Truly at war

One of the strangest moments from my childhood involved a Christian concert I attended with my grandparents about America that ended with a video showing Russian atomic missiles pointed at our country, and a description of how we will be blown off the earth if Christians didn't pray hard enough. At the end of the presentation the audience was encouraged to kneel and pray, and I found myself scooting as far under my seat as possible in case the bombs fell then and there. Jessica Ahlquist (http://jessicaahlquist.com/) highlighted the fact that this concern did not die with the Soviet Union. As a teenager I watched a series of grainy VHS videos circulated by our homeschool group describing how the Clinton administration was secretly removing the freedom to practice Christianity in the US. I can see the case of Jessica Ahlquist increasing the sense that American Christians are under attack. For those not aware miss Ahlquist was surprised to find that her public high school had a Christian prayer banner posted on the wall. As prayers go it was pretty lame, but it bothered her to the point that she sued to have it taken down. This week she won and the banner is being removed, much to the consternation of Christians all over the country. The same week a suit involving another public school which invited a Christian rapper to preach in a required assembly went against the Christians involved. Of course the nonreligious in the US are pleased at the results, but the Christians complain that the war on Christianity in the US is intensifying. I hope my Christian friends see that this is not the case. A public school is supposed to be a designated safe place for all students whether we are in agreement with their beliefs, but when a nonchristian enters a school that displays hints of Christian bias the school ceases to be a safe place for that student. There truly is a war in the US, but it really is a war by certain Evangelical Christians against anything not Christian. In public this war is couched in terms that focus on promoting morality and character, but the goal is saving souls any way possible. This makes sense if one were to consider how real the Gospel message is to the Evangelical. They honestly believe that people are going to hell, and the best time to reach them is during youth years. If I honestly thought I could save someone from certain unspeakable suffering by breaking the law you bet I would break any law necessary to save them. My Christian friends ask how a subtle sign or single hour of preaching can hurt, but they fail to see how pervasive Chrstianity is in our country while there really is little tolerance of other ideas, especially nontheistic ones. This last fall an atheist group walked quietly in a parade with a banner simply identifying the group and parade-goers were angry that they carried the banner in front of children. In both the cases I mentioned above threats of violence were stated along with the online posting of the addresses of the parties involved with suggestions of the violence that could be done to those who oppose Christianity. Nontheists are acutely aware that they will be targeted for harrassment if they self-identify as nontheistic or express nontheistic sentiments. Even more disturbing is the increasingly public calls for war against Islam in the US. I received two unsolicited emails this week from a local group directly calling for a war at any cost against the tolerance for Muslim ideas in the US. It should not be a surprise that nonchristians in our nation are sensitive to hints of Christian bias in a public school because those hints point to the fact that certain religious bullying will be tolerated against them. So let Tebow do want he wants on the football field. I agree it seems strange, but he may end up being one of the few openly Christian guys who actually lives what he preaches. Let's leave school a religion-neutral place, and let Tebow and his friends fill our popular culture with their faith. There is plenty of room in the culture for all of us.

Time for battle?

ACT! for America sent me an e-mail today that exemplifies my worries for the US as I watch American Christians react in fear against perceived threats against them from the nonreligious and Muslims. The e-mail went right to the point of how Muslims want to evangelize the US in order to make our country fit their ideals. It struck me that if I rewrote the email to substitute "Christians" for "Islamists" the e-mail could reflect the worries of the other religions in countries where Christianity is making inroads. I have seen those who come out publicly as atheists or Muslims receive death threats from those self-identifying as Christians, and I wonder how many people that read these e-mails from ACT! for America or other groups asking for Christians to act for the nation's self-defense against Islam and atheism will lead to death threats being acted upon by Christians. It happened to abortionists to "protect the babies" why wouldn't Christians also take up arms to create fear in those who stand for other ideals? 

Gifts

I was asked by my nursing director to write a two paragraph note describing how Brookwood hospital supported me through nursing school, and as I set to write my paragraphs it occurred to me that I was given an opportunity that is not available anymore. Opportunity is a funny thing in that most opportunities that we encounter are creatures of our own making. It is only rare that we are given an opportunity for which we are totally unprepared.

