What is your problem America?

The HIV/AIDs epidemic is growing. In 1991, close to 7 million people worldwide were infected with the disease. In 2009, that number has more than QUADRUPLED to over 33 MILLION people (Statistics obtained HERE). In 2009 alone, over 16 million children were orphaned because of AIDS, and of those 33 million people living with HIV/AIDS in 2009, 2.5 million of them were children.

In 2006 in the U.S alone, 750,000 women under the age of 20 became pregnant (Statistic obtained here:USTPtrends). Of those women, roughly 20 in every 1,000 decided to have an abortion. In the article linked above, this quote can be found:

“Recent research concluded that almost all of the decline in the pregnancy rate between 1995 and 2002 among 18–19-year-olds was attributable to increased contraceptive use. Among women aged 15–17, about one-quarter of the decline during the same period was attributable to reduced sexual activity and three-quarters to increased contraceptive use.”

In 2009, almost 1.6 million people contracted either Syphilis, Chlamydia, or Gonorrhea in the United States alone (statistics found HERE).

And yet, YOUR elected representatives want to cut federal funding to the one program that is actually trying to do something about those numbers, all because on top of everything else that they do, they also happen to offer low cost abortions to women who make the CHOICE to have one.

What many people fail to realize is this: Abortion services is just one aspect of Planned Parenthood. They also offer STD testing, HIV/AIDS screening, pap smears, birth control, and actual education when it comes to your sexual options, whatever they may be. And all of that will be severely cut or not offered at all if the U.S Senate decides to pass the legislation that has already been passed in the House of Representatives.

Now I know some of you are screaming hallelujah amen. But then I have to ask you, do you have no sympathy? Why do you judge someone without even knowing them? Where in your bible does it say you have the right to limit access to health care, just because you don’t happen to like what they are doing? I know MY bible says this:

“Judge not, that you be not judged.” Matthew 7:1 ESV

YOU  have no right to tell me what to do or what not to do, and trying to take away my medical options because you don’t like what I’m doing IS judging.

But that is besides the point. The point I AM trying to make is this:

1. Abstinence only education does not work. Those statistics listed above are proof positive of that fact. In the PDF linked above about U.S pregnancies, you will find some interesting statistics about who is getting pregnant and where. I would encourage you to read through it.

2. If a woman is desperate enough, she WILL resort to illegal and dangerous methods to get an abortion if she feels it is necessary. Don’t believe me?

That is what happens when a woman lives in a country where abortion isn’t available. The mothers more often than not are worse off than the baby, assuming they even survive. Most die because the COAT HANGER the “doctor” used punctured her uterus and caused her to bleed out, not to mention the numerous infections she could get from dirty equipment. Is that what you REALLY want? Because that is the alternative for millions of women worldwide where SAFE and LEGAL abortions are not available. If your so concerned with the sanctity of human life, how do you justify that? How can your conscience be clean, knowing that if a woman doesn’t have access to a legal abortion, she will resort to an ILLEGAL and DANGEROUS abortion that will more than likely kill her?

3. No they are not voting to make abortions illegal. The supreme court has made sure that can’t happen with Roe V. Wade, but that could change very easily. However, the United States House of Representatives has already voted to cut federal funding to Planned Parenthood, not because they are concerned about the expenditure, but because they don’t want to fund abortions. But the reality of this is twofold:  First of all, Planned Parenthood offers dozens of other services funded by that money besides abortion. Life saving, NECESSARY services that many women AND men need in order to stay safe. If that funding is reduced or cut, many people will not be able to get those things because they simply won’t be offered or will be severely reduced. Second of all, I’d much rather have a woman go to a Planned Parenthood clinic to get an abortion than go to Mexico where some “doctor” (and I use that term lightly) will use a coat hanger to hack her apart and remove the baby from her through any means possible.

Think about it in terms of cost as well. They say that the cost is the biggest reason they are doing this, but we all know that is a bunch of horse shit, but just go with me for a second. If it were truly about cost, they would realize that is only going to work in the short term, if that. In the long term, we are going to have more families dependent on welfare, food stamps, subsidized housing, and government health care. Furthermore, we are going to be burdened with a working class that has a high incidence of high school dropouts because they dropped out of school to support their family. Oh and those health care costs? Might as well mention that those are going to go up not only because families can’t afford health insurance, but women who went and got abortions (assuming they survive) from illegal sources will need medical care that they probably can’t pay for, so that will fall to the tax payer as well.

