Posted on 05/10/2013 8:17:31 PM PDT by Morgana
Elizabeth SmartIn 2002, the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart captured the nation’s attention. Rescued nine months later, Smart had been held prisoner and raped by Brian David Mitchell, who is currently serving a richly-deserved life sentence. Today, Smart is a 25-year-old author, advocate for child-protection laws, and missing persons commentator for ABC News.
Last Wednesday, Smart spoke at a Johns Hopkins University forum on human trafficking. She discussed her mindset while in captivity, the following excerpt of which has been picked up by numerous liberal commentators:
I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about, well, about abstinence, and she said, “imagine that you’re a stick of gum, and when you engage in sex, that’s like getting chewed, and if you do that lots of times, you’re gonna become an old piece of gum! And who’s going to want you after that?” Well, that’s terrible, but nobody should ever say that, but for me, I felt, oh my gosh, I’m that chewed-up piece of gum! Nobody re-chews a piece of gum. You throw it away. And that’s how easy it is to feel you no longer have worth, you no longer have value. Why would it even be worth screaming out, why would it even make a difference if you are rescued, your life still has no value.
Slate, the Huffington Post, Gawker, ThinkProgress, and MSNBC all have pieces up with headlines depicting Smart as saying abstinence education itself made her feel worthless and demoralized her away from trying to escape earlier. Liberals have a long, ghoulish record of hijacking victims to shame their enemies and emotionally blackmail people into adopting their policies, and this case is especially egregious because the victim in question said no such thing.
Certainly, Smart says the remarks of one particular teacher, whose “who’s going to want you?” dismissal to teenage girls seems lacking in Christian compassion, played a role. But while I do not presume to know her views on the general subject, Smart’s speech does not blame abstinence education itself, or the general principle of abstinence.
A bit earlier, she mentions being “raised in a very religious household, one was taught that sex was something special that only happened between a husband and a wife who loved each other,” which she was “determined to follow.” And near the beginning of her speech, she makes clear that, also while in captivity, she realized that her parents’ strong belief in abstinence wouldn’t make them value her any less:
I remember on that first day of being kidnapped and raped, I remember thinking of my parents, and after realizing that they would still love me, that just because I’d been chained, just because I’d been kidnapped, just because all these things had happened to me, that wouldn’t change their love.
Why would they? Generally, Christians are far more understanding toward those who fall for sexual temptation than we’re given credit for, but here we needn’t even go that far. Being raped is not giving in to temptation. It’s not consensual sex. It’s not promiscuity. It’s not you making light of the sacred or wasting God’s gifts. Rape is a foul, violent crime for which the victim bears no fault, and the only “Christians” who think otherwise either reside in some isolated fringe of no practical significance or exist within liberals’ slanderous imaginations.
It’s true that rape can lead to all sorts of doubts about one’s sexuality and self-worth, and it’s not implausible that those effects could be heightened for people with a religious attachment to their virginity. But it’s preposterous to suggest that valuing your virginity and wanting to save yourself for one special person are therefore intrinsically destructive beliefs, and it’s a stretch to suggest that the phenomenon is unique among conservatively religious victims – feelings of guilt and lost self-esteem are commonly reported reactions, and are routinely cited as part of what makes rape such a horrible thing to do to anyone, not just one particular subset.
Think of it this way: as disappointed as religious parents would be to learn their teenager has been sexually active, they’d be far more troubled to learn he or she had killed someone or stolen something. Does that mean they would look down on their child for shooting an attacker in self-defense, or stealing bread and water to save a starving person? No. The prospect is absurd for the same reason expecting them to think any less of a raped daughter would be absurd: having principles doesn’t mean we’re idiots who can’t understand the concept of facts and circumstances.
Well-intentioned and well-adjusted people do not stoop this low to demonize people and ideas they disagree with. Would it be too much to ask any of the abstinence critics in our audience what the real motive is?
Elizabeth Smart is a trillion times better than all those vulgar, worthless people combined, plus she is now a happily married woman!
I know that if I say this everyone will hate me, but from day one, I never believed that she was kidnapped. The details of the story don’t add up.
The Blood of our Lord cleanses all.
Those who avail themselves of this Redemption are pure as the driven snow.
Of this, there is no doubt.
I heard her speak a few months ago. She is still a little girl in a lot of ways. But the way she has learned to tell the story is very interesting.
I have heard the story from her mow. You are an idiot.
Rape and sex slavery is just about the lowest we as humans go, short of a Holocaust. I just heard a sermon...think of your lust for ice cream. Think of sneaking at night into in an ice cream parlor and take that last tub cookie dough and steal a few scoops out and leave the rest. A five year old girl arrives the next day to take that last tub for her birthday party. She gets home and opens it only to find it eaten already -YUCK! How would you feel if this was you? It isn’t what you are, but what happen to you.
She appears to be a fine young woman, and does not deserve liberal attacks.
You’re very fortunate!
I’d LOVE to see her in person.
I think the world of Elizabeth Smart.
I prayed daily for her and somehow just knew, she would be found.
Why would anyone hate you for a differing opinion.
I would agree there is something not being told but she appears to a fine young woman.
I forgot to say her father is really creepy.
I don't know that everyone will hate you.
But for sure, almost everyone will recognize you as an idiot.
“I forgot to say her father is really creepy.”
I got that feeling too. However I have to believe no 14 year old would go off with some smelly old guy if she was in her right mind.
You are arguing like a Dem - name calling, which leads me to conclude that just like them, you have no argument.
See Hildy below, about who would hate me for having a diferent opinion.
When facts don’t make sense, everything must be questioned. Seeming to be ”a fine young woman” is not germane to this point.
Why? Because the account of how she was kidnapped makes no sense? Have you actually read it? Have you seen footage of the house and the window from which she was allegedly abducted?
Didn’t he break in a window but take her out a door? At least is how I remember it.
Hello, they were Mormons, which means they were already nutty. The weird guy was in their home - the father had hired him. Teenaged girls are very impressionable, especially over-protected girls who are emotionally twelve.
It was my understanding that because they were Mormons they gave this transient a job at their home. Because of the type of job he had he figured out which window to break into, and how. I believe he was working on their roof? He came in during the night and woke Liz up. Actually both girls woke up but he told the other to remain silent. Liz got her shoes on and he took her out the door while threatening to kill her sis and parents.
I admire her parents for tying to give that type of person employment but had it been me I’d have hired a licensed contractor.
No, what I saw on tv was that she was taken down a ladder.
But even if the was taken out the door, why didn’t the younger sister, who shared her room, rouse the house once the bad man with the knife was out of the room?
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