15 Year Old Girl Disowned for Having a Brain Tumor Removed
“Christian Scientists” are (you saw this coming) bat shit crazy. To truly believe that modern medicine and conventional forms of health care hold no weight compared to heavy duty praying is ludicrous, but that is how Christian Scientists live their lives. And that is what they breed their children to believe–even if their children have a brain tumor and are given six months to live. The answer? Fuck that surgery that could help that child live a full life, you better get in your room and pray really hard for god to take that tumor away.
That is exactly what has happened in the-girl-known-as-Jessica’s case. (Not her real name, by the way.)
Jessica’s was born and raised by a family of devout, fundamentalist Christian Scientists–an oxymoron in itself–and when she was playing at her friend’s house, she fell down with a seizure–most likely something that had also happened at her own, in front of her family. Of course her friend’s family took her to the hospital, where it was discovered that Jessica had an operable brain tumor. Without the operation, Jessica was given a prognosis of about six months to live, but the good news was that they could get her in surgery within the week.
Yay, right!?
No, not quite. Jessica’s family went to visit her in the hospital once they found out about what had happened and before even asking her if she was okay or trying to comfort the child, they began chastising her for going to a hospital to begin with. In fact, they did not ask what had happened, nor did they ask if she was okay because her family believed that faith and prayer are all that is needed to cure ailments–including brain tumors. Her family expressly forbade her from getting the surgery that would save her life and tried to get her to leave the hospital and go to their pastor for extensive prayer. Although her family forbade her to go through with the surgery, she did have the surgery and it was a great success; but even though Jessica had taken her life into her own hands and had made the right decision to have her brain tumor removed, she lost her family because of their inability to see reality through that dark cloud of religious propaganda.
Obviously the only logical explanation here is that Jessica just didn’t believe in god hard enough and maybe if she had, she wouldn’t have gotten a brain tumor. but regardless of her illness, there is never an excuse to have a life-saving procedure done. If god wants you to get better then you just will, miraculously; you’ll wake up one morning and poof, you’ll be all better and will suddenly possess the ability to one-handed cartwheels and juggle while riding a unicycle down the highway. How’s that for god’s mysterious plan for you?
Jessica has been completely disowned by her family merely because she wanted to live and made the logical decision to seek medical care in order to stay alive. Law enforcement officials should be taking a deep look into this case and determine whether or not Jessica was having seizures while in the care of her parents and if she was, they should be arrested and charged with attempted murder. If parents were fully aware that their child was having symptoms that turned out to be caused by something life-threatening, they would undoubtedly be facing charges, but because this family is hiding behind their religious beliefs, people are not immediately calling them out on the consequences that they should have to face for putting their child in great danger.
When Not Even Ann Coulter is with You, It’s Time to Give it Up
I have been doing more blog reading lately, rather than blog writing and for some reason, I find myself continuously drawn into conservative blogs. It’s like how you just have to watch a horrific car accident on the side of the street. You simply cannot help yourself. But while there are political topics that conservative bloggers could very well be blogging about, they are either not watching the news or not using their computers to stay up to date with politics because a great deal of them are still claiming that Obama isn’t an American citizen.
“Birthers” are a small, but unrelenting and vocal crowd of right-wing activists that truly believe that Obama was not born in the United States and therefore cannot be our president. Even though the question of Obama’s citizenship has repeatedly been put to rest by Hawaii state officials, where Obama’s birth certificate and all other credible evidence show that he was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961.
The whole birthers “movement,” if you even want to call it that, comes down to the right still being pissed off that John McCain didn’t win the presidency. Couple the fact that we have a Democratic president with the fact that the right-wing media has non-stop spouted fear-mongering hate speech and racism from the onset of the 2008 presidential election and it has yet to stop.
Fact and reason are undoubtedly lost on “birthers” and instead of slowly burrowing themselves back into a hole in the ground and admitting that they had made a huge deal out of something so absurd, they are continuing their “fight.” But it has come to the point where right-wing trainwrecks we make fun of and wonder how the hell it is that they are still looked at as being a prominent political commentator are telling the birthers that it’s time to move on.
Prime example: Ann Coulter.
Watch the All New Searching for Angela Shelton for FREE!
