asp Being an atheist obviously gives me the bias, but I would also say the hindsight and objectivity of stepping back and actually analyzing what this story is trying to say.

My bias (having no belief in the unproven god and/or angel(s) sent by this god) points out that pray solves nothing and that the "moral" of this story is moot.

Beyond that, however with the hindsight/objectivity that I believe I have while reading this I couldn't help but ask myself... "hypothetically, IF there was a god that indeed 'protected' this woman with angels, what about the other woman?"

What about the other woman in this story... she's obviously needed in the story otherwise how would it be known that the man was a rapist and that god was actually there to protect the first woman that did the praying to the god. The "moral" of this story, I get is that "prayer works" and that one should look to god for protection, but doesn't this seem a bit egotistical and sadistic of this god? In order to not have bad things happen to you, you need to constantly kiss this god's ass, which god's ass do we kiss? It's not clear but one would assume it's the christian god.

It's often said "god has a plan" and I went on believing this sort of thing all while I was a believing theist. I can not help but see that in this plan god clearly decided to brutalize, dehumanize and demoralize the non-praying woman --after all, it's "his plan", right? What is it that this god is wanting? Unquestioning obedience? It's not even made clear that the woman who was raped wasn't a christian, had she perhaps forgotten to say her morning prayers... had she perhaps been a muslim... a hindu.. buddhist.. or dare I say atheist?

If one actually reads the christian bible it is full of horrors --old testament AND new-- the killing of those with a religion of not that of the "one true god", the killing of rebellious children, the killing of adulterers, the killing of those that do not make the sabbath holy, the degradation and subordination of all women to men, the upholding of slavery --Paul going so far as to say that the slave should be obedient to his master... after all their reward will be in heaven anyways!

So for all of that, I will not continue this chain letter of "faith"... I do not have faith such an ugly, nasty and vicious god.