In a new episode of Fox News’s “Ainsley’s Bible Study,” three women came together to discuss how their faith had helped them to overcome instances of abuse. The women shared with Fox News’s Ainsley Earhardt about their experiences in faith. Annabella Rockwell, a graduate of Mount Holyoke, told Earhardt that despite her Christian upbringing, she found herself pulled into a life of partying and secularism once she began college. After walking away from her upbringing, she told Earhardt, “In this void of really not believing anymore is when I became susceptible to all these very progressive ideas and wokeism because as God was missing from my heart, I needed to fill that void with something.” In speaking with the New York Post last year, Rockwell said her experiences in college left her in need of being “deprogrammed.” “I left school very anxious, very nervous, very depressed and sad… I came to the school as someone who saw everyone equally. I left looking for injustice wherever I could and automatically assumed that all white men were sexist. My thoughts were no longer my own,” she said. Rockwell’s mother continued to pray for her prodigal daughter until Rockwell began to feel the urge to start attending church again during the COVID-19 pandemic. She accepted Christ and found peace increasing in her heart “a little every day.”

Ambar Miniel Sanchez found struggles between her faith and college as well. She began the Christian club at Miami Dade College and submitted her graduation acceptance speech to be reviewed. Her professor, however, did not think thanking Jesus in her speech was a good idea. Sanchez, however, felt she owed Jesus the praise and chose to thank Him anyways. “When I gave my speech, and I was saying, ‘Thank you, Jesus,’ the whole crowd started clapping, and I was so shocked,” she said. In a situation somewhat similar to Sanchez’s, Elizabeth Turner, a graduating senior of Hillsdale High School in Michigan, received criticism from her school’s principal when she submitted a draft of her valedictorian speech. The principal, Amy Goldsmith, took issue with Turner’s opening line, “My future hope is found in my relationship with Christ. By trusting in him and choosing to live a life dedicated to bringing his kingdom glory, I can be confident that I am living a life with purpose and meaning. My identity is found by what God says, and who I want to become is laid out in scripture.” “You are representing the school in the speech, not using the podium as your public forum,” Goldsmith remarked on the draft. “We need to be mindful about the inclusion of religious aspects. These are your strong beliefs, but they are not appropriate for a speech in a school public setting.” After a brief standoff, Goldsmith was confronted with a US Department of Education document which states, “the speech of students who choose to express themselves through religious means such as prayer is not attributable to the State and may not be restricted because of its religious content.” Turner was allowed to give her speech as she had written it. 

Finally, another woman, a graduate of Mount Holyoke, spoke of how her faith had enabled her to forgive her abuser. After experiencing sexual abuse, she found herself in a church service. “God touched my heart, and I just couldn’t forget that. In that moment, I realized just how deeply I needed Jesus to save me because I had tried therapy, I tried so many things up until then to help me heal and move on and forgive, but it was all superficial. I couldn’t truly move on from it,” she shared. Her abuser eventually became a Christian himself and reached out to the woman, begging her for forgiveness. Her newfound faith enabled her to forgive and move on from the pain of the past. “That was the most joyous moment I’ve ever had in my life at that point,” she shared. Her experience hearkens back to the powerful words of Corrie ten Boom, a Christian who experienced painful atrocities in a concentration camp after helping to hide Jews: “To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.”