Angela Chininin Buele

Rape is such a painful topic.  No one wants to remember, but sometimes it’s necessary to remember – necessary to file reports and press charges, necessary to talk and cry about it, or necessary to share with another wounded soul that she is not alone.  While I can’t say that I am glad  I was raped, I will say the amazing story God has given me because of that devastating violation, has changed my life forever… for the better.  Will you let me explain?

If you have not been reading along since the beginning of this 40-day writing project, you don’t know the personal history I shared regarding the complex story I will finish telling here and now.  If you would like to read the first part of the story, you can look back at my article from September 29, 2016 titled This Might Shock You.  I used to be Pro-Abortion.  If you lack time or interest, however, the most basic information needed to carry through with my story is this:  When I was a young child, I was raped by a teenager I knew, and I didn’t tell anyone about it for years.

Any child who knows the confusion, fear, isolation, dirty feeling, and anger of having been violated can only do so much to live a “normal” childhood.  If there is no justice and repentance for the offender, kids may feel like there will never be any healing for them.  I know I felt like that.  Since I knew the young man who violated me, when I finally told my mom about what happened, she helped me try to find justice.  She took me – a pre-teen then – to meet with the young man’s mother.  I handed her a letter and explained that I wanted her to mail the letter to her son as a way of confronting him, now a college-aged man.  Based on her dismissal of my story, I imagine she never sent the letter, and I left that day with the additional burden of being believed to be delusional.

A dark road of depression, sexual sin, suicidal thoughts and actions, and hopelessness were real struggles in the following years.  I know it was only by the mercy of God to lead me to turn to His well-kept promises when Satan would try to drown me in a sea of broken promises of fallen men.

As I followed Jesus in my young adult years, I tried to follow my dreams.  Since my rape was more like a nightmare, I just worked around it trying to ignore it.  In case you’re wondering, you can’t ignore stuff like that.  It just doesn’t work.

In my mid-twenties, I shared my testimony with a group of Christians with whom I was quite close.  In this time of my life, I was quite disrespectful to someone placed in authority over me, and I was rightfully told that I could no longer be a part of the work the group was doing since I was working against the team instead of with them.

When I moved back to my hometown, I was pretty sure I couldn’t go on.  My dream had been shattered when I was sent away from the team.  But I’m so glad the Lord prodded me on because my whole life changed within a few weeks.

While talking with the family of a dear friend, I overheard a few identifying details about a new family attending the church.  My heart stopped.  I knew it was him.  The man who had broken my trust so many years before was well-known and well-loved by my very own church family.

I had prayed for years that this man would not harm any other children, but I don’t believe I ever prayed for him to seek God’s pardon for his sins – against God, against others, and against me.  Yet it seemed that maybe He had done just that.  Not knowing what to do next, I did the only thing I felt I could do – wait.

A couple of months later, as I was sitting in a Sunday morning Bible study group, I was told of a young family the Lord was using to preach His Word and make disciples of Jesus Christ.  Thinking I would be blessed to meet such a couple, I asked their names.  I was told their names and that they were in the very next room at that very moment and I could meet them immediately.  It was him, and I was panicked.  Over 20 years had passed since the rape, but I was nearly crushed by a sudden tsunami of emotions as I rushed to excuse myself and escape into the crowded sanctuary.

By the end of that week, I had confided in some very close friends and asked them to meet with this man.  I asked them to tell him that I had forgiven him and to find out if he had confessed and repented of the sin.  Maybe you won’t be able to understand this, but I no longer wanted revenge for myself or humiliation for him.  I wanted joy for us both, and I knew that would only – could only – come from new life under the Lordship of God Almighty.

I was blessed to hear that my friends confirmed his acknowledgment of the rape.  What I had not expected was the account of his tears when the message of my forgiveness was delivered.  That moment was like no other before.  I was relieved of the burden of unresolved angst, the storyline that reached the conflict and went no farther.  God gave me a gift that precious few ever know.  He who was my enemy, my betrayer, is now my dear friend and my brother by the blood of Christ.