I was a young, unemployed new father seeking any form of employment when one of my wife's friends suggested I apply for a "scrub" job at two local hospitals. One hospital ignored me completely, but the education nurse for Brookwood's Woman's operating room saw a kid willing to try and she gave me the opportunity to learn how to act as a scrub technician. I knew nothing about the OR and had no clue what a "scrub tech" was, but I jumped into the opportunity with gusto. Here was a chance to see cool things, make money for my young wife and child, and prepare for my future medical career. After six months I was good enough to be considered as an educator of other prospective scrubs, and I learned that one out of ten of my students could make it. Most hospitals have stopped on-the-job training for this type of work because of the high failure rate for trainees, and the new "scrubs" I now meet have completed vocational training at some college or training school. I could not have one of the coolest nursing jobs ever today had that gift been given to me, and, as I wrote to my director, I will ever be grateful for all the help they gave me at Brookwood.

Another gift of which I became aware recently is the security sound health. After fighting depression for twenty-eight years I thought I was accustomed to my body sabotaging me, but last Wednesday found me in an even more difficult situation as I basically lost the use of my body for a short time for no obvious reason. Over the period of about five minutes I went from standing and helping a friend to being unable to lift my head, open my eyes, or even speak. This is even more strange as I was fully awake and aware of everything happening around me. I heard the voices trying to get me to answer, and the hands moving me onto a stretcher. I heard the panicked breathing of my nursing friends as they rushed the vibrating stretcher down the hall of the hospital to the ER, and yet there was little I could do. I felt like I was tightly wrapped in a warm blanket that I eventually loosened and regained the strength to which I was accustomed. I had words like "stroke" or "seizure" floating around me for a while as I slowly regained my ability to speak, but my doctor is calling it an atypical migraine for now, though I had no headache. I am going to be seeking a second opinion since this was a pretty big event for me, but losing all my voluntary movement for thirty minutes made me realize how much I take for granted. Now every twinge is questioned as the start of another event. I don't know exactly what to think of what I experienced last week, but I do know this- I have been much more lucky than I ever realized!

Six reasons not to eat food you make in your own kitchen

A friend of mine posted a link to an article posted in May 2010 and titled "Six Reasons To Say No To Vaccination" It was a strange article which I will say is full of crazy ideas beginning with the statement at the beginning which comments inaccurately that vaccination is controversial. The six "reasons" turn out to be four reasons with one more slightly rephrased and another obvious statement of fact that is not much of an argument against vaccinations.  Here they are for a sense of insanity-
#1:   Pharmaceutical Companies Can’t Be Trusted
     This section focuses on the problems that have occurred with other pharmaceuticals focusing on unexpected complications and side effects. This would work if the alternative therapies they advocate do not have unexpected complications. We can always make medicines safer and so we test them. 
#2:   ALL Vaccines are Loaded with Chemicals and other Poisons
     This is true in a sense, but the "poisons" they are worried about are not really the problem. All of the things we eat contain chemicals and poisons. The fact is that quantity and concentration really matter. As far as "poisons" and chemicals in vaccines they have been found safe for their purpose- studies have been repeated to test this idea.
#3:   Fully Vaccinated Children are the Unhealthiest, Most Chronically Ill Children I Know
     She needs to meet some kids. Small sample size does not prove anything.
#4:   Other Countries Are Waking Up to the Dangers of Vaccines
     Other countries believe in elves. Belief and sincerity do not define truth.
#5:   A Number of Vaccines Have Already Had Problems/Been Removed from the Market
      Restating the first "reason" with a twist. Of course testing a vaccine removes it from the market. Test all your herbs the same way and many of them will be removed too.
#6   You Can Always Get Vaccinated, But You Can Never Undo a Vaccination
      This statement is a truism. I can say never kiss because you can never undo your first kiss. Sorry. 
Now for six reasons not to eat your own food-
#1 Your kitchen cannot be trusted. Many meals every year are unintentionally contaminated with dangerous organisms that sicken and kill people. Just because you know where food come from doesn't mean it is safe.
#2:   ALL Foods are Loaded with Chemicals and other Poisons. As you probably know, plants produce "pesticides" to protect themselves from insects and other organisms. In sufficient amounts these can hurt or kill you or your family yet you knowingly feed these and other chemicals to your family in the form of broccoli, carrots, and other vegetables.
#3:   Fed Children are the Unhealthiest, Most Chronically Ill Children I Know. The biggest pediatric health problem we have in the US is obese children. This problem would be solved by not feeding them any food from your kitchen or anyone else's. It may be uncomfortable, but, well that's not the point is it?

