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Sparkle (5)
Melinda is just a girl that went to a party. It was her first high school party and it did not go the way she had planned. How could it? Melinda never planned on being raped. After being raped Melinda stopped talking. Speak is her story -- and at least one man in Missouri would like you to think it is soft porn.
Melinda's story, Speak, is fiction. It is a young adult novel written by Laurie Halse-Anderson. It's not just a novel, though it's a powerful story of a girl who has been broken. She can't talk about what happened to her, so she simply does not say anything at all. Her character is the kind that comes to live inside you and never completely leaves, because you know too many people who have experienced something like she did. Melinda's rape, like all rapes, is not a sexual act. It's a crime.
Wesley Scroggin, an associate professor of management at Missouri State University, would like you think that Melinda's story is porn. He wrote an opinion piece in the Springfield, Missour News Leader about the books that teenagers read in English class -- titled "Filthy books demeaning to Republic education."
In high school English classes, children are required to read and view material that should be classified as soft pornography. One such book is called "Speak." They also watch the movie. This is a book about a very dysfunctional family. Schoolteachers are losers, adults are losers and the cheerleading squad scores more than the football team. They have sex on Saturday night and then are goddesses at church on Sunday morning. The cheer squad also gets their group-rate abortions at prom time. As the main character in the book is alone with a boy who is touching her female parts, she makes the statement that this is what high school is supposed to feel like. The boy then rapes her on the next page. Actually, the book and movie both contain two rape scenes.
Scroggin frames his protest around Christianity and Christian values. He asks how Christians in the community can allow children to read these books:
This is unacceptable, considering that most of the school board members and administrators claim to be Christian. How can Christian men and women expose children to such immorality? Parents, it is time you get involved!
Christian readers were quick to stand up and say that Scroggin does not speak for all Christians. Author Myra McEntire does not generally speak of her religion on the internet, but she had to speak up:
I'm crying right now. Here's another reason I don't like to talk about religion to a vast, unknown public. Emotion is involved. You don't know my heart intimately. I can't discuss this with you. I can't look into your eyes and touch your hand and tell you that all people who "claim to be Christians" aren't like this. I can't live out life with you day to day and show you all my mistakes and my sin. Because I am sinful. I am trying, but I WILL NEVER GET IT RIGHT.
Jessie Anderson is a writer and Christian.
Do horrible things like rape happen every day? Yes. But there can be healing after. Our Lord Jesus Christ can bring healing and wholeness that the enemy and the rapist took away.
But sometimes it takes a little nudge. It takes someone like Laurie Halse-Anderson to write a book like Speak that shows young people they don't have to remain silent. Speak gives them a point of contact, someone to resonate with, a spark of recognition that maybe, just maybe they can be all right. If we keep silent about these issues like rape, abortion, drugs, or abuse, kids will discover answers on their own. Why not give them a point of reference that may just help make their lives a little better?
Let's look at the definition of pornography, shall we? According to OxfordDictionary.com, pornography is defined as "printed or visual material containing the explicit description or display of sexual organs or activity, intended to stimulate sexual excitement." The part that I want you to pay attention to is "intended to stimulate sexual excitement."
Melinda's rape does not fit this definition. This is the rape scene from the book:
"Do you want to?" he asked.
What did he say? I didn't answer. I didn't know. I didn't speak.
We were