I tell you that even now I am filled with joy to know this story, to live this story, and to share this story.  This is a story I have rarely had the privilege to share, but I do so here because I know that rape is horrible.  Rape feels like the end of the story, but the Lord can – and does – give gifts through Jesus that are infinitely sweeter than your heartbreaks are bitter.

My story isn’t really over, and neither is yours.  I’m praying for you, my friend, to know true relief from whatever crushing burden you carry, maybe alone.  Will you cry out to the Maker of Heaven and Earth to make the end of your story sweet with forgiveness?

Angela Chininin Buele

There is no shortage of tension or conflict in the world.  From Supreme Court cases to domestic disputes, we disagree on a whole lot.  And when there are disagreements, our sinful nature wants to draw a line in the sand and start the roll call.  We ask, “Who is on my side, and who is on my enemy’s side?”

That is how we make wars out of differences.  One person posts a black ribbon, and someone else responds by posting a blue ribbon.  One person raises awareness for persecution of one religion so someone else makes known the greater suffering of another religion.  One group cries foul when bakers don’t want to make certain ceremonial cakes, while others dissent when certain flags are flown alongside or even replacing official city and state flags.

And then you have one group crying out for the right of the unborn to be granted life while another group fights for freedom for a woman’s free reign over any and all parts and persons within her body.

When people disagree on these matters, things usually get tense, and they occasionally get ugly.  But we should remember one very important fact.  You and I are not enemies – God and Satan are.  Now, I love and belong to God, so Satan is my enemy.  Yet, I am still most definitely not your enemy, regardless of how you feel about me.  That is to say, if you find me on the opposite side of one of those lines in the sand, it’s not because I don’t love you.  I love police officers, and I love black people.  I also love those who display one color ribbon over another even though I don’t display either.  I love Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists, even though I do not believe all roads lead to Heaven.  I love people of all sexual practices even while I support only one.

Can you stand opposed to what someone does and still have compassion and love for the person?  If you require people to prove their fidelity to a cause in order to earn your respect and favor, you do not have love.  This is as true (and as hard) for me as it is for you.  These issues are important to us, but if they are more important to us than the human beings with whom we are at odds over them, we will be undone.  You see, we are commanded by God to love people, not causes.

Key Question: I had previously asked when life begins, but maybe the greater question is, “When does love begin?”

Unshakable Truth: They said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.   Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?”  This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.  And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.”  And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.  But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.  Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more”  (John 8:4-11).

Jesus both rescued the woman from those who wished to kill her for her sins and told her to go and sin no more.  This what love is.  This is what love does.  This is Who Love is.  Love does not begin at first sight or when emotions surge.  Love begins long before then.  Love begins at the cross of Christ, and if you haven’t been there, you can’t know Love.

The Real Choice: Will you love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you?

Angela Chininin Buele

I think we have all heard more than enough about Donald Trump’s proposed wall between the U.S. and Mexico.  When my family crosses the border to work with some beloved friends at an orphanage outside of Ciudad Juárez, we see a big black fence marking the political boundary – in maybe even more than one way.  I’ll confess that I thought “the wall” already existed, at least along some stretches of the border.  Driving alongside this fence stirs up a mix of emotions for our family.

We know that the matter of immigration is very complex.  We have lived that.  There are legal and illegal immigrants.  There are all kinds of visas that determine who can be here, for how long, and for what purpose.  There are people who cross the border without documents.  There are people who arrive in the United States with a legitimate visa and overstay.  One time a corporate lawyer did not file my husband’s paperwork on time despite repeated requests to do so.  The result was that my husband had to stop working for a period of two weeks.  He was in an immigration limbo.  He was lawfully admitted. But he had lost his status because a lawyer did not submit paperwork that ended up taking longer for the government to process.  My husband is now at the very last step of the naturalization process, and as a highly educated, well-dressed businessman who often corrects my native English, he is still treated at times like a criminal in the company of USCIS agents.  I’m glad I have had the opportunity to learn about our country’s not-so-friendly immigration process, the widely criticized H1B visa the Lord used to get him to this point, and how even I, a U.S. citizen by birth, cannot end the matter by saying, “He’s with me; enough already.”

