{"id":34626,"date":"2013-05-08T17:16:12","date_gmt":"2013-05-08T21:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"\/news\/?p=34626"},"modified":"2013-05-25T18:13:58","modified_gmt":"2013-05-25T22:13:58","slug":"sick-liberals-exploit-elizabeth-smarts-rape-and-kidnapping-to-demonize-abstinence-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/sick-liberals-exploit-elizabeth-smarts-rape-and-kidnapping-to-demonize-abstinence-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Sick liberals exploit Elizabeth Smart’s rape and kidnapping to demonize abstinence education"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

\"Elizabeth<\/a>In 2002, the kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart captured the nation\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Last Wednesday, Smart spoke<\/a> 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:<\/p>\n

I remember in school one time, I had a teacher who was talking about, well, about abstinence, and she said, \u201cimagine that you\u2019re a stick of gum, and when you engage in sex, that\u2019s like getting chewed, and if you do that lots of times, you\u2019re gonna become an old piece of gum! And who\u2019s going to want you after that?\u201d Well, that\u2019s terrible, but nobody should ever say that, but for me, I felt, oh my gosh, I\u2019m that chewed-up piece of gum! Nobody re-chews a piece of gum. You throw it away. And that\u2019s 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Slate<\/em><\/a>, the Huffington Post<\/em><\/a>, Gawker<\/a>, ThinkProgress<\/a>, and MSNBC<\/a> 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<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

Certainly, Smart says the remarks of one particular teacher<\/em>, whose \u201cwho\u2019s going to want you?\u201d 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\u2019s speech does not<\/em> blame abstinence education itself, or the general principle of abstinence.<\/p>\n

A bit earlier, she mentions being \u201craised in a very religious household, one which taught that sex was something special that only happened between a husband and a wife who loved each other,\u201d which she was \u201cdetermined to follow.\u201d And near the beginning of her speech, she makes clear that, also while in captivity, she realized that her parents\u2019 strong belief in abstinence wouldn\u2019t make them value her any less:<\/p>\n

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\u2019d been chained, just because I\u2019d been kidnapped, just because all these things had happened to me, that wouldn\u2019t change their love.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why would they? Generally, Christians are far more understanding toward those who fall for sexual temptation than we\u2019re given credit for, but here we needn\u2019t even go that far. Being raped is not giving in to temptation. It\u2019s not consensual sex. It\u2019s not promiscuity. It\u2019s not you making light of the sacred or wasting God\u2019s gifts. Rape is a foul, violent crime for which the victim bears no fault, and the only \u201cChristians\u201d who think otherwise either reside in some isolated fringe of no practical significance or exist within liberals\u2019 slanderous imaginations.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that rape can lead to all sorts of doubts about one\u2019s sexuality and self-worth, and it\u2019s not implausible that those effects could be heightened for people with a religious attachment to their virginity. But it\u2019s preposterous to suggest that valuing your virginity and wanting to save yourself for one special person are therefore intrinsically destructive beliefs, and it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Think of it this way: as disappointed as religious parents would be to learn their teenager has been sexually active, they\u2019d 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\u2019t mean we\u2019re idiots who can\u2019t understand the concept of facts and circumstances.<\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well-intentioned and well-adjusted people do not stoop this low to demonize people and ideas they disagree with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":34627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nSick liberals exploit Elizabeth Smart's rape and kidnapping to demonize abstinence education - Live Action News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/sick-liberals-exploit-elizabeth-smarts-rape-and-kidnapping-to-demonize-abstinence-education\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sick liberals exploit Elizabeth Smart's rape and kidnapping to demonize abstinence education - 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