Abduction survivor Elizabeth Smart uses love as weapon against evil
SALT LAKE CITY (Christian Examiner) -- Love as a weapon against evil in the world is not a new idea to people of faith. Yet seeing it overcome the most horrific of wrongs is a powerful and inspiring story and the reason why a new YouTube video featuring the faith of Elizabeth Smart is growing in popularity.
The non-denominational non-profit Faith Counts released a two-minute video February 5.
A collaboration of several production groups including students from Brigham Young University, the video is the fourteenth installment of a multi-faith initiative, The Daily Herald, reported.
Though the production is brief, the message is clear -- it was God's love that kept her alive and helped her get to through the disturbing event that changed her life.
In the video, Smart begins with a detailed description of the first few moments of her June 2002 abduction and discloses the memory of the first time she was raped by her captor.
"I remember (my mom) telling me that she would always love me, and then I remember her telling me that God would always love me," Smart said. "It was in that moment that I realized that I still had value, that this was something that nobody could take away from me."
Taken from her Salt Lake City home as a 14-year-old girl, Smart was reportedly raped, starved and bound by chains for months until her rescue in March of 2003.
"I grew up in a family that instilled a very strong sense of faith in me," Smart states. "During the next nine months of my kidnapping, I had no idea just how much I would have to rely upon that faith."
According to KSL.com the aim of the video is to promote the power of faith.
"In my own life and in the countless other lives of survivors that I have spoken with, It has been the power of faith that has allowed us to not only persevere, but to find true peace and happiness," Smart said in the video.
Faith Counts was launched as a social media campaign in October 2014 for the purpose of inspiring the everyday faith of individuals across various denominations Kerry Troup a spokesperson for Faith Counts told The Daily Herald.
"Unfortunately in today's increasingly secular society, we're seeing faith and people of faith being marginalized and faith being portrayed as a bad thing, especially among young people who are more and more not affiliating with any sort of religion or faith," Troup said.