UGH! This conversation reminded me of a conversation I had in high school. I was talking with another life guard and swimming teacher several years older than I, and she said she wasn't allowed to use tampons because it was against the teachings of her church to stick anything "up there". When I asked what she used during her period, and she said she "free-flowed." I wanted to run to the maintenance room and dump in more chlorine. I was also told later by another woman--from another religious persuasion--that I was going to "the fire" for using a tampon. Sudden memories this thread brought up! :)

I used tampons exclusively until I got a cup about 3 years ago.

I used them from the very beginning because I hated the "diaper" feeling of pads. I'd "let" my girls use them whenever they wanted, and stress that they change often. There's nothing necessarily "adult" or "sexual" about having something in your vagina. The only concern for me is TSS.

Aw, an honest mistake. It happens. We had a neighbor when we lived in the Deep South who was ... mentally challenged. He believed my husband (a biologist) to be the smartest man alive (except on the matter of snakes). He would kill several snakes a summer and bring them to DH to identify. Every single time it was either a corn snake or garter snake or worm snake. My husband kept trying to help him learn to identify snakes and that some snakes were "good" and should be left alone, but our neighbor kept insisting that they were all dangerous and to make sure our kids kept an eye out for the snakes and avoided them. My kids started hiding when he came over because they didn't want to see the dead snakes. Those were the only snakes my kids ever saw during our years in the South. :(

That was not at all my point, but it was a fact of my choices made because of a bogus belief system. Many people follow that belief system and do well, but it was my downfall. My poverty is my own damn fault. Is that the point?

Oh, god, me too! My husband and I would probably both have good retirement plans. We wouldn't be under the poverty line. We would have put our good educations to work in fields that meant something instead of wasting our best income building years in the ministry. I believed it. I was totally sucked in. And it was no one's fault but my own. I do regret it. The wasted, wasted years. It makes me want to weep.

That was totally amaze-balls!

Yes, that was my belief too, when I was a Born-Again Christian for 20 years. It's what I also taught during my 8 years as a missionary. Then, I found that it was just one more of those things that was wrong about the belief-system of Christianity.

It's ok, Creekmom. You're in a painful, challenging spot. Many of us have been there. I admire you for having the intellectual curiosity and bravery to "stand outside" and view your faith in a different way. There are lots of us here who have done the same. Feel free to PM if you ever want to chat.

I haven't read any responses, so you have my untainted opinion. I'm an atheist, an I completely understand your DH's desire to unburden himself and go off in this way, but I also learned something from my fervently, obnoxiously in-your-face Evangelical Christian days. I don't do this sort of declaiming anymore, and I find it unsettling from others. I've never so much as mentioned my atheism on my FB page. The "zeal of the de/converted" is a recognized thing for this reason. When a person undergoes an enormous life change or change of belief, for which they have great feeling, they want to share it. Over the past several years, I've seen several FB friends convert to Christianity and announce it broadly on their FB. I've had one friend become openly atheist. They do the same sort of things, and they eventually taper off, or so I've found, though some remain tenacious about using their FB to continue on fervent I LOVE JESUS! or GOD IS AN ILLUSION diatribes. I know that a few other of my friends have let go of religion, but don't go bananas on FB about it. :) Today is Openly Secular Day, where people are encouraged to mention that that they are not believers. The more people realize that they actually know and love atheists, the more welcome and less feared we will be. In only one way to I admire what your husband did. One is far more likely to be marginalized and hurt in interpersonal relationships and professional ones, but even gently (and far less abrasively than your husband) mentioning that they are atheist than if they were to mention that they were Christian. I don't know whether I'll have the courage to do it on my FB this year--even just to say "Happy Openly Secular Day" and post a pretty picture. Maybe.

The oil stuff is going on all around me, but fortunately I've never had any one bug me about it. I suppose someone got to my 14-year-old daughter though because she told me the other day. "Mom, I'd love to get you a gift. Would you like some essential oils?" LOL! No thank you, darling. <3 One of my FB friends is offering a meditation seminar this evening. I was interested in going, but I looked more closely and it was all about how to improve your meditation with essential oils. Nope, nope, nope. I'm not interested in a pitch. If it were just meditation, I'd be in.

The RC priest who abused my DH's brother and drove him to suicide at the age of 13 years old (in 1969) isn't even listed on the list of accused/convicted RC priests. http://bishop-accountability.org/ We were told about 20 years he was under investigation by the local parish, but we can see what that came too. Haha! The guy was moved to another state to diddle away with other boys. He's long dead, but I wonder what all he left in his wake.

