One woman there admitted "I'd want to go home and change clothes first." We all laughed.
I had a really nice exchange with a fellow blogger this week. A group of us were informed that one of us (not me) had an 8 week old niece diagnosed with H1N1. I and some others mentioned that we would pray or get in touch with a church group, etc. etc. BTW I don't claim any credit for me or for God, but baby is doing much much better this weekend and we're all grateful for that.
Another of the group said,
being atheist - I don't have a prayer group. God doesn't listen to me anyway. Must have just been all that non-denominational love radiating through the atmosphere...
Now those of you who know me know my answer to THAT, and I replied immediately, yes, as immediately as the sons of Zebedee dropped their nets:
if there is a God She loves atheists best of all...that's why She made you clever and loving without benefit of clergy....
So often we so-called Christians focus on how we can control people rather than how we can bless them. This abortion bill mumbo jumbo is just the latest example. If I had the money, I'd mail a box of condoms to everyone who voted for that Stupid Stupak amendment and tell them to get back to me when they completely abandon abstinence-only hypocrisy.
Planned Parenthood notes that the cost of an abortion in the first trimester costs between $300 to $900. That doesn't include travel expenses to Atlanta, which for many Southern Baptist college students is the closest place to have their "mistake"... "taken care of." Church-going Daddies and wayward boyfriends do come up with that money all the time, without filing an insurance claim, trust me.
For the women who were unable to get an abortion on Medicaid due to the Hyde Amendment before last night? Life continues to suck, or in the words of our Lord and Master, "the poor you always have with you." Dear Congress: Jesus meant that as an accusation, rather than a statement of fact. Jesus knows what is in your hearts, Congressmen, and that you would send any number of pregnant interns to that Atlanta abortion clinic for the full nine hundred, just to save your fucking job, and many of you likely have.
That said... there is no Savior, or morning-after pill, strong enough for this dude:
I thought Dusty Foggo was in jail.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this very thought provoking post. Your absence in DC was felt by so many of us.
ReplyDeleteI am really going to sit with that piece about control versus blessing - it is at the heart of so much of this and so many other discussions.
From us card carrying heathens, thanks but no thanks on being included in your religious fantasies.
ReplyDeleteWe don't believe for a reason.
OG
But OG! Promise me you'll keep growing those before-the-fall apples, they're delicious and very "back to the garden" and shit.
ReplyDeleteI'm gonna love you no matter what, OG. And if you tell me I'm blind, fantasizing, and crazy, so be it. But tell me I lack love for my fellow man, and I've got some serious fixin' to do.
I would never make fun of anyones beliefs. Nor would I drag them into any belief system they did not want to be party to.
ReplyDeleteLove is universal, I love you and the complete strangers I have never met.
I just spent too much time with Southern evangelicals and the ridged dogma of the Greek Orthodox church to have any faith in faith.
OG
Don't be silly! he doesn't need an abortion. ;o)
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing about the religous is that they'll never realize how wrong they are.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, in double blind study after double blind study, it has been proved ad nauseam that intercessory prayer does NOT work.
Praying for yourself works - in exactly they same way as self-hypnosis, "positive thinking" and all that.
Not that I'm against "soft" religious belief. It's silly, but if it makes you happy, I'm fine with it. Just don't use it to justify your politics - or anything else!
I love you Blue Gal.
ReplyDeleteYou and Fran and I can all be delusional together. I'll make tea.