Is this the love of Christ?

During "Jesus Rifles" discussion
"Spiritually as believers, we should use every option possible to get the gospel out. Christians are in Iraq, they should try to lead them to the Lord, but if they don't get a chance to, and they are told to fight with them, they should send them to Hell for ever to be with Allah and Mohammad. If you want to be Biblical about it, the Jews are suppose to be in their land and most of Iraq and Iran is their land! American soldiers are only doing the same thing God wanted the Jews to do in the O.T. It is God's will being fulfilled by the US soldiers, God has used Gentiles before to fulfill his will."

Mosque near ground zero controversy
"Build your Mosque in your own country, get out of our's."


"Ban ALL Muslim immigration. For those that are here, the 1st time anyone of thier family commits a crime, all of the family should be deported. Those that do not assimalate or use public assistance should also be given a one way ticket to what ever chess pool they came from. Of course that is wishfull thinking, things like the Consitution get in the way.......and they know that. Yea you youngins need to learn Arab"


"I do not speak to muslims unless they want to ask me a about something. I do not want to get involved with animals who would take my life for telling the truth. I say let the stupid be stupid and remain delussional. God makes them ev...en more delussional because they insist on being ignorant. Sure, we should share The Gospel with others, but I have come to find that in these days and the last 20 years since I have been saved, that people generally don't care about going to hell and will even act offended when you tell them how to escape it. My family and I are saved. Those are the only people I need to worry and care about. In fact, there is a creepy jihadi who lives directly below me. I am not going near that demon unless if God sends him to me for the truth and to get saved. Though, I have had thoughts of placing delicious bacon at the foot of his door."



"Can you tell me what the Muslims have done to Humanity, you seem to not to ever mention about this religion of peace. It is thier Religion to practice as they please-but not here in this country. They remind me dope pedlers & pimps in the corners waiting for my child to pass by."

"Israel is strong enough to defend herself. She will be cornered again by the Muslims for the final blow. Israel will have no choice but to Nuke every Muslim country & I rejoice."

Comment on a post about a facebook group calling for beating muslim women drivers
 "it's the law of bestiality, where the Qu'ran is not a real book, but almost like the diary of some crazy bastard who add as he goes,things that he like to do against others, to endure pain, suffering and most dead... I am against this barbaric people and to all the extend of the word, and I support any woman who stand against it, even at the risk of her own life,"


In a facebook thread about muslims allegedly asking to have a muslim only plot in a graveyard. 
(original status update:  "At one of the Graveyards here in Amarillo, the officials in charge were asked by a group of Muslims, that they demanded a section just for Muslims. The officials told the Muzzies NO.")


 A, "shudda told em for christains only*"


B, "the christian graveyard would be decapitated heads and nothing else. We just need to NUKE THE SONSABITCHES."

So much of the above is so completely incoherent and honestly didn't even seem to fit the subject that was being discussed... I have seen so much of this kind of vitriol, and from professing Christians that it makes me ashamed to count myself as one of their brethren. I am angry that they drag the name of my Saviour through the mud with this kind of talk. I am disgusted that they have the gall to proclaim themselves followers of Christ. I pity them when they meet Him. Do they honestly believe that he would condone or approve of the hatred they propagate with that awful sentiment? Can they imagine that the Father looks down with happiness on that? Really?! 

What gets me is the utter hypocrisy! All the time railing about how the Muslims are always saying they want to kill the infidels, and in the same breath cursing the Muslims with their "Christian" mouths (and fingers).

Christian, those are souls -eternal souls- that you are rashly condemning without thought of what you are saying. Do you have any feeling? Any compassion? Did Christ only die for you? 

Christ died for all men. ALL. Not some. Not a few. ALL! When he was on that cross suffering pain and humiliation, he did it for every living soul that ever had, or ever would live upon the earth. All of them. Every last one. Those men who beat him. The men who spat upon him. The men who nailed his hands and feet. He felt no animosity toward those who fulfilled the prophecy, he loved them, he died for them. And he loves those 'evil Muslims' too. "Do good to all men...", get that? ALL men. 

So, from now on I will separate myself from people who talk like that. If you post hatred like that on facebook, or twitter, or wherever, if I hear it come out of your mouth, and you presume to call yourself a Christian, I will not associate with you. I will not. 


And here is my daughter's take on it, Heart Sore.

Play

Last night I was reminded why I keep having babies. Kids are fun! :D

After church, me, hubby, and seven of the kids went to the park across from the church to wait for Kyla to get done with choir practice. We had so much fun.

There is not a more joyous sound in the world than a child's laughter. Or hearing your 3 year old say, "This is amazing!" when push her high on the swing.