I should state this: I don’t like abortion. I would never have one, so long as I wasn’t raped or the baby wasn’t going to kill me. But I’ve seen the realities first hand of what women will resort to if they can’t get a safe, legal, and affordable abortion. It isn’t pretty to say the least, and sticking my head in the sand and screaming “abortion is murder!” isn’t going to solve the problem. Its time for the pro-life movement to get this through their thick skulls: IT ISN’T WORKING, so you need to move on and find other alternatives, or take your self-righteous indignation elsewhere. All you are doing is hurting the very people you are trying to protect, and I for one am sick of dealing with it.

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit: What the hell do I believe?

Religion has never been very popular with me. Some say I ask too many questions. Others say I don’t ask enough. Still others say I don’t have the proper respect for religion. Long story short, in my adult life I’ve had a very hard time finding the religion that suits my beliefs best. And I’m still not sure I’ve found the answer, but a comment on an older post of mine has got me thinking, again, about finding a church I can stick with. My last foray into the world of organized religion left me feeling like I had no place to go as far as a church home was concerned. I felt like I couldn’t be honest with the people at that particular church without being told I was going to hell for my beliefs. That doesn’t sit well with me, so its been a few months since I stepped foot in a church.

But back to the comment that inspired me to continue my search for a church I could live with. One of the many options the commenter presented to me was the United Church of Christ, and after much research, I’ve decided to check it out next Sunday. I’ll let you know how that goes, but today I’d like to examine what it is I believe. I think a lot of my problem is I’m not sure what it is I believe, and that has led to a lot of confusion on my part. So here goes nothing:

1. God: He’s real, and he cares about us. He takes an active interest in our lives and wants to see us succeed in this life. He also wants us to worship him in everything that we do, so our goal should be to live a good life that is pleasing to God. What that “good life” entails, as far as I am concerned, is between God and the individual. For me, its taking care of the people I love and speaking out on the injustices I see perpetrated by people today. It’s different for each and every one of us though, so please don’t think that just because I live my life one way that you have to live your life that way as well. What works for one person doesn’t work for a different person.

2. Jesus: I’m good with the idea of Jesus. What the Christian bible writes about his physical existence is where I have a problem, but that’s more of a problem with the whole bible than just this one aspect of it. I fully believe that he was/is real, I just think the writers of the bible may have gotten the time-table wrong. I fully believe in living the way that He taught His followers to live and that there is a real possibility that He did the things the bible claims He did. Does that make sense? I sure hope so. And I definitely believe that He is part of the Holy Trinity and was sent to earth to save God’s people. I haven’t decided if I believe that it happened the way the bible says it happened, but I definitely believe that He was sent here to be a Savior for God’s people.

3. Holy Spirit: This one is actually a little easier for me to believe. I believe that the Holy Spirit is real and that He helps us live a life pleasing to God. Why do I believe this? I believe that God cares for us and is concerned about what happens in our lives, but he doesn’t take an active role in the day-to-day happenings of our lives. Jesus was physically there for His followers and disciples, but He has ascended into heaven and is no longer physically here on earth to guide us the way He did when He was here on earth. So the Holy Spirit was sent to be an active participant in our lives, to help us live lives pleasing to God.

4. The bible: This is where I have a problem. While I believe it is useful to teach people how they should live, I can say with almost absolute certainty that it is not historically accurate, as has been proven again and again through scientific discovery. The bible claims that the earth is only a few thousand years old. Scientists have discovered dinosaur bones that are millions, if not billions or even trillions of years old. What I believe happened is simple. The earth land masses used to be one giant mass, called Pangaea:

but they eventually separated, forming the continents we know of today. Once that separation occurred, different cultures and religions were formed to accommodate the people of those continents. Without the seamless communication we enjoy now, these religions flourished in the cultures they were formed in, and the people of those religions firmly believed that their religion was the only way to God or whatever it was that they believed in. Once long ocean journeys were possible, the various religious movements decided to take their religion to other parts of the world, thus causing conflict with other cultures and religions. As far as the bible is concerned, I believe that it is good for moral teaching on how to live, but should not be considered historically accurate because of its obvious historical mistakes.

5. Christianity and religion in general: As you’ve heard me say before, and as I’ll probably say a million more times, people fuck shit up, and religion is no different. I believe very firmly that God wants us to be like Christ. He was sent to this earth to show people how to live their lives, and we should trust God enough to know that He only wants what is best for us. Anything above and beyond what is printed in the New Testament as spoken by Jesus should be viewed with a grain of salt in my opinion. And organized religion, as a whole, strikes me as incredibly rule based and increasingly untrustworthy, given their track record for excluding people who don’t believe exactly as they do or live lives contrary to “church teachings” (notice I said church teachings, not necessarily what the bible teaches). While having some form of organized religion in our lives (at least to me) is important, I think people need to realize that the people running these religions are just as human as you are and they make mistakes.

So that is what I believe. Take it or leave it, but I’m done writing for now.