First of all I want to wish everyone a Happy Martin Luther King Day! I find it especially appropriate that it comes one day before a historic inauguration. Even though MLK’s dream isn’t fully realized, I believe our country is on the right path towards recognizing his dream.

Since the 36th anniversary of Roe v. Wade is coming up, the prolife movement here in South Carolina had their state march for life. The march begins right in front of the student center on my campus and the state capitol is just a few blocks away. I decided to get up and go to the march and to my surprise a girl on my floor who I’m beginning to develop a friendship with also attended. However, attending the march made me realize how I really don’t fit in the prolife movement anymore.

As a nursing student I recognize the reality of life in the womb before birth and have a difficult time with Obama’s position on signing the Freedom of Choice Act and have even written to my senators and representative to oppose its passage. Yet at the march I get this strong vibe that to be prolife you must be a conservative Christian. I even saw a few anti Catholic signs and people passing tracts explaining why Catholics aren’t “real Christians”. What the heck does that have to do with being prolife?

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time I’ve felt alienated in the prolife movement. When I moved to the Columbia campus last fall, I attended a Students for Life meeting. However, I got very put off by this guy that kept bashing liberals and the anti-contraception attitude. Don’t get me wrong, I believe teaching abstinence is important but ignorance about sexuality isn’t going to achieve that. The final straw was the liberal bashing guy was reading a book by our Senator Demint. Even though our Senator is prolife, in the book and during his election campaign for the Senate back in 2004, he had said that unwed mothers shouldn’t be allowed to teach in public schools. So we tell girls not to have an abortion and then punish them for doing the right thing? Then we have the nerve to complain about “welfare queens”. To top it off the guy starting talking about how there’s nothing inherently wrong with war. Yes, he talked about this at a “prolife” club. No, I’m not a pacifist, but going to war just b/c we can is utterly stupid and wrong.

This may be quite offensive to some people but it’s been on my mind for quite some time now. Many conservative Christians who are prolife talk about how sacred life is and that every human life matters to God. While I believe that to be true, evangelical Christian theology does not support that. Many people like to talk about how precious the unborn babies in the pretty pictures are yet according to evangelical doctrine 80-90% of those same babies will burn in hell forever is they reach a certain age and haven’t “made Jesus Lord”. I remember seeing a sign with 4 stages of fetal development with the words “beautiful”, “wonderful” and “incredible” Yet in Sunday School I remember a teacher telling us that newborns are essentially little sinners. So I guess human life is no longer beautiful and sacred once it slips out the mother’s birth canal?

Maybe I’ve gone completely nuts but I believe the church’s legalistic, divisive, and exclusive attitudes and doctrines are the reason why it has been unable to stop abortion. God may love people while they’re in the womb but once you’re out you’re deserve to go to hell simply for being born. We feel distraught that a baby is thrown away because it is unwanted, inconvienent, disabled, etc yet God is going to throw away the vast majority of the human race and torture them in a way that would make partial birth abortion very humane. How can the church expect others to value human life when its theology talks about the utter worthlessness of human life?

Martin Luther King Jr. wanted a society that treated everyone as equal in the eyes of God. Sadly, he never lived to see that reality but we can continue his legacy. America has come a long way in dealing with racial prejudice, but we still have a long way to go in dealing with racism, homophobia, sexism, and spirtual racism. If you’re unaware of the concept of spiritual racism, I’d encourage you to read this wonderful article. http://www.gospelrevolution.com/spiritual_rights.htm That is my dream for the future.

Well, I moved into my new dorm last Saturday. There are 24 girls on my floor and I’m enjoying getting to know them. I started classes this Monday. Even though changing my major is probably going to cost me quite a bit, I’m already feeling much happier in my nursing major. Hopefully, my state scholarship should increase in the fall.

I’m working on getting rid of some of my bad habits this semester. I’m trying to get to bed on time and I’ve managed to cut out soft drinks from my meals. I’m also working on not procrastinating my assignments ( I finished my statistics homework due next Wed today).

Yes, change was quite a slogan during last year’s presidential election. I know it has began to become overused but I feel it is especially appropriate considering America not only elected the first black President but one with a non-European name.  Regardless of one’s political views, I think that is something worth celebrating.

I remember President-Elect Obama’s speech after it was announced that he had won the presidency. I enjoyed hearing that there were no red or blue states, gay or straight, black, white etc. Obama promised to be a president to all people, even those who did not vote for him.

He has tried to live up to those words by inviting Rick Warren to give the invocation at the inauguration. Obviously this has caused a stir especially among gay and lesbian voters who, thanks to Warren’s efforts, lost their marriage rights in the state of CA during the election.

I am quite familiar with Warren even though I haven’t kept up with his efforts in quite a while now. The church I attended during my fundamentalist years (ages 12-15) had the entire congregation read his book The Purpose Driven Life. I not only read the book but I actually gave it to a cousin who does not attend church as a Christmas gift (I know. I was young and stupid. Sorry).

Unlike the older evangelists Warren gives a much sugary and sweeter tone to his message. In fact, the reason I had left the church that promoted Warren was b/c my dad started listening to Jimmy Swaggart who lambasted Warren for being “too nice” and using “quotes from pagan people in his book”.  Today I found a newsletter my parents got from the South Carolina Baptist Convention weighing in on Obama’s decision to have Warren give the invocation.

The two ministers in that article were glad that Obama was trying to reach out to those he disagreed with. However, many things in that article made me realize how truly different I have become. It talked about the “angry homosexual activists” and “traditional marriage”. Just last election I would have wholehearted agreed with them. Now I not only voted for the Democratic candidate for president and I’ve even attended a gay rights group on my campus. I hope to come farther along in my journey. I really want to learn to become gracious and kind even though I’m a long way off from that. Removing the attitude that certain groups of people are less favored in the eyes of God is change I can definitely believe in.