It is great to see my husband running a race with his kids. Or him trying to show up his boys by climbing to the top of the swings! Now that was funny! LOL

Kids are fun, and people who don't like kids are just... weird! Having kids is the best of life. I need to remember that more often. :D

Because I recently made some people mad over this...

Military does not equal soldiers.

Soldiers make up our military, but the military is not the soldiers. I dislike the military, but I respect the individual soldier. Those who because of duty (a misplaced one IMO) to their country sign up to, "...support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.", I respect that. I know they mean well.

However, the military as a whole carries out the killing of many innocents and destruction of property. The military follows orders that are wrong and unconstitutional. I cannot respect that. A wise man once said, "The liberties of a people are in danger from a large standing army, not only because the rulers may employ them for the purposes of supporting themselves in any usurpations of power, which they may see proper to exercise, but there is great hazard, that an army will subvert the forms of the government, under whose authority, they are raised, and establish one, according to the pleasure of their leader." Brutus (no not the one from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar).

A standing army as we have here in America is a dangerous thing.

I have too many friends or family who have served or are serving in the military to believe that those in the military are evil. Those who give them orders (and I don't mean the POTUS), however, often are. The designs of those in charge are not righteous. The reasoning they provide for the carnage they order our soldiers to commit is not sound. They lie, because the truth would outrage the citizenry that they must keep in the dark to maintain power.

I appreciate the soldiers, but I do not, will not, support our military or the wars they are currently engaged in.

I hope that clarifies my position and will assuage any damaged feelings.

The Bible Isn't Everything

Some time ago my eldest daughter was told in a discussion that she shouldn't waste her time studying anything except the Bible. What a ridiculous thing to say! Do they really think that? Really?!

Seriously, the Bible has nothing in it about algebra, physics, US history (or much world history), carpentry, electricity, and I could go on and on. Is knowing about those things pointless?

God created the human mind with an incredible capacity to learn and an insatiable curiosity. Did he really give us that so we could only learn Bible verses? Can anyone honestly believe there is no value in learning about the world around us, how it works, its history, its present, and its future?

There is so much to learn and know. And I am very glad that the electrician who works on my house read something besides the Bible. I'm so thankful that the doctor who performed my surgery studied something besides the Bible.

And even if I don't need the knowledge for a career choice, what is wrong with just learning it just because I want to know? What if I just want to know about microbiology? Do you not think it pleases God that I am interested in his creation? What creator of art or technology doesn't like his creation to be admired?

Yes, the Bible is sufficient for matters of faith; but there is so much more to the world. So much to be learned and explored.

Parental Rights

A parent should be able to make decisions about healthcare and treatment for their children. Should I even have to reiterate that? Apparently so.

A friend of mine recently had a baby. This baby, S, was slightly jaundiced. The pediatrician on call ordered the baby to have phototherapy and mom and dad said no. They did not believe, and rightly, that the baby's condition warranted that. There are side effects to phototherapy and it would interrupt breastfeeding. The baby was in no imminent danger. So a social worker speaks to mom in the hospital and tells her that refusing the treatment is neglect.

Thankfully, mom stood her ground and fired back at them with the AAP's recommendation that phototherapy wasn't indicated for S. She was told that as long as they took S to the follow up the next day CPS would not be involved and she was free to leave the hospital with S.

Well, two days after being home, and making the follow up appointment for S, CPS shows up at her door!

I have heard about and seen so many cases like the above where some do-gooder called CPS on parents over nothing. Simply because they parent differently, or they had a bad day. What makes me so angry is that CPS harasses innocent parents and then lets others go when there were so many serious warning signs and kids end up dead.

It is truly frightening to me as a parent to see how much power government organizations have when it comes to my children. CPS can force their way into my house and forcibly remove my children without any evidence other than an anonymous 'tip'. The burden of proof rests on the parent, and not the state as it should. Innocent until proven guilty and all that. That is out the window though.

Why is it that total strangers think that they care more for children than the children's parents do? Why do these busybodies sic the state on anyone who makes parenting decisions that are different from the ones they would make? Why does the state believe that it owns our children? Why do we let the state get away with this?

http://www.parentalrights.org/

"Constitutional" Rights

I am seriously beginning to hate that phrase.


Let us be clear. The Constitution does not grant rights to the people. It was not written for the people, but to restrain the government. We have the rights of free speech, press, association, bearing arms, religion, etc, because we are human, not because we live in America. Jefferson said it perfectly, "...all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights..." The Constitution specifically enumerates the powers of the federal government and they are very limited. It was not intended to confer rights upon the people, only to acknowledge that the people had those rights inherently.


So please, stop claiming your 'constitutional' rights, and just claim your rights.

Why I Birth At Home

or "Ignorant Obstetrician Alert"
Read this article.

Now, tell me how that made you feel? If you are like me, it made you hair pulling mad!

