{"id":7702,"date":"2012-05-19T13:29:05","date_gmt":"2012-05-19T17:29:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=7702"},"modified":"2012-05-19T13:29:05","modified_gmt":"2012-05-19T17:29:05","slug":"smart-people-saying-smart-things-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2012\/05\/19\/smart-people-saying-smart-things-38\/","title":{"rendered":"Smart people saying smart things"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Maehem Sez: \u201cI had an abortion<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to tell you whether it was a wanted or an unwanted pregnancy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to tell you how far along the pregnancy was.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to tell you whether there was a genetic abnormality, or whether my life was endangered by the pregnancy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not going to tell you any of those things because I think answering those questions, creating the situation from which my experience unfolds offers someone, everyone, anyone, the chance to say, \u201cShe deserved to access abortion,\u201d or \u201cHow dare she get pregnant and have an abortion,\u201d or find some pity in their heart for whatever piece of my situation offers them the opportunity to justify their judgment, or their sense of false safety.<\/p>\n

\u2026 None of the, \u201cHow did it happen?\u201d matters. It\u2019s irrelevant.<\/p>\n

What matters is that I was able to access abortion when I needed to. When I wanted to. When I was pregnant and had the need to no longer be pregnant. When I was desperate to not be pregnant.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Mary Valle: \u201cThis Far and No Further<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now the USCCB is attacking the Girl Scouts. I felt this coming, somehow. Groups of women gathering, independently, just stick in their craw the way a lot of other things \u2014 and I think you know what other things I\u2019m talking about \u2014 don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

The USCCB is concerned that a troop on Colorado accepted a 7-year-old transgendered girl. That\u2019s Troop Business, Bishops. If the girls in the troop think that\u2019s fine, it\u2019s dandy. Girl Scouts are free to make their own decisions. Which of course, might be the problem.<\/p>\n

\u2026 I\u2019m beginning to suspect that the mere notion of girls meeting, gaining skills and becoming competent human beings is a threat. Are Catholic girls no longer being encouraged to follow their own dreams? To speak their minds? To lead others? (Not to mention doing community service, camping and crafts!)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Richard Rohr: \u201cVatican Versus American Nuns<\/a>\u201c<\/strong><\/p>\n

Despite the very clear reforms of the II Vatican Council in the 1960\u2032s, the Roman patriarchy, a closed system that allows no prophetic critique, and their branch appointed officers (bishops), are step by step rolling back both the spirit and the letter of the Vatican II reforms\u2013while pretending and saying they are not. (Remember, if you can reject this Council, then you have the basis for rejecting the other 20 Councils of the Church too! The Pope and bishops had better be very careful!)<\/p>\n

\u2026 No group accepted the reforms and tried to renew itself following the Council like the American Sisters. Yes, they made their mistakes, and also enjoyed certain matriarchal benefits over the laity. Nevertheless, this cruel, humiliating, and intimidating attempt by the Roman Curia (\u201cthe place that cares for\u201d) to punish and control the American sisters is being seen for what it is, and what it is not: It IS male patriarchal control, hurt feelings because they are not that much in control any more; and it is certainly NOT anything like Jesus or the Gospel. Patriarchal systems normally engineer their own demise by such gross misuse of power.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maehem Sez: \u201cI had an abortion\u201c I\u2019m not going to tell you whether it was a wanted or an unwanted pregnancy. I\u2019m not going to tell you how far along the pregnancy was. I\u2019m not going to tell you whether there was a genetic abnormality, or whether my life was endangered by the pregnancy. I\u2019m […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37],"class_list":["post-7702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-smart"],"yoast_head":"\nSmart people saying smart things<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Maehem Sez: "I had an abortion" I\u2019m not going to tell you whether it was a wanted or an unwanted pregnancy. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Smart people saying smart things","description":"Maehem Sez: \"I had an abortion\" I\u2019m not going to tell you whether it was a wanted or an unwanted pregnancy. 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A former managing editor of Prism magazine, Fred worked in the parachurch nonprofit world for a decade and then for a decade in the newspaper biz. He began blogging in 2002. In 2003 he began writing a review of the best-selling Left Behind series. Eight years later he still hasn\u2019t finished reviewing the second book of that series and the experience has left him a broken shell of a man. Fred knows the difference between the possessive \u201cits\u201d and the contraction \u201cit\u2019s,\u201d and he is acutely bothered when others mistakenly confuse the two, yet he himself just kind of instinctively types the apostrophe whether or not it belongs there. Some feel this is his greatest hypocrisy, but those who know him better know better. He\u2019s guilty of much greater hypocrisies. Jesus loves Fred far more than Fred loves Jesus, but he at least has the decency to recognize the unfairness of that lopsided relationship and he has long wished that he were better at maybe kind of sort of doing something more to correct that some day. A Baptist, an amateur, a Gen-Xer, a Gemini and a Mets fan, Fred lives in Southeastern Pennsylvania with his wife and two teenage daughters. You can reach him via email at slacktivist at hotmail dot com.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/author\/fredclark1\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}