There are clearly reasons we want to guard our borders.  We don’t want drugs to come in or children to be trafficked out of the country.  We don’t want coyotes to take advantage of the needs and the lives of the poor for their selfish gain.  Security and protection benefits the nation as a whole, but being closed off builds neither bridges nor a future.  I think there must be a better way to reach our goals of legal immigration and legal transport of goods than by building a big, big wall.  Walls create and deepen division.  A wall will not solve the deep problems that divide the United States and Mexico.  A wall will not stop the desperate conditions that drive men, women, and children to leave it all behind to risk crossing into the United States for an opportunity at a better life.  A wall will not stop the frustration and anger of displaced American manufacturing workers who have lost their livelihood to bigger commercial interests of corporations that find it cheaper to manufacture their products across the borders or across the ocean.

I wonder if you are aware, though, that the proposed wall along the border between the U.S. and Mexico is not the only the only one of its kind.  There is a specific type of wall that can be found in cities around our country – walls that keep some people in and others out.  This barrier, sometimes two layers thick, also shows an unwelcoming face to the outside world. This wall, like all walls of its kind, is designed to separate people, to prevent people who enter in from being able to communicate with those on the outside.  That’s a little too much like the Berlin Wall for me.  The wall to which I refer surrounds Planned Parenthood abortion facilities throughout the United States.

Because there have been reprehensible attacks carried out against abortion providers on and off of the properties occupied by their abortion-providing employers, it is reasonable for security measures to be taken, for careful attention to be paid to people coming and going.  Video surveillance and staff or volunteer presence is certainly understandable in the parking lot.  But what is the reason for the fence?  The fence at the abortion facility in my metropolitan area has an unsecured gate, so people who want to walk or drive in during business hours may do so freely.  The security guard has a station inside the front door, so staff members have an internal buffer between themselves and any potential threat.  So I wonder again, why the fence?  “It is because of people like John and Mary [who apparently are praying there every Friday and Saturday],” it was explained to us the other day.  Speech like that, speech that breeds division is precisely the scary reason that leads me to write about this.  When we consider ourselves to be different from – or even superior to – other human beings, made in the image of God, the consequences are unavoidable.  Segregation.  Discrimination.  Protectionism.  Genocide. Auschwitz had a fence also.  And it all started with the segregation of one group of people.

It seems to me that, instead being an instrument of defense, it’s used on the offense.  That is to say that the fence might not be about safety at all, but it is most certainly used for security – the security of the business, that is.   You see, once a woman makes it to the parking lot of an abortion facility, there is very short walk from the car to the building that must be spanned.  Now, if the purpose of the fence was to provide protection, there would be no need for women to be guided to the door.  Would a woman need help finding the front door?  Not likely.  No, the fences (sometimes one metal and one mesh fence are used together) provide more of a barrier for words and sight than for actions these days.  As for the escorts, they often provide little more than white noise in attempt to drown out that distant voice from beyond the fence crying out as an 11th hour appeal on behalf of the woman’s unborn child.  After all, a woman does still have the right to choose in those last moments, doesn’t she?  Is she not free to choose life and walk away from her appointment?  Or have we come to find that an abortionist’s parking lot is ultimately anti-choice?

Key Question: Americans, are we using a wall to keep the poor out of the country while we use a fence to keep the poor inside the abortion facility?

Unshakable Truth: My brothers,  if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone brings him back, let him know that whoever brings back a sinner from his wandering will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins (James 5:19-20).

To call out to a mother on her way to abort her child is just as much in the interest of protecting her from the weight of her sin on her eternal soul as it is to protect her unborn child from violent physical death.

The Real Choice: If you are sure your position on this matter is best, will you openly engage in free speech, deep thinking conversations about it?

Angela Chininin Buele

Fruitfulness is not a consequence, it is not second best, and it is not to be feared. Children are a blessing from the Lord.

