The "Used Gum" Analogy

She has a legitimate gripe. Apparently, she was taught the infamous used gum analogy. In essence, this analogy held that if you had sex outside marriage, you were "used gum" and no one wanted used gum. After being raped, Smart felt she was forever damaged and would be unwanted and tainted for the rest of her life.

In my blog posting from 2011, I described this analogy:

When I was a teen the Church taught chastity primarily with fear. Used gum was the perennial analogy. It went something like this: Leader passes out a stick of gum to every girl in the room. We all chew it for a minute or two. Then the girls are told that having had intimate relations with a boy will make us used gum to another. And no one likes used gum. We were instructed to take the gum out of our mouths and offer it to one of  the other girls. This grossed us all out of course. No one likes used gum.

He told us that he didn't like those analogies. Because of the Atonement, we weren't forever altered, damaged or flawed by what we repented of or what was done to us. The gum was perfect, the flower was flawless and bored holes in the block of wood were pristine.

Any prior damage had been completely removed. We were whole. We were clean. We were without sin. It was as if nothing had happened. That was the Atonement's gift to us.

He was right then, and he is right now.

This was essentially 50 years ago. Why, on earth, would Elizabeth Smart, who is not yet 40 years old have been taught such flawed thinking nearly 25 years after it was debunked for me?

What is going on?

I can think of a couple of reasons why such flawed thinking and teaching persisted throughout the years. This list is by no means inclusive:

• Thoughtless repetition by people
• Laziness in preparation or thought
• Flawed thinking or not thinking
• Spiritual immaturity on the part of teachers/leaders

My Seminary teacher could not prevent any of this, but his inspired guidance fixed it. After what he told us, I was still subjected to these analogies, but they no longer had any impact on me. One credible person reversed the damage done by others.

I wish someone had done that for Elizabeth. However, it would have been better not to have been subjected to that teaching at all.

Conclusion

Think about what you say, teach, and what others say and teach in the Church. If something needs to be corrected, then do it. Do it in the most Christ-like way you can, but do it!

Think of Elizabeth and others like her. You could help prevent a tragedy. Don't stay quiet because you "don't want to hurt someone's feelings." False doctrine needs to be corrected. 

Your silence can do more damage than your words.

*Keep your eye out for contradictions and flaws. For example, the image for this blog resembles candy or bubble gum more than chewing gum. I couldn't find an image for chewing gum. It's a faulty image. Did you catch that?