Claire wrote in “Love What Matters”:
“I’ve officially been bashed by the internet for my religion, my personality, my values, my mind, my writing, my experiences, my dreams, and anything else that people could manage to find wrong with me and those articles. Congratulations, you’ve officially covered all of your bases. I suppose most of you who made the rude comments (if not all of you) feel like they’re deserved, and you completely have a right to your own opinion.”
“I want to take a minute to address the religious aspect of the argument. Most of you have figured out by now that I’m a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I love my religion, and it brings me great joy and happiness. No, the ‘Mormons’ are not a cult, and just because someone is religious and believes in God does not mean we automatically belong to a cult. It does mean that I believe in a most high God who loves ALL of his children, including my ex-fiancé and every single one of you.”
“It means I value chastity, which means abstinence from sexual relationships before marriage and complete fidelity after marriage. You do not need to agree with my values to respect my values. And just because I have a high-value system does not mean I’m “self-righteous” or that I believe I’m perfect. Of course, I have my flaws … but there is a major difference between making mistakes and sexual promiscuity,” she added.
And since her fiancé was actively seeking out pleasure from places outside of their relationship she took it as a sign that he would not be a good husband.
She was quick to call out commenters for labelling the religion as a cult by stating that “just because someone is religious and believes in God does not mean we automatically belong to a cult.”
“But to those who think I ‘jumped ship,’ you’re right … I did. Because when someone in an engagement decides to violate God’s laws, honesty doesn’t exist. And neither does love. At that point, because we were not yet married, it was not my job to ‘fix him.’ It’s his job to fix himself.”
“We already had more than 300 invitations to our wedding sent out. We had to call every single one of those people and tell them what happened to inform them the wedding was off. Pornography addiction does not just affect you. Pornography addiction affects the people around you, and it’s only so long before the truth is going to come out.”
And while Claire may have portrayed herself as the ‘victim’ in this situation, many others had the impression that she was overreacting.
“He saw porn. She canceled their wedding. One of those is a massive overreaction. Hint: not his,” wrote one person.
Another added, “Why does watching porn once twice or even three times make you an addict? I had a glass of wine with dinner tonight, that doesn’t make me an alcoholic!”
Others thought it was wrong of her to write the blog. “If she truly thinks pornography is so bad then she’s a pretty horrible person for putting her name and face out there to this story thus letting anyone, who knew who she was engaged to, know his personal life,” read another comment.