Fruitfulness also takes dedication, sacrifice, and humility.  These are all attributes many people who say they don’t want children (now or ever) are probably already developing in order to advance in a career, a hobby, or an education program.

Clearly people are willing to work extra hours and go the extra mile for a job and carry the burden of the consequences that brings to their personal life.  What remains unclear is why those same people might simultaneously fight for abortion rights on account of the personal sacrifice that having a baby requires.

Each person plants a seed with his or her life, hoping to leave behind a legacy.  Methods for nurturing those seeds, however, vary widely.  If you nurture your legacy seed with today’s success and approval from others, you will find that the praise of others fades as soon as it is issued.  A seed can’t grow if its water source evaporates on contact.  This seed might look perfect, but a perfect seed that remains dry will bear no fruit.

The high-stakes investment made in people – babies, the elderly, and everyone in between ­­- on the other hand, is an unpredictable and eventful affair.  There are much more joys and maybe even more hurts, but the seed that goes into the ground and surrenders its protective casing does not fail to grow.  Casting off the shell of self-preservation and soaking in the sometimes saturated and “a little more than you bargained for” soil makes for a strong tree, complete with robust buds.

Make no mistake. Having babies doesn’t make anyone wise, but God often grants people more wisdom as they raise the children He has given them.   Likewise, caring for the sick, disabled, and elderly isn’t always fun, but God can teach people that love and joy last longer than fun anyway.  And, perhaps most importantly, loving and serving a variety of people may not leave you with much evidence that you have made a difference in the world, but there will be no end to the work that the Lord accomplishes as He carries out His will through you.

Key Question: Is your life investment a seed that will grow and bear fruit?

Unshakable Truth: Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  If anyone serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there will my servant be also.  If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him ( John 12:24-26).

The Real Choice:  Will you follow Jesus to His tree, the cross, where he laid the seed of His life down to bear the fruit that can save sinners like you and like me?

Angela Chininin Buele

When someone argues that legal abortion is needed to save the lives of women who would otherwise self-abort using wire hangers, I wonder why we don’t just outlaw wire hangers.  I don’t know if anyone has ever posed this question, but I wonder if the idea would gain any serious consideration.  I mean, if the concern is real, then wouldn’t the price of an abortion today (hundreds to thousands of dollars) still lead poor women to self-abort using wire hangers?

Most people blame the illegality of abortion in this country before 1973 for that era’s wire hanger abortion maternal death toll.  As an example of what that number might be, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that 235 women died in 1965 due to abortions (self-induced and otherwise).  It is heartbreaking that so many women would believe they were in such a hopeless situation, whether they didn’t have support from their families and communities or were afraid to ask them for help, that they would be left in a panic that would lead them to risk their own lives instead of having their children to raise or give in adoption.

But, again, is this all a matter of law?  If a woman self-aborts because Planned Parenthood wants to charge her $800 she doesn’t have, who bears the blame if she dies?  What about the women who die within a few days after having an abortion not in the back alley but in the front office?  How often does that happen, and where does the outrage lie for those women’s deaths?

It has not been possible for me to find statistics that show how many deaths take place as a result of abortion in the United States.  The data just doesn’t seem to exist or to be reliable–deaths seem to be ascribed to consequences of abortion rather than to the abortion itself.  So I pursued another route.  As a result of a lawsuit, the St. Louis Fire Department released information showing that Planned Parenthood’s abortion facility in St. Louis, for instance, called an ambulance 23 times in a seven year period (2009-2016) for hemorrhaging patients.  I have no way to follow up on those 23 women to see how they are.  But the thought haunts me that, though you may tell me this is rare, this mattered to these 23 women.  What if the complications were bad enough to lead to death?  If not to one of these 23 women to someone elsewhere in our nation?  Wire hanger abortions are not the only abortions that risk and claim women’s lives.  They just seem to be the only abortion deaths that some abortion rights advocates want to talk about.

Abortion facilities, filled with people who claim to be focused on the care and protection of women, actively resist higher standards to bring their facilities into compliance with the same standards used to regulate other surgical facilities.  When these abortion facilities close instead of updating, some people become angry that the requirements were superfluous in application while exorbitant to implement.  This sort of response does not seem to demonstrate a safety first kind of attitude that prioritizes women’s health and safety above their profitability.