#4:   Other People Are Waking Up to the Dangers of Food. It might be a surprise to find that the necessity of food is not universally accepted. Breatharians believe that food and drink are unnecessary and impure. Since they are sincere I suppose we should believe them.
#5:   A Number of Foods Have Already Had Problems/Been Removed from the Market. We all know about the dangers off raw eggs and fat.
#6   You Can Always Eat, But You Can Never Fully Undo an Ingestion. As soon as you  put a food item in your mouth certain nutrients are absorbed and become part of your bloodstream. You can't undo that. Sad isn't it.

Flashbacks of the weird kind...

Ah, fun of seeing how far I have come! I watched all the parts of the above documentary by Louis Theroux on the Westboro Baptist Church Cult, and it is amazing how much of what they believe were my deeply held beliefs so many years ago. If you take away the vulgar language that marks so much of what the Family says you will hear what I was taught as a child and young adult. I had such a gut reaction to the statements of the members of The Family as the described the dangers of rebellion and thinking for oneself. I instantly identified with the kids who were so afraid that even speaking their hearts would send them to Hell because it would plant a seed of rebellion that would lead them down the wrong road. Even the sense of persecution and future exile that was to mark our transition into the end times was drummed into my head. I love how Louis Theroux let the members of the Family do all the talking so that we get a great view of their beliefs. Having come from a similar background I really believe that this was an accurate portrayal of the Family.

My message from this is that the Westboro Baptist Church Family is probably the best example of obedience to the Bible that I have seen in the USA, and a perfect example of how blind obedience to a book of faith can destroy lives and families. I like the fact that most evangelical Christians in the US actually live according to a more loving ethical standard than is presented in the Bible. I am glad I finally saw the light of Humanism.

When I die...

Last Wednesday night I was discussing with a friend how "kids nowadays" don't know how to write letters like they did "back then", and I told her of how many biographies of historical figures relied on the letters and diary entries of those people as sources of their ideas and opinions. Biographies of the future will need a glossary of codes for text messaging such as "brb" or "LOL". I have a few journals in which I occasionally pen notes to my wife and children, with each one having their own book with which we record our comments and questions to each other. Listening to the song "If I Die Young" by The Band Perry reminds me of the importance of the written word as the song insists that what we write means more when we are gone. Like we should never forget to say "I love you", we should leave plenty of evidence of our love and pride in those around us so that distance of miles or moments cannot erase what we have spoken.

The cost of Character

"I could do that!" My acquaintance was somewhat excited. I can't tell if he really would do it, knowing that the clinic I described would be a total sham, but I believe he just might be serious. "Josh, you can be our front guy because anyone would believe you, but we will do all the work." I shudder as I think of the horror that overtook me the last time I was involved in the endeavor he proposed. I thought that as a health care consultant I could really help people. I would gaze into their eyes or use the latest in muscle-testing methods to determine their health problems and give my clients solutions to their most pressing health problems while staving off future disasters. I am told I was very good.

One man came to me seeking a cure for his ulcerative colitis that had once again flared up with a vengeance. The guy was a good man and a doting father. He was tired of the cramping and diarrhea, and he hoped I could give him the solution he so earnestly desired. I looked at his iris, discussed his health weaknesses, and suggested some herbs he could take with some lifestyle and diet changes. His health seemed to improve until he was admitted to the hospital for a bowel obstruction. This time his supposed ulcerative colitis flare-up was actually symptoms of colon cancer that developed as a probable complication of his longstanding disease. Had he gone to his regular doctor instead of me my client would have probably found his colon cancer soon enough to remove it. Instead it was found after it was too far advanced, and my client's cancer spread to his liver where it killed him.

No one blamed me for my lack of knowledge, but I feel like I should have known this was a common complication of ulcerative colitis and insisted my client seek medical advice. I didn't know my limitations, and I really didn't help this guy. Temporarily undaunted I sought to expand my knowledge and experience, but as I studied I found that more science pointed to my practice as dangerous at worst and useless at best. I left it so that I would not give any more people false confidence.

Now this friend wants to play the game. He wants to knowingly give useless medicine to the sick and worried because it will provide gain. I shuddered at the thought. I just can't do it. As I lay in bed that night I suddenly realize that I could do it better than last time. I could use clearly safe, but useless treatment like homeopathic preparations as a gimmick and get patients into my clinic to get good diet and lifestyle advice. I could once again give those who felt lost in the medical landscape a welcome desk to sit at be reassured. I could bill myself as a health care coordinator and give those who see too many doctors a sense of order to their lives. But could I really lie to my clients to gain income and a sense of accomplishment? I could work half as hard to make the same income, but in the end I feel like I would lose more of myself than I would gain.

What did I get when I was raised to be honest, but a hard life? Maybe, at least, I could trust my own advice.