I could rant about nearly every sentence in that article. I won't rant about that much in this blog post, well at least I'll try not to.

"Not fear of childbirth, despite the fact that is is inherently dangerous..."

Childbirth is NOT inherently dangerous. Yes, there are things that can go wrong, but a knowledgeable woman who knows her body and herself or a good care provider will know when a woman needs care. The idea this OB has comes from her education. An education that stresses and highlights the dangers without the knowledge about how birth happens in the absence of 'management'.

"evidently only losers, the weak and the unempowered, fear pain"

No. No one likes pain and, yes, we even fear it. Pain does not have to be part of labor, not always. NCB advocates do not think women are 'weak' for needing pain relief or fearing pain. We just know that the risks often outweigh the benefits. Simple risk/benefit analysis.

" who is going to buy the services of someone who hectors you to avoid pain relief when you are in agonizing pain (a doula)"

Obviously, this OB has no idea what a doula actually does. And it is likely that the 'agonizing pain' is due to AROM or pitocin or being forced to lay in bed instead of moving around as a woman will when in labor if left alone.

"And who is going to let her precious baby be delivered by a high school graduate who knows nothing about science and thinks gems have "energy" and flowers having healing "essences" (a CPM, a certified "professional" midwife)"

I don't know any midwives who believes that. And the derogatory way she uses, "high school graduate" as if a midwife gets no other education is just disgusting. My midwife is a CPM and is excellent and very knowledgeable.

"Who is going to waste hundreds of dollars on goofy ideas "

I've had three home births and not spent a dime on any 'goofy ideas'.

"Craig Thompson, professor of marketing at University of Wisconsin wrote about this tactic in Consumer Risk Perceptions in a Community of Reflexive Doubt the in the September 2005
Journal of Consumer Research... "Advocates of natural childbirth seek to inculcate reflexive doubt by countering two common sense objections to their unorthodox construction of risk: (1) medicalized births would have never gained a cultural foothold if they were so risk laden and (2) the medical profession would not support obstetric practices that place laboring women at risk"

Medicalized birth gained a foothold by powerful and expensive lobbies to outlaw midwifery and promote medical licensure. Ever heard of the damage caused by the routine x-rays of pregnant women? Scopolomine? Thalidomide? Dorsal lithotomy? Routine episiotomy? Constant fetal monitoring? Mr. Thompson is obviously glaringly ignorant of obstetrical history, but then, he is only a marketing professor.

" That's why it is absolutely imperative for natural childbirth advocates to hid the fact that in the 100 years after its advent, modern obstetrics dropped the neonatal mortality rate 90% and the maternal mortality rate 99%."

And even so the US has just about the highest infant and maternal mortality and morbidity rates in the industrialized world! What an accomplishment! What sets us apart from those countries with better birth outcomes? Numbers of midwives.

OBs can't even claim responsibility for much of the decrease in mortality. Antibiotics have had an enormous impact. So have other technological advances that are not attributable to OBs.

"such as forceps deliveries—as unnecessary intrusions whose primary function was enabling physicians to display technical skill."

Forceps deliveries would be much less necessary if OBs did not require women to birth lying on their backs. I will acknowledge that there are time when they could be necessary, but not always necessary as was purported by some OBs.

"The message, integral to natural childbirth advocacy is clear: Obstetricians can't help women because their technology is useless (except in the rarest of circumstances)."

I don't know of any NCB advocate that would say OBs are useless. We all know that things can, and sometimes do, go wrong and we are thankful that there are those that are able to help in those instances.

"You need to buy books and visit websites"

I've bought very few books and while I do visit a good many websites, that is free.

"And for the truly committed, you need to pay a high school graduate who is "trained" in normal birth (kind of like a meteorologist who is trained in forecasting only good weather) to do basically nothing except call 911 and disappear if things go wrong."

The insane hegemony is getting tiresome. This OB has no idea how midwives are trained. If a woman has to go to the hospital the midwife will go with her.

"NCB advocates must convince you to spend tens of dollars on books, hundreds of dollars on classes, and thousands of dollars for the company of women who are incapable of doing a blessed thing if complications occur."

Again, I don't spend much on books, and in any case, no one convinced me to buy them. I wanted them so I bought them. I don't spend anything on classes. And my midwife is very capable in the event of complications.

"They must fill women with misinformation about childbirth and keep those same women ignorant of what science actually shows. "

I love it! Obstetrics, the profession that uses evidence based methods less that any other I am aware of, saying the the NCB community is misinforming women! What a joke!

"NCB advocates must create an alternative universe entirely unmoored from the reality of childbirth dangers, unmoored from scientific evidence,"

Yes, because there is so much evidence for constant fetal monitoring, excessive use of ultrasound, the use of pitocin and epidural and those interventions have been thoroughly researched. Ma'am, you are ignorant about NCB and its advocates.

