Reasons why I'm not ashamed to call myself a Christian and be Pro-choice

This is a response to a facebook wall debate that started as a call to political activism in support of federal funding for Planned Parenthood and ended as a mudslinging debate about abortion and atheism. Upon further inspection, I'm happy to see that for the most part, people responded with well thought-out opinions, but there was some uncalled-for blatant disrespect for any opinion that doesn't agree with one's own. Abortion is an extremely controversial issue and I'm not trying to convince anyone either way, I am simply explaining my own beliefs.

In a perfect world, there would be no need for abortion. Everyone would practice safe sex (thanks to free access to a variety of forms of birth control which would work 100% of the time)in stable relationships capable of withstanding a crisis pregnancy. It goes without saying that the world we live in is far from perfect. The 'you made your bed, now lie in it' attitude that is present in anti-abortion arguments such as 'you shouldn't have had sex if you weren't prepared for the chance you could get pregnant' is unfair in my opinion. It only takes takes one time to get pregnant. One time does not make a woman some floozy who goes around having tons of casual sex and using abortion as her own only form of birth control. (Before you point me towards an example of women who behave like this, I'm sure you can find some. Unfortunately it is a sad part of human nature that people are selfish and lazy. You can neither change nor control everyone, and it's no reason to get rid of an organization that is otherwise useful to millions of other people in need.) No two people's situations are the same so even if one woman deals with an unplanned pregnancy one way, it doesn't mean her choice is what is best for the next woman. Again, in my opinion it is unfair to assume such things and then tell someone else what to do.

Now to bring religion into the mix. Clearly murder and adultery are sins. Now we're left with the debate of whether or not abortion constitutes murder. For the sake of simplicity, let's say it does. (Though I don't think it should legally be defined as murder, but that's a whole different debate.) (Jeremiah 1:5 "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you...) So there we go. It's sin. Big surprise there. But we can't stop there. Divorce, lying, using the Lord's name in vain, having an impure thought about another person, all of these things are also sins. In case you haven't figured in out, we all sin. Everyday. And sin is sin. It has no magnitude. If you break one commandment, you are just as guilty as breaking them all. (James 2:10) This is what makes the story of Jesus so awesome. In the eyes of God, we're all sinners. No one is any more or less of a sinner than the next person. I am not capable of condemning someone to hell, nor am I in any position to judge. And neither are you. I don't believe a woman should have to be punished for the rest of her life for one mistake. Especially because this can have ill effects on the children and our society.

Abortion is not going to go away. If we drive it underground, it gets extremely dangerous for the women involved. There is no universal 'right decision'. This doesn't mean I think every unplanned pregnancy should end in abortion. I certainly do not think that and neither do the people at Planned Parenthood. I just think we are in no place to judge other people and do not have the right to take away resources they may need to live a fulfilling life.

As a Christian I don't consider it my responsibility to convince everyone I meet to think the same why as I do. You can point out bible verses to me about how we are supposed to stop people from sinning, and to that I call shenanigans. That's impossible. I strive to love and serve others. This means I will not judge you and tell you to act a certain 'right' way. I will be there for you if you need any thing. My only hope is that you do the same to me.

multi-media news report

These last few weeks have been quite tumultuous. I'm going to attempt to sum them up with video.

Me at my job:
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Most of my conversations:

So then I started thinking:

And finally:

So if you're having troubling understanding the cryptic message, I'm coming home at Christmas time, and staying for the foreseeable future.

I accept nothing less than this sort of reception:

Why I dropped off of the face of the planet (or at least the world wide web), and why I'm back.

It's been 9 months. No, I haven't been gestating a baby. But I have been really really busy. So much so that my happiness unfortunately suffered a bit. And then I don't particularly feel like writing or at least anything that can be posted for all to see. By the time it was all sorted out and I had found a new place to live, I had already fallen out of the habit. (And I was still really really busy). Plus, I'll be honest, I don't want to look more exciting on the internet than I am in real life. Sp I've taken the following steps to insure that this year will be better than the last.