An even more basic practice that regularly jeopardizes the safety of patients is cross-contamination that occurs when hands and equipment are not properly cleaned and sterilized between uses.  Abortion providers throughout the country have been found in violation of health and sanitation codes.  Illinois’ abortion providers alone have quite a record of violations and locations that have not received inspections for well over a decade. Take a look for yourself:  http://illinoisrighttolife.org/womens-health-comes-first-a-project-of-illinois-right-to-life/find-your-clinic/

Key Question:  Does removing abortion restrictions actually undermine the protection of women?

Unshakable Truth: “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, […] But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence” (Jeremiah 22:13a, 17)

There is a lot of money to be made in abortion.  Ironic, isn’t it?  The reason many women say they can’t have a child is because of the financial cost.  While abortion providers claim they are doing a philanthropic work to aid the poor, they are profiting.  They wouldn’t be doing as well if fewer abortions were to take place.  And the more they have to spend to update their facility, the less gain they will receive.  If abortion providers are thinking about their own gains, how can they see women and children with mercy?

The Real Choice: If you are truly passionate about the safety and protection of women – today’s and tomorrow’s – are you on the side of mercy?  If not, Christ can show you how mercy is given.  Look to the cross.

Angela Chininin Buele

No one can deny there are a variety of emotions that drive the words and actions of activists on both sides of the abortion struggle.  Feelings of determination, anger, disbelief, division, or sadness can be felt on both sides of the fence.

Pro-choice advocates connected with NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and Hillary Clinton, however, have honed in on one particular emotion to describe the decision to abort.  They say it is a “difficult” decision.  This wording can be found on documents at abortion clinics, in political speeches, and in personal testimonies.

Identifying abortion as a “difficult” decision is a way in which humanity is properly inserted into a debate that is often stripped of due sobriety.  For that, I am thankful. Women are human beings, and their fear of losing all they have is real.

We would be hard pressed to find someone who thinks it is difficult decision to seek treatment for cancer.  It is even more unlikely, perhaps, that someone would say it is difficult to seek treatment for a cavity.  These are diagnoses which, by their very nature, are unhealthy, painful, and physically damaging conditions.  Now, if gangrene were found on a woman’s leg and the doctors recommended amputation, that would be a different story.  In order to survive, the woman has to surrender a part of her body forever.  And quickly.  That is truly a difficult decision.  She will be the one to both benefit and suffer as a result of treatment, and this gives her the full right to take sole ownership of this matter.

Pregnancy, unlike cancer and cavities, is a natural, temporary condition that, under most circumstances and thanks to proper care and technology, is very rarely life threatening.  At this junction the most bizarre thing happens.

It is deeply saddening for a pro-life advocate to see the death toll increase each day that abortion is legal and accepted in the United States.  That shouldn’t surprise anyone reading this.  The rhetoric of abortion being a “difficult” decision surprises us as it betrays the natural response of a woman who is torn between the instinct to nurture her child and the pressure to meet expectations (whether imposed by herself or by others or by circumstances) that will lead to the end of her child’s life.

This is both good and bad news.  The good news is that signing someone’s death sentence should make a person feel terribly sad.  This is evidence of a soul which is not completely desensitized.  The bad news, however, is that women still choose to pay to have their children dismembered, knowing they already carry the guilt of this decision.  This is a problem of sacrifice.  Carrying and caring for a child, though in itself a gift, requires great sacrifice.  Abortion always makes the child the sacrifice.  This is a problem of misplaced worship, a religion problem whatever you may say you believe or don’t believe.  You know you will kill another person who is not even threatening you in order to attain relief or a reward for yourself.  It is a difficult decision after all, and we must have great compassion on anyone who identifies herself as a victim even as she initiates the murder of her own child.