Discrimination

Snuggle up with my friend who recently attended my church in Homewood, Alabama and you will see just how friendly they are here in the South. She and her family were invited to several very respectable homes in our church well before the Pastor began his sermon and he even asked them over to his house after the sermon. I told her later that she would be more than welcome to join our church and her response that the welcome was a little much, almost desperate. Another dear friend attended recently, but he was ignored, almost shunned. Why this contradiction? The answer is complex, but the situation was highlighted by a recent request by a local mission to the poor to build a thrift store in an "upscale" suburb of Birmingham.
Click this link to see how the suburb responded.

Interestingly the debate played out through a series of e-mails that were sent to a few members of my church. I knew that the community at large would oppose the thrift store because they didn't want poor people spending too much time in our city, but I wondered if the more outspoken of our community would actually admit their reason. This e-mail exchange actually did well to outline the feelings of both sides. The original e-mail was a forward that basically said "we don't want their kind in our city" and it was responded to by another member of my church who stated that there was room in God's kingdom for the poor. The poor hapless soul that sent the first e-mail simply responded that he had nothing against the poor as long as they were not in his city painting graffiti and fighting amongst themselves.

This feeling is very raw and fresh, but what about my minority friend that attended my church and garnered such attention? She is a black woman married to a fine, upstanding black man. I have been told by many black friends that visit my church that they are quite disturbed with how aggressively they are courted by church members begging them to join our white, upper-class congregation. It doesn't really matter if you are a poor black single mother or a well-to-do black family you are going to be welcomed into my church because we want to appear non-discriminatory. The sad thing is when my dear friend who was a lower middle class, overweight white man from a rural town came to my church he was generally ignored.

Have we not learned? Discrimination is still alive and well here in the South. It doesn't matter if you are against someone that looks black or someone that looks poor we are still judging someone by the way they look rather than the way they are. My dear friend who was excluded by the wealthy of my church is a successful businessman who has also served as an Evengelical Christian pastor for more than thirty years. He may look lower class because he was raised by poor white farmers who built their fortune from the ground up and changed the moral standing of their community by living the most godly example I have ever seen anyone live without adopting the expensive clothes and habits of those in my church. This man who looks below your class will not bat an eye to meet your most basic need emotionally, spiritually, and physically, but the members of my church would rather edge him out of their church, and keep people that look like him from shopping in their city. I feel like my church and city has ignored Christ's call to reach out to "the least of these my brothers".

It is time to look ourselves honestly because we fail our Saviour so easily. I am going to have to do the same because right now I am seeing that I will easily discriminate against the guy driving by in the BMW with his nose in the air. Jesus loves you too, and I may have misjudged you. I hope I have.

What to do with Sarah

I started this post a while back and decided to put it up today.

1 Peter 3:5-6 "For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening."

During adult Sunday School this morning we just barely touched on this passage as we discussed Scripture passages that are often taken out of context. There is a whole bunch of discussion that can be had on the place of submission in marriage as the Protestant Bible describes it, but suffice it to say that I do not believe that the man is the absolute ruler of his home and his wife is to bend to his every silly whim. Sarah, Abraham's wife that was mentioned in the above passage, was upheld as an example that called her husband "lord" and obeyed him. My wife stated that she had trouble thinking of Sarah as a woman whose example should be followed. She probably remembered how Sarah lied for her husband and twisted a plan to get Hagar to bear a child for her, but Sarah is a great example of how God sees past our limited view.

Since Peter references Sarah's faith in frightening times I suspect that he is thinking of the times she was virtually imprisoned in another man's home because of her husband's deception. We westerners often think that she should have insisted on saying she was married the two times her husband passed her off as only his sister, but consider the possibility that women were essentially property in that time and place. If Sarah had tried to convince her captors that she was married it is possible that she would have been punished for lying since her owner's (Abraham) word would have meant more than hers. Sarah knew that Abraham had been promised a child THROUGH HER, and so, if I read Peter correctly, she trusted God to protect her even when not where she wanted to be.

So how do I explain to my girls how to emulate Sarah?
Link: http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/search/?q=1+Peter+3%3A1-7

Facing Reality

Happy New Year! I hope this year is as good as my last year was. Yesterday Wonderful went through a bunch of the letters I wrote to her over the years and I was reminded of all the chances we had to lose our close relationship that I treasure so much. The same day I learned that another acquaintance has finalized his divorce after his wife left. There are somany reasonsthat a marriage can break up, but two people committed to each other can surmount each one if both are willing to work. Thank you Wonderful for starting another New Year with me. I want you more than ever!

