Rabble

Anonymous asked: Ok, so I have a friend that wants to be a doctor but she hates anything having to do with medication. Like, she absolutely refuses to take even Tylenol herself- which fine, yeah, it's your body so whatever- but she gets on everyone else's case when they take something, whether it's for allergies or the flu. So.. should she be a doctor?

LOL.

You tell me how that works out for her.

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: Thank you very much for existing :)

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: I'm an atheist who was raised Catholic too. You said "Nowhere in the Bible does it say that only part of it should be taken seriously." But I'm pretty sure the point of being a Christian is you get to ignore the fucked up parts 'cause Jesus showed up & said "Ok, hold up, I'ma die for you. So go ahead and eat shellfish and stop stoning people." And the really frustrating part is these 'Christians' go around vomiting Leviticus at people despite their own religion being based on its irrelevance.

Jesus said that he supported everything in the old covenant (Matthew 5:17) and held the Old Testament up to be just as sacred and the complete word of God (John 10:35).

There are fucked up parts in the New Testament, too. Like when Jesus used people not killing their disobedient children as justification for not washing his hands when he met with the Pharisees (Matthew 15:3). Or when Jesus condemned entire towns to Hell for eternity for not liking his preaching and stated that their sin of not liking his preaching was worse than the sin that Sodom committed (Matthew 11:20) (this statement of his also shows that Jesus recognized homosexuality as a sin…Leviticus isn’t the only homophobic part of the Bible). Or when Jesus supports the beating and murder of slaves in Luke 12.

Jesus allegedly died for the sins of the world but he was not this giant pacifist who loved everyone and dying on the cross didn’t suddenly absolve him of the things he said in his teachings. Christians are supposed to follow Jesus’s teachings and if they do that and actually read the Bible, they’ll see that Jesus’s teachings also include everything from the Old Testament. It’s impossible to follow both, though, because of all of the contradictions between the Old and New Testaments.

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: You've said you're an atheist and it seems that you don't respect people who believe in God very much. I just want to let you know that not all of us are bad people. I don't want you to think most Christians are like the people from Westboro Baptist Church because we really aren't.

I’m not really sure what you expected me to say to this.

I don’t base the amount of respect I give to people on their religion. I base it on whether or not they are bigots, if they are kind and generous on every day of the week and not just Sunday, if they donate their time to people in need because they want to and not because they think they’ll get some kind of eternal reward. A person’s belief in God has nothing to do with whether or not they are a good person.

Someone simply being a Christian doesn’t earn or deserve my respect. Especially when they are a hateful person.

I’ve gotten messages like this before, about how not ALL Christians are like violent pro-lifers or the Westboro Baptist Church, and I find it interesting that people feel the need to tell me that rather than condemn the hateful actions of their fellow Christians. I know that not all Christians are hateful bigots, I was raised as a Catholic, I graduated from a Jesuit University, and I’ve been looking at private, religious institutions for medical school. Do you honestly think that I have never met someone who was a “good” Christian in all my years when I am fucking surrounded by them in every facet of my life?

I don’t think that believing in God makes someone a Christian. Being a Christian involves following the Bible and Jesus’s teachings but, in my opinion, you don’t get to pick and choose what to follow. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that only part of it should be taken seriously. And if you’re a Christian, I don’t see how you can be a good person and follow the Bible completely because the Bible has some seriously fucked up shit in it. I’m not saying it’s impossible to identify as a Christian and be a good person, but you probably can’t do that and accept every single thing in the Bible, too. Odds are you’re ignoring a significant portion of the Bible in which women are raped and it’s okay as long as they’re married to their rapist, people are stoned to death, and that Jesus said some pretty horrible things, too. And if you’re ignoring a large portion of the Bible, can you really be a Christian by Jesus’s standards? If you acknowledge that the Bible is super fucked up in many ways then why even bother following or believing in it? Why would you want to get your morals from a book that was relevant thousands of years ago and, frankly, isn’t anymore?

As for the Westboro Baptsist Church, I disagree with everything they stand for and I find them to be extremely vile human beings who stop just short of child abuse when it comes to forcing their children to stand outside and hold signs for hours that they do not understand the words’ full weight of. I also think they are some of the most authentic Christians in the world. I don’t doubt they’ve read the Bible (unlike the majority of Christians). I’m sure they have. I’m sure they follow it more closely than other Christians, too. 

The phrase I hear the most from Christians when people use religion to oppress others is “well they aren’t REAL Christians” but that is a cop-out and an excuse. The people who are holding signs on the side of the road listing all of the things God hates ARE real Christians. They don’t exist in fairy tale land. Fred Phelps and his horrible family are based just over three hours away from me. Saying they aren’t REAL Christians means that so called “real” Christians don’t have to deal with the people who give the entire religion a bad name. If you get to say you’re a Christian and can’t even list the ten commandments or name all of Jesus’s Apostles, then you don’t get to say who is and isn’t a “real” Christian. It doesn’t work like that.

Instead of being concerned about how not ALL Christians are terrible people who are homophobic, anti-choice bigots and wanting to let me know that, why don’t you leave me alone and start changing the minds of those Christians who are terrible people. Telling an atheist about all the good Christians isn’t going to do shit to change the minds of the “bad” ones. The fact is, you don’t need to tell me this because I live a more Christian life than most self-professed Christians. I volunteer my time feeding the homeless at a local church and I volunteer to help the sick, both things Jesus would probably approve of.

