You ask “Why did God curse my baby with Down Syndrome?”

But in the bible, it is said, that children are a gift from God, and that no gift from God carries a curse.

This is one of the most difficult statements to fully take in. It challenges us to see Down Syndrome, and other abnomalities, in a way that causes us to accept the baby. God isn’t cursing the baby, God isn’t cursing you.

The cursing is from our limited understanding.

We see a bleak future, clouded by images of institutions, and little possible happiness. Yet, such bleakness is put there by men and women, who have yet to see that a life that is different, doesn’t have to be limited. The basic motivation in life is the pursuit of happiness, and what we can learn from Prader Willi Syndrome and Down Syndrome and all those other chromosomal / genteic abnormalities, is that happiness is based on our interactions with other people in a very big way.

When people decided children who were different had to be locked up out of sight, then those children were cursed by man, not by God. They were denied the right to grow up as part of the society, denied parents, denied rights …

Now that we know that they can grow and develop and live within society, much of that cursing has ended, but now the parents say “Gods gift isn’t good enough for us, so lets kill the child and start again”. Why? Because their mindset is still based on fear – they are afraid of having a baby that is outside their comfort zone. When society can address these parental fears and show these parents that life is good, when they can see that a life is much more than a high payng job and a university education, when they can see the hope that their baby has for the future, then the curse of man will truely be over.

Does this mean that we should not provide medical care? If the baby is not cursed, and the condition kills, then surely God must know what he is doing and we should just let it happen?

This actually begs two questions: Is it God’s will for the baby to die? Should we let the baby die?

The latter question is easiest to answer, we value life and we value being healed, hence we have enormous hospitals, and many, many doctors and medical specialists, then we have allied health professionals, nurses, psychologists … So, we as a species, value life and healing. Matter of fact, in many places if you don’t render assistance to a person in desperate need you are often frowned upon and maybe even end up in gaol / jail. So, yes, as humans we have developed duty of care, and it is our responsibility to give these children the best possible treatment as well, for what ever may afflict them, just as we would do for any baby who may suffer sickness or injury. Would you really deny any baby treatment, if it’s mother dropped it down the stairs?

So How do we reconcile the notion of a baby with Down Syndrome, not being cursed by God, but having a condition that may kill it?

As many of you know, Down Syndrome, Prader Willi Syndrome, …. , can cause the baby to die. Science has made huge strides in preventing such deaths, and the average life span has increased dramatically. BUT where is God in all this? We know that God does not take back his gifts, and children are gifts to their parents (it’s not the other way round – we all have to grow and we all have to die eventually. So parents should pass on before their children do, in God’s ideal world). So we know that God does not want babies and children to die. So we should also try and preserve the life of babies and children, whether they are babies with blue eyes or blonde hair or Down Syndrome.

On Matters of a baby’s death.

I have no easy answer for God allowing babies and children to die – by allowing I mean not intervening – it’s always been one of my dilemmas as Carolyn and I lost some inutero, and even the doctors, after testing one of them, couldn’t work out why. You could say a satanic attack, but that would mean satan is stronger than God, and that is just wrong. Personally, I think we just don’t have the healers and prophets etc that God said we needed in a church – we rely mostly on prayer and doctors, but the bible clearly places an emphasis on finding healers that have been given His gift of healing. This happened with my eyes, and the healers healed them and my wife’s eyes, and she was just laying hands on me at the time, but the healing power that healed me also went into her eyes. And yes, one minister who annointed and prayed for one of our babies raised it from the dead, and healed the womb! Yet some babies were lost. And I still don’t know why, but I suspect it is because the church and its people – including us – have failed to push in far enough, we are but a shadow of the true church.

So it falls on our religious people, the Christians of this world, to see the anti Christ and the way it has moved to weaken the true church. You know the bible clearly outlines the procedure a church is to follow in its meetings of worship – with prophets speaking out the wickedness of those who enter the church, so that the sinners will fall to their knees and repent from their sin in front of everyone in the meeting. When was the last time you saw a church put that in front of their love one another slogans. We walk in fear of losing the congregation, of upsetting people and being sued for slander. Wow.

God is there, but the church has fallen, and we can only gain glimpses of the great healings and conversions that might have been I think.

Having probably awakened some Christians to look deeper, I’ve probably also alienated many others, and offended many of the righteous. But it is clear the anti christ is strong, and we suffer and die before our time as a result.

Like I said though, no easy answer on this one, as who said I was right? Read the bible, especially the new Testament, and see if you agree or not.

Donald.