How I succeeded as an iridologist

I sat through many of my father's iridology sessions before I felt confident to do my own, but after practicing for a year I realized that I was beginning to adapt a technique for what many call "cold reading". I began to test my hypothesis, and I realized I could really pull it off with reasonable success. Even now I occasionally have former patients show up to my parents' office looking for me because I was the only one who helped them twelve years ago. Now the times have changed and I seek to do hard science with my patients as a nurse, but those little signals that I learned still give me clues as to what may be wrong with some of my patients. When working in the ER I have fun playing my intuitive game while determining what needs the patient has that he/she is not communicating. Looking back I realize my father is a master cold reader who is so good that he doesn't even realize what he is doing. It began when he started working as a pastor offering counseling. This great video explains how that can occur, though my father never sought to be fraudulent in any way. He is just very good at instinctively picking up on hidden signals.

Get-Mas Revisited

Almost a year ago I wrote about my frustration over the Christian worry that we are going to lose the "true" meaning of Christmas. It grates on my ears every time I hear Christians try to defend their pagan holiday as "Jesus' Birthday" and how it is sacred. Last year I attempted to flesh this out, and even try to get my family and friends who complained that "Jesus' Birthday" is being damaged by the athiests to actually separate the gift giving from the day so that it is truly made a day to focus on Jesus. Wow! The response I got was telling. "You can't have Christmas without the gifts!" I was told. So I learned that American Christmas is not really about Jesus, but it is about the original pagan practice of gift-giving to which the Roman Catholics added Jesus. This is ironic to me in that the same people who insist that we keep true to the original intent of the American Constitution and the originally understood meaning of biblical.creation stories actually prefer a recent incarnation of a pagan festival. So here I stand again insisting that Christ is not truly a part of American Christmas and that our Christian activists need to be honest or actually make Christmas about Jesus and celebrate gifts another day. New Year's day would be a great pagan holiday to give gifts on.

I am stardust...

One of my favorite ideas is the fact that the molecules that make up our bodies are truly combinations of elements that were originally shed by the stars at the beginning of our universe. As the quote attributed to Allan Sandage goes:

 ”Every one of our chemical elements was once inside a star. The same star. You and I are brothers. We came from the same supernova.”

Just a thought that came to me after watching an astronomer's video on YouTube tonight.

The last book

I took the risky move of borrowing a sci-fi film that I didn't know anything about. I did this mainly because it had Denzel Washington in it and I generally like his work. The movie was a bit of a surprise in that it had a good bit of philosophical interest for me. This is not to say that I will watch with my children or parents. It is not that kind of movie, but it is one that raises an interesting question of what the end of our society could be.

The story occurs thirty year after a war basically destroys the world with very little food for a still very populated planet. Some people resort to cannibalism while others resort to other methods of survival. The camera follows one Eli who seems to be a superman type of character with a few interesting.flaws and scruples. As the story moves on we find that most people in the world are illiterate and destroyed all the Bibles they could find attributing the war to the followers of the book. Eli is lead by "a voice" to the last Bible and carries it on a 30 year pilgrimage to safety. Don't worry I didn't ruin the movie for anyone still wanting to watch it, though I will admit that it is not all that great outside some of its cerebral interests.

What would the world look like without the Bible? In the movie and in the minds of many people that argue for Biblical morality the world would be a lawless and destructive place without the moral guidance of the Holy Scriptures to guide us. In fact I must disagree for three reasons.

1. Christians don't even follow scripture as a moral guide. Ask most Christians about their guiding Scriptural passages and you will get some innocuous verses or phrases they learned in elementary Sunday School mixed with some concepts they picked up from some popular speaker or writer. Ask any Christian on the street and you will find that they can barely make their way through a Bible much less relate the basic message in each book of the Bible. I can assure you that almost none have read the Bible from cover to cover. So what do Christians find as a moral compass? They use their culture, though not necessarily their secular culture. The leaders of various evangelical factions hold a cultural sway strong enough that churches and political groups can count on them to vote their way in most elections. James Dobson, James Kennedy, and even the Mormon Glenn Beck can be included in this influential group although there are others with slightly less influence in the Southern Baptist Convention, and Bob Jones University. That a Mormon can lead Evangelicals is a sign that theology is not a necessary prerequisite. Most American Christians follow their herd instincts to do whatever their Christian friends and leaders do.

