"Purpose"-driven life, eh?

September 27, 2005 6:31 PM

Remember "saintly" Atlanta hostage Ashley Smith? Well, it turns out that it was a lot more than her "faith" and a copy of a Christian self-help book that got her through that particular ordeal...
posted by dersins (52 comments total)

(The money link is actually the last one...)
posted by dersins at 6:32 PM on September 27, 2005

God works in mysterious ways!
posted by billysumday at 6:38 PM on September 27, 2005

So, who doesn't have a small, emergency stash of meth? Just for emergencies like this, of course.
posted by interrobang at 6:38 PM on September 27, 2005

that's an awful lot of derision implied in the tone of your post, but that's pretty nuts, either way.

note to self: quit doing drugs after I use them to buy my freedom.
posted by shmegegge at 6:38 PM on September 27, 2005

For what it's worth, the derision shmegegge (correctly) identifies in my post is NOT directed at Ashley Smith, but at the media that was so quick to decide that she was, like, this saintly creature, rather than, you know, an actual person with flaws and things.
posted by dersins at 6:40 PM on September 27, 2005

In the book she merely thanks God or having made crystal meth.
posted by clevershark at 6:42 PM on September 27, 2005

More power to her. She got this maniac caught, and hopefully it was the experience she needed to convince her to kick drugs. Lots of practicing addicts and alcoholics have self help books at home. People in the throes of addiction are often searching for ways out.

Can't resist a mild snark: apparently that "Purpose Driven Life" wasn't helping her kick the stuff too well.

I agree with dersins, direct your derision to the media. Wasn't real clear in your original post, thanks for clearing it up.
posted by marxchivist at 6:45 PM on September 27, 2005

She just so happened to have quit meth the NIGHT BEFORE the ordeal. Riiiight.
posted by mathowie at 6:46 PM on September 27, 2005

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue.
posted by Justinian at 6:48 PM on September 27, 2005

I really don't remember this at all. Was she a missing white girl of the week?
posted by teece at 6:52 PM on September 27, 2005

"Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue."

Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop snorting meth.

*ad infinitum*

*dives out window of control tower*
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:53 PM on September 27, 2005

Not just that, but Nichols converted to Islam in jail.
posted by brownpau at 6:56 PM on September 27, 2005

I don't know if giving speed to the guy with the gun was the best idea. When you're spun, you tend get very twitchy and paranoid.
posted by MiltonRandKalman at 6:57 PM on September 27, 2005

> God works in mysterious ways!

Hey, he turned the water into wine when circumstances demanded it, whose to say he didn't also turn the Max Factor into methedrine when Ashley needed a miracle?
posted by PeterMcDermott at 6:58 PM on September 27, 2005

MRK: that was my first reaction also, why the heck would she give the guy an upper like that? It doesn't make sense.
posted by WetherMan at 7:08 PM on September 27, 2005

Way to burst my bubble!

Next thing you know, you'll be telling me that there was something hinky about the Jessica Lynch rescue.
posted by leftcoastbob at 7:10 PM on September 27, 2005

.. she asked Nichols if he wanted to see the danger of drugs and lifted up her tank top several inches to reveal a five-inch scar down the center of her torso — the aftermath of a car wreck caused by drug-induced psychosis. She says she let go of the steering wheel when she heard a voice saying, "Let go and let God."

Not exactly Paul on the way to Damascus, but it worked.
posted by fleacircus at 7:14 PM on September 27, 2005

the derision shmegegge (correctly) identifies in my post is NOT directed at Ashley Smith, but at the media

So...that's why her faith is in quotes?
posted by transona5 at 7:20 PM on September 27, 2005

Thank God I keep a large stash of various drugs around me at all times, for situations such as these. Looks like I'm out of Afgahni heroin this week, but I have some great stuff in from Turkey and a little never-been-stomped on coke if that'll make you leave -- sir you left $120 here on the counter!
posted by geoff. at 7:21 PM on September 27, 2005

So she is not pure as the driven snow? Who is? She still amazes with her ability to essentially talk her way out of a deadly situation.
posted by caddis at 7:23 PM on September 27, 2005

OMG -- let's PNP.
posted by ericb at 7:30 PM on September 27, 2005

She is not pure as the driven snow. She is driven by snow.
posted by Joey Michaels at 7:38 PM on September 27, 2005

I heard rumors immediately after the hostage situation and killing that Ashley was Brian's drug buddy and that it was not random chance that he ended up at her place. Maybe this news gives those rumors some shades of truth.
posted by Frank Grimes at 7:42 PM on September 27, 2005

After all her braying about how Jesus and The Purpose Driven Life gave her the power to make the big bad man be good (and her very willing transformation into an evengelical media poster child) I think the use of "saintly" is entirely appropriate.

