Daily Archives: May 8, 2011

The Promise Walk for Preeclampsia

Posted on by

On May 7th, I participated in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia with my parents, brother, sister-in-law, and Daniel. As many of you know, I’m a preeclampsia/HELLP Syndrome survivor so it was a way for me to get some emotional healing from the experience. Originally, I was going to be helping with the social media presence but we had the move and then Daniel got sick.

They had a group of high schoolers helping with registration. There were tables with preeclampsia shirts, hats, and stuff and I got a survivor shirt from them. There were also face-painting and crafts for the kids, a silent auction, tables from various birth groups and an OB-GYN, a table for a sporting goods store, and a lot of activities going on. They had a speakers at 9:30 a.m. (one survivor who had lost her daughter and two publicity people for local blood banks who were also preeclampsia moms), a dove release remembering those who had lost kids/moms/daughters to the condition, and the two co-coordinators spoke. One common thread was that it is just awful that a condition this prevalent (5-8% of all pregnancies) is so relatively unknown. I think the first speaker would have moved me to tears if I hadn’t been so tired — Daniel woke up at 6 a.m. and I was feeling pretty flattened. The dove release was pretty spectacular — they were trained birds and were flying in formation around the area.

The walk itself was “interesting”. Somehow, we all missed the signs so we ended up taking a wrong turn on the trail and walking much farther than anticipated. I kept a good pace and was proud of myself since I was also dealing with a migraine and fibro pain.

Afterwards, Sean (my evil twin) and Dad headed home with the stroller while Mom, Jeanette (sister-in-law), Daniel, and I hit up Costco and Trader Joe’s.

I’m glad I got to do it — preeclampsia awareness is one of my passions and this was a way to use it. One really wonderful thing is that of the $200 I raised myself, $150 of it was from Jon’s congregation. (Go Metanoia!) I’m very thankful that there are now people in the congregation who know about it and I’m hoping that maybe one of them knowing what it is will save a friend’s life or a daughter’s life or a grand-daughter’s life.

Reflections on Atheism (V)

Posted on by

One sore subject that comes up in the dialogue between Christians and atheists is the idea that atheists have no morals. Let me make this very clear from the beginning:

BEING ATHEIST/AGNOSTIC/FREETHINKING DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU HAVE NO MORALS.

I want to be clear on that.

The difference, I think, is that Christianity has one sense of what is moral and what isn’t and we get really irritated when others don’t conform to it. Purity is a virtue which is why we frown on adultery, homosexuality, pre-marital sex, and pr0n. If I was judging atheists by those I knew in college or who I read online, this would be a bit questionable (i.e. Jen McCreight’s post on the Dan Savage pr0nfest in Seattle and her comments from the AHA gathering in Boston). However, I know that she isn’t representative of all atheists and she and I also would agree to disagree on that. (At least… I think she would.)

I think that there is a set of morals that all of us (believers and non-believers) can agree to:

-no cheating
-no murder
-no stealing
-no adultery
-fair wage for a day’s work
-help others who need it
-Golden Rule: do unto others as they would do to you

Having said that, there exists the question of atheists/agnostics not having a chance against Christians when running for office. I think I’ve addressed this before but I think it is unfair and that the Christian generally has the upper hand because they’re a known quantity (in theory) and they’re expected to uphold a certain moral standard. On the other hand, I really have a problem with those who run for school board elections that make their faith/philosophy into an agenda, be it Christians wanting to put God back in the schools or atheists who want to secularize things. I have no problem with secularization and evolution being taught in science classes — I have a problem with it when it is taken to an extreme.

This is kind of a lukewarm post based on my last ones but the issue of atheists having morals isn’t a hard one: they do — they just may differ from ours. Again, I’d love to have feedback on this.