2. History teaches us that Scripture is not a very strong moral guide. The situation presented in the movie is actually a rough representation of what happened after the fall of the Roman Empire. The Roman Catholic Church held the Scripture in high regard, but did not develop a strong moral or legal code from Scripture. In fact the Greek and Roman philosophers were the moral compass to which Scripture was adapted. Interestingly even our American Founding Fathers followed the Roman and Greek guides along with some Native American examples as practical helps in developing our country with Biblical adaptations that probably added legitimacy to their work.

3. This reason is the most compelling of all- There is not a single moral code in Scripture. My favorite example is that of the value of human life. Modern Christians hold that all human life is sacred, but that standard is not widely applied in Scripture. Jesus comes the closest to holding this standard. Modern Christians would do well to follow the moral guidance of Jesus, but then their theologic standard may be problematic.
While Jesus clearly stated that He did not come to destroy the Law He did cast doubt on its practical value. Even in the Old Testament not all rules were applied consistently with God arbitrarily guiding His people in various actions that contradicted His supposed law. For example, modern Christians would dismiss the command to sacrifice a child for God as a command from a demon and not God, and yet Abraham was congratulated for bringing his son to the altar. Several times throughout the Bible the authors congratulate the heroes for their situational ethics as a deeper understanding of God's implied law.

Not only are American Christians not following the moral law of the Bible they are probably making the better choice. I just hope they someday realize it and stop following all the evangelical fads they seem to love so much. It would hurt if we all actually thought for ourselves.

Is Murder Justified?

I follow a number of blogs for personal growth and education. Among these blogs are some that focus on science, religion, and theology from different perspectives. One blog I like is entirely for fun. It is the blog of a philosophy professor who designs online questionnaires that act as philosophy experiments. The most recent addition to his series is a set of questions answering the above question. While philosophy tends to deal in hypothetical questions, especially as related to questions of morality, this set of questions mostly relate to true situations and how the reader responds to them. Jeremy Stangroom chose as one of his questions the scenario of Richard Parker who was killed by his shipmates after they found themselves shipwrecked and starving in a lifeboat. Richard Parker was chosen to be killed to sustain the lives of the other men because he did not have a wife and children depending on him, and it seemed that he was on the verge of dying anyway. Later investigators agreed that the men would have died had they not eaten the body of Richard, but they were convicted of murder even though the murder was the only choice possible to save the lives of several men.

One of the interesting questions that this raises is what would be the Biblical response to this situation? American Christians would state that every life is precious which is why they tend to dislike abortion and euthanasia, and so they would tend to feel that one life is too precious a cost for the attempt at saving two or more other lives. Of course this instinctive response is not necessarily Biblical. Based on the math present in the many Bible stories that deal with substitutionary death one life lost is a reasonable cost for the saving of many others. This is an issue at conflict with the American Evangelical aversion to abortion. God is certainly not "pro-life" in the Bible, and yet many Americans would still oppose abortion and the killing of Richard Parker as being against Scripture when their ethics really are a product of their culture and not the Bible.

Wild at Heart

My wife and I recently watched a movie about Christopher McCandless who, in an attempt to find himself and be cleansed of his worldly distractions, found his way to wilderness Alaska where he lived for a few months and eventually died. It is fascinating to me to see this story and recognize the idealism of the young man. I remarked to Wonderful that I was considering something similar when I was single in my twenties because I felt that I has been damaged by my materialistic society too. I had even gone so far as to research how to disappear without a trace, but I abandoned my quest for an escape when I realized that I had a responsibility to give to my society. I could not simply walk away from everything and accomplish what I was created to do. I also had a deep attachment to my parents, who are wonderfully loving, and realized that I really needed them in a sense. So I branched out in other ways and found a position hundreds of miles from home where I made a name for myself, and surrounded myself with people who didn't care about my father's accomplishments. I learned the same things about the value of relationships that Christopher did without risking my parents' sanity so much.


I look back at those days of idealism and realize that I had so much to learn. I have watched many teenagers grow up, and it is true for them as it was for me- you change alot every year until you are late into your twenties. I think it has something to do with brain development. At any rate when I was younger I preached a good sermon and persuaded some people who were charmed by my simplistic idealism like Christoper did, but in the intervening years I learned it isn't so simple. Like Christopher I was arrogant and selfish, and if he survived his time in Alaska I wonder if he would look back on his youthful idealism with the same level of regret that I do. 


