re: #449 Sharmuta

You have repeatedly called her a cheerleading drama queen. It’s ugly, and I suggest you read Dr. Chesler’s book Woman’s Inhumanity to Woman.

As a woman, I think this girl is confused, and she’s been through something she won’t understand for years, but she’s a victim here. She deserves our sympathy, not name calling.

Okay, just popping in even though I *said* I was going to bed:

(1) To Sharmuta — sheesh, could you infantilize young Ms. Bary any further? One way to ensure that girls don’t mature into women, or that boys don’t mature into men, is by encouraging them to think of themselves as victims of someone else’s machinations, when what you SHOULD be saying (at least in some cases) is something more like “Sheesh, get a grip, you pile of histrionics, you.”

(2) To Dianna — I appreciate your call for not rushing to judgment, but here’s a quote from the pastor (via Time):

But Beverly Lorenz has acknowledged that she talked by phone with Rifqa before the girl ran away. Blake Lorenz, who insists that Rifqa will be killed if she goes home, earlier this month made clear to reporters his Crusades-era belief that this is part of Christianity’s holy struggle against Islam: “These are the last days; these are the end times,” he said, “and this conflict between Islam and Christianity is going to grow greater. This conflict between good and evil is going to grow greater.”

Time editorializes unnecessarily with the “Crusades-era” comment, and the fact that Lorenz is a drama queen in his own right doesn’t automatically mean that he’s also a predator with really creepy ulterior motives; he could be just a superstitious blowhard who believes his own hype. Still, at the very least, he takes his lack of critical thinking skills to mildly scary levels, and unlike the 17-year-old Ms. Bary, he’s old enough to know better, so that’s why some people are astonished by your insistence on not rushing to judgment about him.