" or pay thousands of dollars for what are essentially lay companions with no particular knowledge of childbirth"

Your pedantic hegemony is nauseating. Really.

"When it comes to natural childbirth, follow the money. Without fear, NCB advocates won't make money."

Yes, follow the money. Know what you'll find? That birth in hospitals with OBs in attendance is the reason that the US spends more that any other country in the world and we still have some of the worst outcomes.

This article made me so angry and just plain sick that OBs like that can practice and influence women.

Pete Eyre arrested for wearing a hat.

Pete Eyre arrested for wearing a hat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynoUudh20A8

First reaction was to blame the one wearing the hat. Then I thought about it. Does failing to adhere to some custom warrant the treatment the man received? Without question the man was trying to cause trouble. Or was he? Why should there have been an issue? Is it really that important? It is not the law, it is just etiquette. Older people will say it is just good manners, and maybe it is, but not having good manners doesn't justify the wrongs and the bullying that is going on in government.

The fact that the police believed violence was an acceptable response to a breach of etiquette is disturbing to say the least. It is sad that our first response is always to side with the 'authorities', at least it is mine. Why should one cooperate with authorities that are violent without cause? Why should one give up rights and enable our government to get its power fix? Our government is intoxicated with power and uses things like this to assert its authority and subjugate the population.

So I think that we need more people like this who are willing to go through this to prove a point. We need to push back or we are going to be trampled.

Here are a couple more links about the same kind of thing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHCkAk0WrPQ&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GskOXEX2wk&feature=player_embedded

Birth

I know I've posted about this before, but I have more to say. ;)  

It saddens me how little confidence women have in their bodies, that are made to give birth, and themselves to birth a child. It is especially disturbing how Christian women who rail against 'science' when it attacks creation blindly follow the dictates of the 'scientist' obstetrician.                                        

A woman's body has an amazing capacity to carry and grow and birth and then sustain that new life. God made her that way. Sure, sometimes things don't go perfectly; but those times are much more rare than the doctors would have a pregnant woman believe. Birth is not 'an accident waiting to happen' it is a normal biological function and a woman's body knows how to do it.   

 

 

I have heard so many women say how they wouldn't even try to birth without drugs, usually the epidural. They would not say that if they truly understood the mechanism of birth. All that intense sensation has a purpose. The hormones and chemicals released by a mother in labor signal the baby to release sympathetic hormones and chemicals that get baby ready to breathe and eat and survive. Those things don't happen if a woman is induced or drugged.                                                                                  

I don't want to sound like a self-righteous birth snob, but I know that's how this is going to sound. Oh well.

I have birthed 8 babies. Yes 8. Two inductions, two posterior (one of those an induction), three homebirths, five with no drugs at all. With my induced posterior I didn't have any pain meds. That was a monster of a labor! I am not a masochist. I am really quite a wimp. I don't have easy labor, as someone once suggested. And no, the babies don't just fall out after having so many. I have labors that last days, weeks even. And even my transition phase is a bit of a marathon.

I know from all of that experience is that a woman's body needs time and rest and to be left alone to birth. Labor, contrary to what the books will tell you, can start and then stop and then pick up again right where it left off. That 'stop' is a necessary rest that mama needs to get the hard work of labor done.

The most striking example of that from my personal experience was with babe #3. I woke to contractions at about 1 am. They slowly got stronger and closer. I went and ate breakfast and lunch, did some walking. Then about 12 pm the contractions slowed down to about every 30 to 45 minutes and during that time I got some much needed sleep. When I got up at about 3:30pm the contractions picked up again at about every 4 min. It was still 6 hours before that baby made her appearance. If I had been in the hospital and the contractions had slowed that way they would have wanted to give me pitocin. My body would have been shoved into overdrive and I would have been exhausted and probably sectioned for 'failure to progress'. So praise God I stayed home as long as I did.

Women, we must change the way birth is viewed. We must stop telling 'horror' stories. We must objectively consider what happened to us in labor and birth and be honest with ourselves and others. So, stop justifying the interventions that were unnecessary. If the OB induced you with no clear medical reason (and no, a 'big' baby doesn't count as a good reason, nor is being 40 weeks or even having 'low fluid') it was wrong. If the OB broke your water without a good reason, that was also wrong. If you were sectioned for 'failure to progress' and were stuck in a bed with an epidural that was most likely unnecessary. If you were sectioned because of a breech most likely that was wrong too. If you were sectioned after a previous c-section and no other reason it was unnecessary. If you were forbidden to eat or drink they were torturing you. Okay, so that last one is slightly hyperbolic, but you get the idea.

THINK ladies! PLEASE! For the sake of yourselves, your babies, your friends, your sisters, and your daughters. Let us stop the fear-mongering in birth.