If I could, I would go back and tell myself that not so many people are persuaded by the truth as you expect there should be. I thought it would be so simple to find the truth and share it, but the fact is that "truth" is much more complex and elusive than it appears to a young mind. I would tell myself that people are not as easy to understand as they should be. I wish I could tell myself at twenty that people are much more important than ideals, and relationships are much more valuable than ironing out contradictions. People lie to themselves much more than they realize, and miss the point much more than they should. But they have so much to offer even so.


I still feel right about the materialism, though. We can acquire things and a name, but in the end the monument erases the person it represents, and memories become the story while the true person melts away into nothing. Ask John Adams about that, he would know.

Morality and religion

Early in my reconsideration of Christianity I came across the concept of morality as a construct of a religious belief, and I began to wonder if our morality really is the work of our religion. There are several ways to look at this, but the most easy I can consider right now is the issue of genocide. It is fascinating that genocide was repeatedly commanded by God in the Bible, and yet many Christians quote the Bible to support their calls against genocide. What is truly happening is that the culture is pressuring Christians to hold certain views as morally good, and Christians are selecting, or "cherry-picking", Bible passages that support their ideals rather than acknowledging the contradiction found in Scripture between our modern dislike of genocide and the Scriptural mandates to support it. If Christians were to be truly Biblical, they would support the wholesale murder of all Muslims and resettlement of their lands by Christians or Jews.A more whimsical look at how our culture dictates our choices is reflected in my post last year about the mistaken belief that Christmas is about Jesus (http://me-as-me.blogspot.com/2009/11/get-mas.html). At any rate an interesting blog post about morality adds much more to the discussion than I can at this time- http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/why_should_i_be_moral/
I am interested in your thoughts.

dissecting

I am an OR nurse which means many of my interests relate to something in surgery. Having scrubbed in and assisting surgeons for ten years really cements this tendency. At any rate dissecting tissue is fascinating me. One of my favorite surgeons with which I have worked is a Dr. Max Austin, a GYN/oncologist who always brought residents with him to the OR. Not only did I get to see the surgeries he did I also enjoyed hearing him explain to new doctors why he did what he did. I stood fascinated as he led his residents through each step of the procedure, and one part I found interesting right at first is the fact that he was always looking for "the plane".

"The plane" is the point where the obvious change between types of tissue occurs. Whether it be the layer of cells between the abdominal lining and the muscle of the uterus, or the muscle of the uterus and its lining these layers often are easier to separate if you can find the point where one begins and the other ends and begin to separate them there. I have since seen the principle apply to dissecting around gallbladders or prostates. The point at which such dissection becomes difficult is when a cancer has invaded the tissue surrounding the tumor. I have seen the tendrils of cancer tumors totally obliterate the normal planes leaving surgeons to guess where to dissect. When planes are difficult to find worse bleeding occurs and complications are more severe with surgery time being much greater. Another occurrence that makes finding the plane more difficult is scarring from prior surgery or disease.

As I looked over the last post it occurred to me that some may find it difficult to discern where I find the plane between truth and falsehood in health care. The fact is that I identified many poor health care choices that various family members made in a week of being together. At first glance it would seem that I simply rejected those practices that are not part of conventional medical practice. This is why I have been accused of being totally against alternative "medicine". The fact is that the plane between truth and falsehood is much more difficult to demonstrate.

Let's take, for example, the colloidal silver that my mom applied to every cut and burn and made everyone who had signs of infection take. I don't support the use of colloidal silver, but it is not because I know of an alternative "doctor" who prescribed it. In fact what happened is that my mother sent this colloidal silver liquid to me to prevent an infection in my family. Her statement was that taking a little silver every day prevented bacterial and viral growth in the body and kept one healthy.

My first thought was common- nothing can fix everything. It is true that many claims made by alternative health care practitioners regarding their wares cover everything from arthritis to cancer, but these claims have never borne much fruit. Consider this fact- if colloidal silver did kill every bacteria, then there goes the gut bacteria that help us make vitamin K. How about your skin bacteria that protect us from staph infections? Does silver taken orally kill off all the bacteria that give one bad breath?

Even though I know the claims made for silver may be a bit extreme I always consider the possibility that some truth may underlie the excessive claims. In fact studies done almost one hundred years ago supported the idea that ingesting silver molecules in liquid solutions reduced bacterial infections. The downside was that more then 3000 milligrams of silver were necessary daily to have that effect, and even so it was only a mild antibacterial that did not prevent pneumonia very well. This massive dosage of silver did have one obvious effect in that it turns the skin gray.