She should been honest and admitted that Jesus is always better on meth.

Cue the King Missile.
posted by foxy_hedgehog at 7:44 PM on September 27, 2005

She says she let go of the steering wheel when she heard a voice saying, "Let go and let God."

After God nearly got me killed with that kind of trick, I don't think I'd be quick to give up any vices in His name.
posted by jesourie at 7:56 PM on September 27, 2005

mathowie: "She just so happened to have quit meth the NIGHT BEFORE the ordeal. Riiiight."


I read it the same way, and with the same reaction... but on further thought, she did say that the incident itself was what prompted her to quit, so by saying she hasn't used since the night before she was taken hostage, she likely meant that she just had not used *that* day before it all went down.
posted by John Smallberries at 7:59 PM on September 27, 2005

lol
posted by Edible Energy at 8:08 PM on September 27, 2005

Amphetamine followed by an opiate? No wonder his buzz got killed.
posted by deadfather at 8:31 PM on September 27, 2005

I dunno about that image of driven snow being pure.

I mean, all the snow I've ever seen that has been driven on is all nasty and gross, you know?

"Dirty as the driven snow" would be far more accurate. :)
posted by Malor at 8:42 PM on September 27, 2005

I heard rumors immediately after the hostage situation and killing that Ashley was Brian's drug buddy and that it was not random chance that he ended up at her place. Maybe this news gives those rumors some shades of truth.
posted by Frank Grimes at 9:42 PM CST on September 27 [!]

I expect this is the "real" story. Have since the day it occurred.
posted by Ynoxas at 8:57 PM on September 27, 2005

I don't condemn her a bit for the drugs, but admitting them was a quick way to blow a bunch of endorsement deals! She could have been the fundamentalist pinup girl of the year, with her own TV show on one of the Christian networks.
posted by LarryC at 9:03 PM on September 27, 2005

Reading the comments here makes me realize why I shouldn't. That Ashley Smith had personal demons in no way diminishes what she did that day. If anything, those demons made stopping the rampage possible. It certainly makes the story richer. Frankly, I don't blame her one bit for the sanitized story she fed the press... if you were suddenly thrust into the national spotlight, would you bare your deepest, most embarrassing personal failures with everyone?
posted by MegoSteve at 9:29 PM on September 27, 2005

See, meth IS good for you!

I dunno about that image of driven snow being pure.

It refers to snow being driven into drifts by the wind.
posted by delmoi at 9:58 PM on September 27, 2005

She is not pure as the driven snow. She is driven by snow.


The guy who did "Informer?" I had no idea he was a chauffeur, now.
posted by shmegegge at 9:59 PM on September 27, 2005

Schmegge wins this round.
posted by dial-tone at 10:36 PM on September 27, 2005

Cue the King Missile.

He turned water into wine.
and if he wanted to, he could have turned wheat into marijuana, or sugar into cocaine
or vitamin pills into amphetamines.
that's so cool.
posted by Hat Maui at 11:28 PM on September 27, 2005

MegoSteve, I agree completely. We all have our secrets and would be shocked to have our darkest ones revealed to the world. I guess the derision is the "holier than thou" pedestal folks like this put themselves on, and fail to see the hipocracy of it all.

This is about human weakness, not politics--people on the left and the right and the middle all have them. It's about the image you're trying to project. But many fundies don't seem to see the disparity of preaching morals to others, the "you're a sinner damned to hell" attitude and the real, true life behavior at odds with their morals. When that projection and the reality collide, the disparity can be pretty big.
posted by zardoz at 12:20 AM on September 28, 2005

schmegegge: The guy who did "Informer?" I had no idea he was a chauffeur, now.

