The recent comments by kidnap/rape victim Elizabeth Smart on how her religious upbringing in an 'abstinence only' environment made her ordeal that much worse and also factored in to her inability to break free are worthy of pause for thought.

A number of things come to mind.   First, whatever one's cultural or educational background it is surely the case that it is being treated like a piece of garbage that makes one feel like a piece of garbage.   Education might factor into this in some way and may provide specific idiomatic ways of expressing it, but I wonder how many rape victims do not feel like a piece of rubbish once the vicious perpetrators have finished with them, regardless of what their parents taught them about sex before marriage.

Second, while it is no doubt true that some forms of abstinence education might well leave individuals with a view of sex as something dirty and shameful, it is surely also the case that the opposite will end up being problematic when taken to its logical conclusion.  Teach somebody that sex is just a recreational activity with no context beyond the consensual act itself and one must end up reducing rape and sexual assault to the level of any other non-consensual physical violation: genital attack ends up being no different to being slapped around or given a good kicking.  As it happens, a human rights barrister has today made an argument that perhaps rests on similar logic.

Third, take a look at the cultural logic which dominates contemporary public discussion.   It looks grim for anyone trying to articulate even a vaguely traditional Christian position on morality.  Now, if you believe sex is so special that it should be reserved for a relationship of lifelong emotional, social and physical commitment between one man and one woman, you can add to your crime of homophobia that of traumatising the victims of rape.