Of course not everyone sees this decision as difficult.  Some people don’t even want women to practice free speech to say that having an abortion is a difficult decision.  The #ShoutYourAbortion movement from 2015 encouraged women to have a sort of coming out of the closet experience by making their abortion public.

One year prior to that campaign, an editorial piece in The Washington Post was written by a woman who directly commands women to stop calling abortion a difficult decision.  She warns her readers that, “To say that deciding to have an abortion is a “hard choice” implies a debate about whether the fetus should live, thereby endowing it with a status of being.”  As she continues, she lays it all on the line, even to the point of desperation.  She later states, “By implying that terminating a pregnancy is a moral issue, pro-choice advocates forfeit control of the discussion to anti-choice conservatives.”  I am not sure I have ever encountered a more clear example of both: a confession of unwanted truth and the calculation to cover it up.

Key Question: Does abortion being a “difficult” decision mean it’s wrong?

Unshakable Truth: “They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus” (Romans 2:15-16).

The Real Choice:  Whatever your emotions are regarding abortion, God is resolute.  Forgiveness is in Christ alone, and we all need it, whether we have had an abortion or not.  How about we #ShoutHisMercy?

Angela Chininin Buele

Abortion is legal throughout the United States.  It’s true.  For now.

So, why don’t I accept that fact, agree to disagree, and move on?  Well, I just simply cannot and will not give up.  You see, I could say, “I was born this way” or “This is how I identify myself,” and while those words might gain me respect on other fronts, I don’t know if they would be well-received when combined with the message of Life (worshiping the Almighty and protecting the unborn works of His hand).  But trying to get you to agree with me is not the reason I won’t let it go.

There are days that I get so saddened – depressed, even – by imagining the pain caused in these clinics.  I think of the violent death faced by each unborn abortion victim, and the way in which women are hurried out the door to make room for the next.  This is a weight that each post-abortive mother carries for the rest of her life.  Alone.  It is all quite heavy.  But emotions are not the reason I won’t give up.

The real reason I am still praying for the Lord to end abortion is because it is slavery.  What do I mean?  Abortion is a tool used to lead women down a road that serves interests other than her own.  Women are encouraged to be sexually active early, often, and with a variety of partners.  Then, when one of these women is faced with an unexpected pregnancy, she might be told that the gift of motherhood is what is holding her back from a better life, that she won’t be supported by others, that she had better get rid of the child so she’s not left destitute or without an education or without a promotion.  If this woman goes to Planned Parenthood, she will pay hundreds or thousands of dollars to abort her child, after which they can sell her post-abortive counseling, birth control pills, and STD testing/treatment.  The more she needs, the more it will cost since Planned Parenthood charges for these services.  And the sooner she gets back to having sex, the more likely they are to keep making money off her.  When a woman’s crisis leads to one person’s death and a company’s profit, love and care are not part of the business model.

Crisis pregnancy centers, on the other hand offer counseling, education, and testing services for free.  Their bonuses are paid in hugs and stories of victory over fear.  Their joy is in seeing families (both biological and adoptive) bonded together instead of being torn apart.  Joy arises out of walking with someone through pain and confusion, actually being with them and ministering to them to look to true hope as encouragement and strength in a time of weakness where others will leave them to cry, to bleed alone.

What else do abortion and slavery have to do with each other?  Legality.  Slavery was legal and socially accepted for hundreds of years before abolition.  So if you tell me to accept abortion because it’s legal, I will tell you that the clock is ticking.  My hopes are not hung on the upcoming election or even on the Constitution of the United States of America.  My hopes are stored where the True Judge appointed Himself to the bench and His Word is never in need of amending.  Sometime between this day and That Day, the truth will be made known; not that the unborn are precious because pro-lifers say so, but that they are precious because their Maker has made them in His own image.

Key Question:  Will abortion ever end?

Unshakable Truth: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold , the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and hey will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.  He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for he former things have passed away” (Revelation 21:3b-4).

The Real Choice: You know how the story ends for those convicted of crimes against humanity.  The Judge of the Universe can offer you a pardon.  Will you plead with Him for mercy, or will you stand on the law that is here today but will one day be history?