More and more people are speaking up against sexual assault nowadays, and popular Christian speaker and author Beth Moore is one of them.
Moore, the founder of Living Proof Ministries, wrote in an op-ed piece entitled "Why consent isn't all there is to it" that people should be firm in saying "no" when it comes to unwanted sexual advances.
"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," she clarified.
Moore said that many people are uncertain how to draw the line between "consent" and "no," but they have to learn to be assertive and turn down the advances made by predators. Personally, Moore said she had to learn the hard way that it's not okay to be pushed into doing something she doesn't like.
"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.
But after she accepted God, Moore said she began realizing her true worth. It was God who built her up from the ground, and she finally understood that everybody - men and women - have 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.
This was not the first time Moore opened up about her past experience with sexual abuse. In the past, she tweeted (@BethMooreLPM) about it and said that she was initially discouraged from breaking her silence because it could destroy her ministry.
"A well meaning mentor told me at 25 that people couldn't handle hearing about sexual abuse and it would sink my ministry. It didn't," she said.
