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I came across a blog today that I really must commend to you: Listen Carefully. The piece that caught my eye is called “The Six Stages of Deconstruction” and it really hit home for me. You should read the piece for yourself. Basically, though, Mike says that we go through deconstructing a belief system when we see that life isn’t black and white or binary any longer. If we are in a system that teaches us to think in an “either/or” manner but we start to see that the world has nuance to it, we may need to deconstruct that system and move into new ways of thinking. That has happened with me and Evangelicalism and I can see how I’ve gone through some (but not all) of these stages. 1. Disillusio

This is just a short little post on the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday on Indiana's abortion law. See this Washington Post article for details. Indiana passed a law that said that all fetal remains needed to be buried or cremated just like any other human remains. What was happening to the remains before the law? It was being treated as biowaste. And, if miscarriages were happening at home, the tissue was just going down the toilet if the patient didn't collect it do take to the doctor. This is a TRAP law, a "Targeted Restriction of Abortion Providers" law. Basically, the lawmakers are trying to nibble around the edges of abortion to reduce the number of abortions. This would make abortion

Franklin Graham, one of the “court evangelicals” (so named by John Fea), has declared that Sunday, June 2 be set aside as a day of prayer for President Trump. Specifically, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association website states the following: “We the undersigned are calling for June 2 to be a special Day of Prayer for the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, that God would protect, strengthen, embolden, and direct him. We believe our nation is at a crossroads, at a dangerous precipice. The only one who can fix our country’s problems is God Himself, and we pray that God will bless our president and our nation for His glory.” Wow. OK. 1 Timothy 2 does, indeed, enjoin us to pray f

Obesity and disability often go together. Which came first, the obesity or the disability? It doesn’t really matter. In my case, the chronic migraine led to the steroids and quitting work and lack of exercise which led to obesity. After a year on the ketogenic diet, I’m back down to just being overweight, but that’s the exception and not the norm. This article in Vox sums up the predicament very well. In the author’s case, he was very active until an accident caused serious injury to his back and leg. Now he’s obese, but unable to be very active. And, we live in a world that isn’t very exercise-friendly to disabled people. As I read the article, I thought about my own situation and those sim

Choice Anxiety. It’s the feeling that we get when we are overwhelmed with having to decide among too many options. This article in The Atlantic is about our current phenomenon of having too much stuff. Do you ever go online to purchase something and find that the options are overwhelming? But when you type hangers into Amazon’s search box, the mega-retailer delivers “over 200,000” options. On the first page of results, half are nearly identical velvet hangers, and most of the rest are nearly identical plastic. They don’t vary much by price, and almost all of the listings in the first few pages of results have hundreds or thousands of reviews that average out to ratings between four and five

Buzzfeed News is reporting that New York State is suing the Trump administration over a new “conscience clause” rule that would protect health care workers who refuse to participate in medical procedures for moral or religious reasons. Two dozen Democratic-led states, counties, and cities sued on Tuesday to overturn a new Trump administration rule that would protect health care workers who refuse medical procedures — like abortion, assisted suicide, or sex reassignment surgery — if it violates their “conscience.” An 80-page complaint in federal court in Manhattan argues the policy could have dire effects for patients, particularly low-income people of color, women, and LGBT people who dispro

The Evangelical world is coming to terms with the problems of “Purity culture” from the 1990’s and 2000’s, at least according to this article from the Christian Post. It’s about time! What did they say? For evangelical Christian teens growing up in the 1990s-2000s, purity culture was ubiquitous. From purity rings to True Love Waits pledges, millions of adolescents across the country formally vowed to abstain from sex and save themselves for marriage. But for some, the movement carried with it long-term, damaging implications. Amid the rise of the #MeToo movement paired with reports of sex abuse within the Church, individuals whose lives were shaped by purity culture began to push back. They

Internet Monk today ran one of Michael Spencer’s old columns. It was about his faith journey and why people were so upset with him about it. Wow. So much of it rang true to me! I, too, am rethinking a lot of what I knew about God. And I think it freaks some people out a bit. It freaks me out a lot! But, the freedom to ask questions and to be OK with not knowing the answers is just crazy! My journey isn’t Michael Spencer’s journey and it’s not nearly so public (I have like 30 blog readers - he had thousands). But, I understand what he was writing. As we grow in the faith, we’re supposed to know more of the answers, but I know fewer of the answers. Yes, I know more about the Bible and I know J

I came across the following quote in the New York Times yesterday (5/19/2019): Activists have been buttressed by many of the nation’s conservative churches, which have increased their emphasis on abortion policy in recent years. A few decades ago, many Southern Baptist churches would preach far more frequently against divorce, fornication and premarital sex, said Wayne Flynt, one of Alabama’s most influential historians and an ordained Baptist minister. “There has been a huge shift,” he said, “and a narrowing of focus to abortion and same-sex marriage.” The article itself is about the grassroots organization of the anti-abortion forces in the various states that are passing “heartbeat” laws.

