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Beth Moore Uses Lessons from her Past Sexual Abuse to Urge Parents to Protect their Kids

CBN

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Popular Bible teacher and author Beth Moore is using her experience as a victim of sexual assault to help parents teach their children to say "no" when it comes to unwanted sexual advances.

In 2016 Moore told CBN News a little about her story of being abused as a child. 

Recently, on her Living Proof website she wrote a blog titled: "Why Consent Isn't All There Is To It."

She wrote, "I do not claim in this article to speak for every woman or girl who has been abused, assaulted or harassed but I'd like, if I could, to speak from what I have experienced, seen, heard and learned, not only as a victim but also as a servant to women for 35 years." 

"The boundaries around my life were bulldozed early and by a bully, I might add, because, while not all bullies are sexual predators, all sexual predators are, in one way or another, bullies. There was no manual within my reach about how to rebuild those crumbled boundaries," she explained in the Dec. 13 post.

She made it clear that everyone has the right to say no to unwanted sexual advances.

"Not a meek little whispery wispy 'uh uh' but a full volume, confident, steel-strong 'NO.' It's not too late, no matter how old you are," she said.

When she posted the article on Twitter, nearly 500 people commented.

"My predator was my own father," one reader said.

"On weekend visits no words were spoken," she continued.  "Never occurred to me to say no.  Until the last time it happened and he asked me if I could do something. I said no. He left me and went to my sister. She told him no. Finally told my mother. No is powerful," she said.

Moore replied, "I am deeply sorry you endured such a heinous betrayal of trust. God bless you for allowing such healing to come."

Moore also pointed out in the article that parents have the huge responsibility to protect their kids and to teach them about healthy boundaries, by saying 'no.'

"Train them up with the confidence to use one of the most vital words in their entire vocabulary," she advised. "And also teach them about how we can feel so pressured and overpowered, we feel like we can't say no and how we can muster up the courage to get that reluctant term to bounce out of our mouths."

"Help them," she said. "There won't be a do-over on your initial reactions to their detrimental sexual experience. It will be hard for them to talk about so try to read what they are telling you by their behaviors and create a safe environment for them to communicate. Believe them as they slowly open up to you about what happened and show compassion and strength and facilitate whatever further help they may need. If there was legitimate welcome and consent, for crying out loud, still love your child and work through the complications."

She concluded by saying, "Let's keep this truth ever before us in these days of ever-surfacing evil."

"God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. God has no dark side," said Moore.
 

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