Elizabeth Smart's rape at the hands of Brian David Mitchell left the young Utah woman feeling "dirty and filthy and worthless," she recounted Friday.
The woman taken from her home in June of 2002 when she just 14, and held against her will for nine months by Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, is a spectacular role model for anyone. Her poise and pluck sustained her through the awful ordeal of repeated sexual assaults, along with the constant threat of being murdered.
There are so many awful young female icons today. Why does this society revere completely ridiculous people like Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan, when someone like Smart is so inspiring?
By keeping a positive attitude and strong will to live, people can overcome the most daunting circumstances in life.
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Comments: 3
Being a devout Christian who believes in God and lives according to a high standard is something that is ridiculed as being silly, unnecessary, and archaic. We live in a country where less and less people even have a faith that they belong to say nothing of living that faith.
There is a direct correlation between our lack of faith and our society's lack of a moral compass. The greed, excess, arrogance, attitude of entitlement, the increase in horrifying violence, and sexual crimes against children are all directly related to the fact that as a society we flaunt the belief that we don't need God. What passes for American Culture is so painfully degraded I am quite certain that nothing but God can make a difference.
Which brings me around to the original point. Plenty of people many celebrities included make fun of people who are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints or Mormons. The way that Mormons live their lives, the values and beliefs about God's Plan of Happiness for us is what gives someone like Elizabeth Smart the courage and strength to not only survive but thrive. Whether a person is LDS, Catholic, Baptist, Bhuddist, Muslim or whatever the religion if they truly live by the tenets of thier faith then they hold themselves to a higher moral standard where people like Lindsay Lohen are not role models. This means moral not just as in sexual purity, but also in being honest, ethical, kind, and having integrity. In living those beliefs that higher moral compass permeates all the aspects of their lives.
Yes, there are plenty of people who don't practice a religion that are good people who live moral upstanding lives, but there are enough people who don't that we see the results in the breakdown of society as a whole.
Maybe religion and what it could do for our society isn't such a silly joke afterall.