This is really exciting! The official version of Searching for Angela Shelton, complete with never-before-seen footage, is available to watch completely free of charge! This is so great because the documentary tells the story of not only a part of Angela Shelton’s life, but also the lives of countless women around the world. For those who aren’t already familiar with Searching for Angela Shelton, it is a multiple award-winning documentary that follows filmmaker Angela Shelton around the country as she surveys other Angela Sheltons. While her journey was simply to take a survey of women in America and to see how we’re all doing as a gender and what we’re doing with our lives and in the lives of others, she found that 24 out of the 40 Angela Sheltons that she spoke to are survivors of rape, childhood sexual abuse and/or domestic violence.
Searching for Angela Shelton is uplifting above all else. Angela Shelton single-handedly gave me the courage and the motivation that I needed to truly make my healing from my own childhood sexual assault and date rape possible. It is a movie that is changing lives and now everyone can watch it for free! Click on the image below to be directed to the movie on SnagFilms or click here.
Help Cara Stay Awake for 24 Hours for SAFER
Today is a Blogathon, a day where bloggers from across the wide, wide spectrum of the blogosphere blog every 30 minutes for 24 hours straight (9AM-9AM EST) in order to raise money for an organization or charity of their choice.
Cara over at The Curvature is blogging for SAFER (Students Active for Ending Rape) and because I obviously feel very passionately about ending rape everywhere, I really wanted to single Cara out for the amazing work she will be putting in for the next 24 hours straight in order to raise money for SAFER. They are in dire need of donations and every little bit helps, so if you have $5, $10, $20, $300 or whatever you have, please consider checking out Cara’s blogathon subblog and making a pledge!
Also be sure to check out SAFER’s website and blog if you haven’t already.
Cara will be dedicating 12 hours to discussing sexual violence in all of its forms, so there will definitely be a need for some conversation! She will then wind down her last 12 hours with fun posts on The Beatles. Help her stay awake for the full 24 hours and go post comments and engage in conversations!
Saturday, July 25, 2009Sex Education is Being Reformed! New Evidence-Based Sex Education Amendment Passes in House Committee
Earlier this week the US House Energy and Commerce Committee approved legislation in a 33-23 vote to support comprehensive sex education. The Healthy Teen Initiative amendment has been added to the proposed health care reform bill, known as the Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. The Healthy Teen Initiative allocates $50 million dollars in state grant funding for evidence-based sex education programs and will work to reduce teen pregnancy, reduce the spread of sexually transmitted infections, and comprehensively address a range of teen sexuality issues. It will also work to build life-long skills to promote good sexual and reproductive health throughout a person’s life.
Personally, I find it a little sad completely and utterly pathetic that I am sitting here writing a post about how awesome it is that we’re finally going to have evidence-based sex education programs taught in schools and organizations. Seriously people–What the fuck are we doing where we need the US House Energy and Commerce Committee to approve legislation to support comprehensive sex education? This is common sense. There is no such thing as telling a teen not to have sex and then thinking that they are actually going to listen to you. When it comes to sex education, you need to have the mindset that whoever you are educating is going to go out and have sex because whether you like it or not. Whether you believe they should or not, they are going to make that decision on their own and there isn’t a damn thing you can do about it but feel confident that you have given them all of the information they need to effectively protect themselves against an unwanted pregnancy as well as against sexually transmitted infections. But that isn’t how you wanted your kid to turn out? Too bad, since they are equipped with that pesky free will thing.
But some still aren’t complacent with this common sense approach to sex education and are still fighting to give abstinence-only sex education a voice in the system. Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE) proposed that the failed amendment that funded abstinence-only sex education programs be extended to 2012 since their funding expires this year. Thankfully this proposal failed by 3 votes, but the scary thing here is that it could have very well passed and we could have still been funding an amendment that lies to teens if just three people had changed their votes. That is not enough support for comprehensive, fact and evidence-based sex education. Sex education is not an issue where “both sides” can get along. Abstinence-only sex education robs people of way too much for it to have any place at all in the curriculum taught to teens. They need facts, not a sermon that is better reserved for church.
Sex-Positivity
I'm passionate about sex-positivity and believe every sexual being should have the freedom to explore their sexuality safely and without condemnation. I even lost my ad network after my refusal to censor myself after reviewing feminist porn.So if you're in the market for sex toys, porn, books, etc. take a look at the retailers below, all of which are feminist-friendly.
Out Campaign
The OUT Campaign allows individuals to let others know they are not alone. It can also be a nice way of opening a conversation and help to demolish the negative stereotypes of atheists. Let the world know that we are not about to go away and that we are not going to allow those that would condemn us to push us into the shadows.
