{"id":68678,"date":"2018-03-01T09:00:28","date_gmt":"2018-03-01T14:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=68678"},"modified":"2018-03-01T05:26:21","modified_gmt":"2018-03-01T10:26:21","slug":"ct-queen-esther-inspired-me-to-speak-up-says-nassar-victim-larissa-boyce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=68678","title":{"rendered":"(CT) \u2018Queen Esther Inspired Me to Speak Up,\u2019 Says Nassar Victim Larissa Boyce"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text\">Once\u00a0<a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/ct\/2018\/january-web-only\/rachael-denhollander-larry-nassar-forgiveness-gospel.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rachael Denhollander<\/a>\u00a0spoke out against Nassar in 2016, Boyce was still conditioned to defend him. She thought Denhollander was mistaken. Encouraged to contact lawyers but unable to evoke most details of her \u201ctreatments,\u201d Boyce resolved to return to her gymnastics training arena, Jenison Fieldhouse at MSU. She walked around trying to remember specifics, which flooded back into her mind after seeing her former coach\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">That visit was the turning point for Boyce to go public after 20 years. She gained the fortitude to combat the shame she had been experiencing, realizing she was not the guilty one. The former gymnast also wanted to demonstrate the importance of standing up for truth to her four children, ages two through ten at the time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">As a Messianic Jew, her religious ideals provided further motivation. She looked to the biblical account of Queen Esther to inspire her to stand against her enemy. One of Boyce\u2019s sisters exhorted her to model Esther\u2019s courage when she foiled a plot by the Persian king\u2019s chief minister, Haman, to destroy her people. In the story, Esther\u2019s cousin, Mordechai, urges the Jewish heroine to disclose Haman\u2019s conspiracy to the king with the words, \u201cAnd who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">Growing up, Boyce and her family attended a Reform synagogue and a nondenominational church, and she was accustomed to observing Jewish holidays. With the holiday of\u00a0<a class=\"\" href=\"http:\/\/www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org\/purim\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Purim<\/a>\u2014which celebrates the events in the Book of Esther\u2014soon approaching, Boyce heard these words as a direct message.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text\">\u201cI felt that if my story could help at least one other person,\u201d Boyce said, \u201cthen it would be worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/women\/2018\/february\/queen-esther-speak-up-larry-nassar-abuse-victim.html\">Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Once\u00a0Rachael Denhollander\u00a0spoke out against Nassar in 2016, Boyce was still conditioned to defend him. She thought Denhollander was mistaken. Encouraged to contact lawyers but unable to evoke most details of her \u201ctreatments,\u201d Boyce resolved to return to her gymnastics training<span class=\"ellipsis\">&hellip;<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"read-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/?p=68678\">Read more &#8250;<\/a><\/div>\n<p><!-- end of .read-more --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":794,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,168,419,177,34,169,126],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68678","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anthropology","category-ethics-moral-theology","category-evangelicals","category-pastoral-theology","category-theology","category-theology-scripture","category-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68678","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/794"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68678"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68678\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68680,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68678\/revisions\/68680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68678"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68678"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kendallharmon.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68678"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}