You win this round, schmegegge, but we shall meet again and next time the advantage will be mine.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:45 AM on September 28, 2005

The "Crank Driven Life"?
posted by zaelic at 3:57 AM on September 28, 2005

joey michaels wins
posted by runkelfinker at 4:25 AM on September 28, 2005

I think whatever she did and however she did it, that's great. But I was also sick of the virtuous, "Reading The Purpose Driven Life will save you when things go bad, so be righteous in God" stuff that attended her survival. Implicit in that line of reporting and commentary was the notion that if you aren't into that, you ain't gonna make it when the chips are down.

Plus, it's nice to see a heartwarming crystal meth story after all the bad press it's been getting.
posted by OmieWise at 5:46 AM on September 28, 2005

Doing crystal meth will lift you up until you break.
posted by kirkaracha at 6:58 AM on September 28, 2005

It's great that she has religion and this amazing self-help book, but I really don't believe that religious faith did any more than provide the self-confidence she needed to talk herself out of the situation. Maybe it appealed to lapsed religious tendencies in her captor.

"Woman talks herself out of hostage situation" is a great headline, but apparently not as good as "God helps woman out of hostage situation." Give the lady some credit, she did it herself using every tool in her posession: drugs, religion, and self-help books. I've also heard that Nichols is now considering selling some fine amway products after getting out of prison -- she started selling him on that when the religion and meth didn't cut it.
posted by mikeh at 7:02 AM on September 28, 2005

Hey lookI'msureJesuswouldhavesharedhisdrugstooJustgoes toshowyouthatinastrangeparadoxsurvivorsarealsothe most human (ie. real) and recognize they havefaultsIf shehad approachedhimasaholierthenthou,holy roller she'd be dead right now. Of course if he needed a way to hand himself in and theyweredrugbuddiesanhe needed todosomething about a psychosisinducedJONES then well...I guesssssshedidthe Christian (CAPITAL "C") thingbyhelpinghimgetarrested withoutbeing errr.."accidentally" shot OUCH. Hey..um.... hey...anyone holding???!! (snif)
posted by Skygazer at 8:48 AM on September 28, 2005

To be fair, sometimes God is a little slow showing up, so you have to rely on illegal narcotics.
posted by Ty Webb at 10:34 AM on September 28, 2005

MetaFilter: Jesus is always better on meth.
posted by Mitheral at 3:01 PM on September 28, 2005

From one of the news articles: Ashley Smith left her apartment around 2 A.M. Saturday. The 26-year-old waitress, student, and single mom moved into the apartment two days before and had spent the night unpacking. Out of cigarettes, she decided to run to the local convenience store. She returned home about five minutes later.

Um, what they mean is, Ashley Smith, meth-head, left her kid alone in the apartment at 2AM to run out and get some drugs, and her new boyfriend/dealer turned out to be this really bad guy and they got in a meth-fight and we all know the rest of the story.

Or am I missing something.

Stupid meth. Stupid meth-heads.
posted by hurkle at 5:03 PM on September 28, 2005

Her kid wasn't with her that night. Accounts of her experience mention that she pleaded with the guy who took her hostage to allow her to make her appointment to visit her kid in the morning. Maybe child custody concerns (in addition to avoiding possible arrest) were part of her motivation to not let the media know about the meth.
posted by PY at 6:45 PM on September 28, 2005

I think hurkle's version is probably a lot closer to the truth than any holy rolling. I can't really give this woman the benefit of the doubt, knowing what I know about crank fiends.

All this Jesus stuff, probably a complete fantasy.

However, I can forgive her, and apparently so can the cops, for once. It all seems to have turned out well in the end, or at least far better than it could have, so maybe we all ought to turn the other cheek about it, forgive her, and move on, like Christ would actually want us to.
posted by zoogleplex at 10:38 PM on September 28, 2005

It's going to be very interesting to see if she relapses, you know, once those checks from her publisher start rolling in.
posted by lilboo at 7:25 AM on September 29, 2005

Let me get this straight. She was reading The Purpose Driven Life - while still doing meth. And needed a hostage expereince to drive home the meaining of the book and to have the epiphany that meth is bad.

Ooookayeee. Seeing her husband die in her arms from a meth fueled knife fight wasn't enough.
posted by tkchrist at 9:19 AM on September 29, 2005

Dramatic re-enactment of post-hostage media moment, with Jon Lovitz in the role of Ashley:

Man 1: So tell us, how did you finally get him to let you go?
Ashley: I remembered that I had a little Cryst... tian self-help book with me! Yeah, that's the ticket!
posted by soyjoy at 9:36 AM on September 29, 2005