I came to this topic in a kind of roundabout way. Let me ‘splain. Someone else in their blog referred to a Desiring God post that called being an introvert an a sin. Someone else on twitter posted a bit from a devotional that also said that being an introvert was sinful. What?? How can a personality trait that’s built into you be a sin? Well, that’s not what I’m going to talk about. Just know that they are wrong. I’ll deal with that craziness at another time. I’ve pretty much always been an extrovert. I’m told that I was shy in elementary school, but that was really just because my mom was so extroverted that it was hard to get past her talkativeness. I just kind of hid behind her skirts bec

I grew up and spent most of my adult life in the heart of Evangelicalism. I also was a dyed in the wool Evangelical while I was doing my medical training. I had a front row seat to see what Evangelicals were saying about abortion, abortion providers, women who had abortions, and Planned Parenthood as well as the actual truth of those statements. Now, a lot of what we heard was true, just skewed. But, there was, and still is, a lot of untruth. Let’s look at what the pro-life leaders said that was questionable. And then we’ll look at the way the other side bends the truth. We’ll star with the pro-life side. 1. Life begins at conception. Does it? Something does, but probably not a fully formed

This morning, I listened to a little bit of a Christian radio show in the car. Two women were talking, one of whom had written a book called something like Dancing in the Rain. It was based on the quote “Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass...It's about learning to dance in the rain.” The women were talking about suffering as Christians and how to manage suffering according to Scriptural principles. They had some decent stuff to say about suffering. But, as they were getting started, one of the women made the comment that “people are watching.” People are watching. Having grown up in Evangelicalism, I know exactly what that means. Don’t ruin your testimony. People watch how you rea

The US House of Representatives just passed the Equality Act which will extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ people. It faces an uphill climb in the Senate, unfortunately. And if it makes it to the White House, the President is likely to veto it. What I don’t understand is why anyone would oppose this legislation. According to the Washington Post, it “would prohibit discrimination in employment, housing, education, jury service and federal financing, protecting people from being fired or harassed for their sexuality or gender identity.” And this is bad, how? Apparently, some people think that having anything to do with gay people is tacit approval of their “gayness”, so they don’t want t

Whew! There has been a lot of stuff on abortion out there lately!! So, I decided I’d link to some of the more interesting things and make some comments. Let’s get started! Georgia just passed a “Heartbeat Abortion Bill” which would outlaw all abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected, usually at about 6 weeks of pregnancy, which is 4 weeks of development. The thing about this bill, along with the other state “heartbeat abortion bills” is that they run afoul of Roe v. Wade which says that states can’t restrict abortion prior to fetal viability. Clearly, this law can’t go directly into place and is going to be litigated through the courts, perhaps up to SCOTUS, which is the entire reas

I’ve come to the painful realization that I’m not going to be able to go back to work anytime soon. The ketogenic diet helps me lose weight and feel better, but it’s not a panacea for chronic migraine; and Aimovig and Ajovy just didn’t work for me. Back to the hard work of being content with my life without a career. And that’s not easy for me. I grew up believing that I was going to work outside the home. Not because I had to, but because I had a calling. I was going to be a physician. And, after 12 years of post-high school education, I was, indeed, a family physician. I worked for ten years as a family physician doing the full range of medicine from delivering babies to taking care of old

Chronic illness affects your whole life. Obviously. Before chronic migraine, I was a perfect mom. OK, I jest!!!! But, chronic migraine has definitely changed my mothering. Mothering in our society is kind of weird, anyway. We don't get to take credit for when the kids do well - they got there by hard work and sacrifice, after all. But, when they screw up; well, that must be because of their Mom. Or, at least that's how I feel. All the time. I have two kids: Lydia is 23 and Chris just turned 21 (the first picture is of Lydia and Jenna, Chris's fiance; the second is of me and Chris). But, these aren't the only kids I've mothered through the years. Elizabeth and Jesi are my two daughters from a

Tonight was the quintessential small town event - the middle school and high school band concert. Patrick and I were there as observers since Noah, the high school boy who has been living with us, plays percussion in the band. And he did a great job, despite his nerves! When Chris was in band, the concerts were still held in the gym, which could be a little trying on the body. There were folding chairs up front, but we tried to leave those for the older folks while we sat up in the bleachers. Nowadays, after the new addition, we get to enjoy an actual Performing Arts Center with padded seats, theater lighting, and a real stage! We found seats in a row about halfway into the theater and reali

Eating "Keto" is popular these days as a way to lose weight, but did you know that the diet was originally developed as a way to control seizures in children? Let's start with the basics. The ketogenic diet is a low-carbohydrate, high-fat diet that has the goal of putting a person into "ketosis", a state in which the body is burning almost completely fat instead of glucose. This helps with seizures because it is believed to increase the amount of GABA in the brain which inhibits seizures. To put it simply. In January of 2018, I started the ketogenic diet with the idea that it might help migraines because many of the standard migraine preventative treatments are also seizure preventative trea

Here's a thing. I came across this interview a couple of days ago which I thought was really interesting. It's an interview with a sociologist of religion (Samuel L. Perry) about a book he wrote about conservative Christians and their relationship with pornography (Addicted to Lust: Pornography in the Lives of Conservative Christians). His main conclusions were that this group of particularly pious Christians used porn only slightly less than the average person, they were much more likely to feel terrible guilt about it and to have depression, unhappiness, and marital disruption about it. I have thoughts. Let's start with this: I'm not a fan of the pornography industry. But, it's not becaus

I came across this post about the importance of exercise with chronic migraine. The author does a good job explaining why it's so hard for those of us with chronic migraine to get into a good exercise routine. Long-term, exercise reduces symptoms of chronic migraine. But, in the short term, exercise can trigger a migraine or make a current headache worse. My exercise of choice is walking. The only equipment I need is my shoes. (I did recently invest in TheraFit shoes because I tend to get plantar fasciitis in my left heel. So far, so good. I still need to stretch regularly, but I'm liking the shoes.) During the deep winter, I do use the treadmill, but it is theoretically possible for me to e