Stop telling me that not all Christians are terrible people. I’m not the problem. Those terrible people claiming to be Christians are. You don’t want to be grouped in with them? Then fucking talk to them about it, not me.

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: How do you go about volunteering as a clinic escort?

You can contact your local NARAL or NOW organizations. Sometimes they help organize escorts for local clinics.

Or you can contact your local clinic and tell them that you want to help them and are willing to volunteer. Not every clinic will need or want escorts (usually due to liability issues) but they could use volunteers in other areas. If they tell you that they aren’t in need of any volunteers, try another clinic and don’t be discouraged, clinics sometimes can’t afford the liability of having volunteers connected to their clinic.

If you find a clinic in need of escorts, you’ll most likely need to go through a short training program where you’re told the rules and policies that clinic has for escorting.

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: I don't normally stray into Pro-Life territory but I was on FB and curiosity got the better of me. All the slut-shaming, abortion=murder, "murderous" doctors need to be punished comments left me really unsettled. Is there an organization that raises funds for clinic security measures? Yeah, now I'm sure that I want to volunteer as a clinic escort now that classes are over. Thank you, you are rad and wonderful and total jars of awesomesauce.

I don’t know of any national organizations that raise funds but I’m sure that your local clinics will accept donations for security funding. Being a clinic escort is going to be an amazing experience for you, you’re going to be helping a lot of people and making the people you escort feel so much safer. Write me back and tell me how it goes!

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: have you heard about bei bei shuai?

Yes.

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: George Carlin also has a spiel called "Rape can be funny" so can we stop acting like he's some kind of awesome person?

I can like something a person says and also recognize that they are not a perfect or even a good ally. George Carlin has said problematic things. I recognize that, but it doesn’t take away the truth or accuracy of what he said about how hypocritical Americans are about the sanctity of life and how being “pro-life” is a misnomer.

The quote (and bit from the video) is a valid one but that doesn’t mean that because I liked that ONE quote of his I must, therefore, like every quote he’s ever said.

I said I liked a quote of his from the video I reblogged and then explained why I liked that particular quote. I fail to see how that must mean I think he’s an awesome person simply because I like a thing he said about one topic in 1982.

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: I just had an abortion done yesterday, and I'm healing up fairly okay and feel fine emotionally, but I was wondering how long it takes for the cramping and bleeding to go away. I had a surgical procedure (with a manual vacuum I believe) as opposed to the pill. Does anyone with any experience know?

This is something that you should ask your doctor. Usually they give you some kind of aftercare instructions that should explain normal symptoms. I’d recommend giving the clinic you had it done at a call and ask a nurse that’s available because they’ll be able to give you the best information and tell you anything abnormal to be on the look out for.

Love,

Rabble

Anonymous asked: Every person on this planet started out life the same way. Everyone should have the right to life. All the other rights mean nothing if killing humans as they develop is legal/accepted.

You know, I volunteer at a hospital in their pediatric unit and one of my favorite patients, who I see every week and have seen every week for the past 6 months, badly needs a liver transplant. He’s 13, likes Pokemon and playing Rock Band, and likes to eat french fries but he hasn’t been allowed to eat them for months because the high sodium makes his body even more sick.

He also has a right to life and I think you should donate part of your liver to him. In fact, I think that I should get to make that decision FOR you.

…

…

Do you see how ridiculous that is? I can’t make you donate your organ to a kid that I like much more than you (and he will die without one, it’s a matter of when) because you get to make decisions about what happens to you and your body, even if it means that my favorite patient will die. Even if your decision not to donate will kill him. So, too, does a pregnant person. A fetus doesn’t have a right to life, it’s a fetus, it has no rights at all and because of that it most certainly doesn’t have the right to use someone else’s organs without consent just like my little guy doesn’t get to use your organs without your consent. You are attempting to grant rights to a fetus that not even a child has.

The right to life isn’t even real. When the Founding Father’s said that everyone had the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness it meant very different things…and it was only for rich, white men. The pursuit of happiness didn’t even mean what it sounds like, it meant property. You have the right to pursue property ownership (as long as you were rich and white and a man!).

Fetuses do not have personhood and as such, they do not have rights to life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness. Have you read past the phrase “life, liberty and pursuit of happiness”? Because the context ruins your right to life nonsense. Those rights are secured by the government and the government serves with consent of the governed. Guess what isn’t governed? Fetuses (it’s why we don’t put 3 minute-old babies in jail for murder when the pregnant person dies during childbirth). Fetuses can’t give consent to anything, including having or wanting rights bestowed upon them and I think it’s very arrogant of anti-choicers to claim that they know what fetuses may or may not want. Guess what isn’t recognized as a person by the government? Fetuses. And because they aren’t recognized as a person or granted personhood, they don’t have any rights, including a right to life.

You cannot force someone to carry a pregnancy to term, that may actually kill them because you value what is inside their body (and is therefore their property and NOT yours to make decisions about) more than that pregnant person’s life.

Love,

Rabble