1) Quit my 2nd job of teaching adults in the evening.
I only had one class anyway, but I still had to go the whole way to Barrandov at least once a month to turn in my paperwork so I could collect my 1500 cK or so. It just wasn't worth it. (Barrandov is a part of Prague that's really far away.)

2) Got rid of my private lessons.
Two more free nights!

3) Stopped taking Czech lessons.
This may not be the greatest for my Czech skills. But it saves a boat load of time and money.

4) Moved into a new apartment.
Well, I did this twice. But the most recently I found a new place that is cheaper, closer to most of my schools, and more visitor-friendly than the place in which I lived from Feb-June.

I don't have any special reason for returning to the blogosphere except that I have a bunch of really cool things I want to write about.

And since I'm soooo cool in person, there's no danger of me looking more exciting online.

der Besuch meiner Eltern

My parents' visit has come and gone. It was an interesting experience. Homesickness seems to hit me hard every 3 to 4 months (whether I admit it to myself or not). Seeing as it had been 5 months since I had been to states and 3 months since I had seen anyone I know from there, I was very ready to see my parents. So that aspect was very nice. But it was a very interesting time for me for several reasons:

1. I live a pretty solitary existence here and like to not stand out as American, or really any foreigner for that matter. That's really impossible to do with my mom (no offense Mom).

2. This is the first time I was ever out of the country with my parents. I have been to Germany 3 times in the past 7 years so am pretty used to things looking European. The last time my parents were in Europe was like 30 years ago. I didn't think of how much more of a culture shock it would be for them. (not that anything 'shocking' happened)

3. I was sort of hosting them, but at the same time they wanted to find their own way around and do their own thing and let me work and do what I needed to do. So this was also the first vacation I've ever been on with my parents where I was in the lead.

I didn't consider any of these things ahead of time, which lead to my getting kind of annoyed, and not finding some things as funny or entertaining, and my feeling a bit exhausted. In hindsight, I felt bad for the low tolerance I had and how unprepared I was at times. I really wanted to plan a good visit and some of the stuff I didn't have time for or I didn't research enough ahead of time. Thinking back now I wish I had been more laid back. My parents sure were, and they enjoyed themselves tremendously. I didn't realize how much of a perfectionist I am. I mean, I was definitely one in high school. But in college I had so much on my plate that I was just happy to get things done. And now I don't care too much about PBDE's and intern work is pretty tedious, so I just kind of do my thing, I'll admit, sometimes half-heartedly. As I told my parents, I'm learning a lot about myself this year Granted some things are a bit superficial like I could eat pizza for just about every meal, and I could never be a vegan because I like cheese too much, other things are deeper, like when I really care about something I put a lot of time and energy into it and am a total perfectionist (i.e. my parents visit, from the past: the Marching 97, and from very recently: helping plan Mel's Bachelorette Party) and I'm way more of a family person than I ever realized before. I miss being with my parents more than anything even when I get annoyed at my mom after like two days for asking lots of questions (again, no offense).

This was deeper than I expected. I hope you brought your floaties.

Aschermittwoch

This year for lent I'm giving up the snooze button. My personal best(?) is 4 hours. Granted sometimes I'm overzealous about what time I think I'm going to get up so I can get stuff done in the mornings. Regardless, I'm hoping giving up the snooze button with force me to think about what time I need to be at work the next day, becaues now I use the method, 'eh, I'll get there when I get up.' And that doesn't really result in my getting to work before 10am ever. Granted my colleagues don't care and my work day is rather flexible, but getting there eariler would allow me to leave earlier meaning I can also stop being late for things like Blasorchester practice.

Along with giving up the snooze button, I'm going to try to not be late to anything. Even if I get up on the first buzz, I sometimes still sit around (usually on the computer) and end up leaving the house significantly later than I had originally planned. And I have a problem underestimating the time it will take me to get places.

Of course, I'm off to a great start considering I hit snooze twice this morning. But I didn't think of until the ride to work this morning. So now the big test will be whether or not I'm late to practice tonight.