In my dissection of the facts from falsehoods in claims such as these I often start with recognized authorities. Many of my alternative |"medicine" friends decry such sources because they see it in the best interest of the authorities to suppress information that will support alternative "medicine". In my experience such authorities are a great place to start in research because they have history on their side and love to share it. In the case of silver the CDC, FDA, and EPA all had interesting articles that they published on the different risks and benefits of silver. In the case of a common item such as silver one of my favorite places to start is the EPA because they have files of MSDS sheets produced on such items which are used in industry. This is where toxic doses may be found. The EPA data was especially helpful in developing my information on ozone generators.

Back to silver. After finding that the official history of silver in medicine was less that sterling I thought I should see what additional claims were being made for those who sold silver. I found that Nature's Sunshine stated that their colloidal silver preparations had specially formulated silver molecules that are more bioavailable than older preparations. The question in my mind is now how much is necessary to have an effect? For this information I turned to Medline to find studies on local effects of silver preparations on infections. The studies I found reported that a fairly high concentration of silver was necessary to retard the growth of micro-organisms in any tissue. Even if the silver in colloidal silver liquids was more bioavailable the body would have to deposit enough silver in the effective area to essentially turn the area gray. Taking this much silver would have negative effects on helpful bacteria and cause many more health problems than it would help. As a side note none of the colloidal silver preparations have high enough concentrations that would have provided the necessary silver to have the desired and undesired effects. One would have to drink gallons of the the colloidal silver solution to gain any benefit.

But was there some truth to these claims? Technically yes. Silver solutions with high concentrations of silver molecules have been known to reduce the growth of bacteria in the lab. The question is whether the complex biologic systems in the body will allow silver to do its work. The most effective silver applications have been topical creams and silver impregnated dressings used for severe wounds or extensive surgical wounds. Short-term trial results have been mixed, but some people swear by silver dressings in the hospital. They are most effective at reducing the risk of infection in clean wounds, but don't seem to help already infected wounds. In my own experience silver impregnate creams are not as effective as triple-antibiotic creams. Oral silver whether colloidal or otherwise just hasn't lived up to its expectations.

So, in answer to those who say I dismiss all alternative "medicine" claims outright the answer is a qualified no. I totally reject palm readers and craniosacral therapy because the science just isn't there, but other claims I  look into because I often find something I can use in my own practice. I even research odd claims just in case. It is a matter of looking for the plane between truth and falsehood, and being alert for the sometimes very thin line.

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A great video thanks to http://www.onemarinesview.com/one_marines_view/

How should a nurse nurse?

I had a delightful time with family last week. It was such a delightful time that I fought tears for hours as I faced the prospect of piling everyone into the car, and then as I left with my four securely buckled in. A few times tears did spill especially as I hugged my dearly loved parents and siblings goodbye. I love and enjoy the people who gave me life and a future!

As always, the grouping of several families that live different lives creates tension. This past week highlighted some of our differences as my extended family and I encountered various health problems. An interesting cream that one family member used for every skin lesion was a colloidal silver preparation. Another application of this silver preparation was used on a young boy who presented with an upper respiratory infection that had a moderately high fever (103 f). An oral liquid with silver suspension was given to the boy regularly throughout the day with the hope that the body would take the minute amount of silver in the liquid to the area of infection and kill the causative organism.

Reflexology and what appeared to be craniosacral therapy was used to treat this small boy's fever as well as garlic cloves that were attached to his feet where they were supposed to be more easily absorbed. The parents involved also gave the boy a vinegar bath and oral feverfew (herb) to reduce his fever. I will not discuss the efficacy of these methods now, but I will state that the mother of the child finally resorted to acetaminophen to bring the fever to more tolerable levels.

I also encountered a family member using a "Q-Ray" bracelet for his musculoskeletal health. In the midst of all this were the dietary options provided by various family members who believed their siblings or spouses had food allergies with questionable symptoms, and the ubiquitous ozone generators that the host family uses to "clean" the air in the home.

What is the nurse who follows science-based medicine to do? I love each of these family members and want to have meaningful encounters with them in the future, and yet I can identify several lapses in science-based health care which are sometimes purposeful and other times inadvertent. I finally chose to overlook the poor science while practicing it as best I could, and hope for the best though I did mention to the parent involved that I had acetaminophen if she wanted it for her child. I do not know what the hardcore ethical thing would be to do. I suppose I could have sensitized my family members to each of what I felt was their poor choices, but I feel as if I would have ruined my future potential for good with them as well. More importantly I love each member of my family and the concern of losing my relationship with them is greater than the desire to have them follow perfect health practices which they would not necessarily recognize as such or even be prepared to recognize.