I'm confused about your connection of atheist with believing that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. The Law of the Conservation of Energy is a fact, as far as I know. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/energy-can-neither-be-created-nor-destroyed It's completely unrelated to being atheist or believing in deities or not--and separate from belief in psychics. Perhaps I'm missing something here. I'm pretty poor in my theoretical physics. :) Can anyone explain it to me? Apparently, I'm also pretty poor at making a hyperlink. Sorry!

Hi, Slipper's daughter. Another voice (Atheist) that says this leader is not showing good leadership qualities and I wouldn't have my children in this group for the very same concerns that your mother has. Furthermore, I let my 13-year old daughter fly across the country, switching planes and laying over in a major city by herself last summer. I'm not overprotective, I don't think; but this is a question of your leader being immature and untrustworthy, in my opinion. Just no.

I don't think I ever saw the Noah story in the same way again after seeing the abject horror of what happened in the tidal wave in Indonesia. Little children ripped out of their parents arms as they wailed, horrified, knowing they were going to die. Doing all they could in the last moments as their helpless little ones were washed away. I guess in Noah, the mercy is that most families of the world didn't have long to mourn.

I think people intentionally trying to tear apart public schools are _not_helping communities. I to think they are harming communities. I don't know anyone, personally, whom I believe is trying to tear apart public schools, but if I did, I would think they are (whether they know it or not) harming communities. Yes, in some areas churches held communities together as well, but we are in more of a pluralistic society and not everyone is Christian. This is one reason that I believe a secular system that benefits an entire community is probably better for community building on a larger scale--and has been for a long time. Nothing wrong with churches providing community as well, but they're not for everyone. Public schools are supposed to be available to everyone who wishes to participate.

Fair enough. I know that Franklin Graham said that he was so glad that so many people on Malaysian flight 370 were Christians (and going to Heaven...while the others were...weeeelllll... but they don't really count in this particular view.) However, in the case that the "transition to death" is neutral at worst, and still carried out by a loving deity it still leaves one to wonder why there wasn't praise for God that he ushered so many into this meaningful transition, if this was really as fervent a belief as the goodness of the deity.

The other day, I heard someone in conversation praising God for saving a person from a terrible traffic accident, while everyone else was killed. You hear these things a lot. Loads of people die in a horrible way, but one or two might survive, and everyone proclaims the greatness of God and how He truly exists, etc. Somehow the deaths of the others don's speak directly of God at all. Yet, in the plane crash in the Alps, no one survived, and you didn't hear about the greatness of God. Imagine what we'd be hearing if just one person had survived. The entire story would be cast in a whole new light. God is good/performs miracles because of the survival of one person and the deaths of so many others! If there were only one survivor it would make the story one of the goodness of a God, rather than the relative religious silence we hear now.

Aahh! Ok! That does make things clearer. Though I, myself, was once Christian (of the Evangelical bent), and I loved our Easter worship traditions, I totally "get" liking the Lent/Holy Week remembrances and wishing we had more of them. Setting several days aside as special and significant was something that really sang to me.

I wondered if you could give your thoughts on something. I once went to a Mormon service on Easter, but there was nothing special about the day. I don't think anyone really mentioned Easter. I don't know if this was because I wasn't in the US or exactly what. Do Mormon churches do anything special at all at Easter? Not, change rituals or anything, but in the other churches I've visited (and certainly the ones I've been involved in) Easter usually had special songs or a traditions, decorations (flowers, usually) or a Happy Easter message, or people liked to wear new clothes or wear an Easter hat. Just something special for the day. I remarked on this, but my friend told me they didn't really do anything special for the day. Again, maybe it was where I was at, but I've always been curious. I'm pretty well-informed about LDS doctrine, but smaller cultural things I'm not so up on. :)

I'm with you, Paige. I echo this entirely, " I know they are killers and scavengers, but what's the purpose of the elaborate traps? I don't like them as bad guys yet. " Nothing about the wolves makes any sense to me. It had better soon though or I'm really going to lose a lot of my interest in the show. Give them some underststandable motivation and rationale for what they're doing. Even if I don't agree with it, convince me it's compelling, writers! I'm not digging it at all.

I feel you. Some things are just painful and frustrating. I recently blocked a very old, very dear friend of mine. Someone with whom I was tight with for nearly 20 years. We were both really religious together. I was actually a part of her deepening faith. Now, I'm no longer religious and she's gone quite over-the-edge. :( I can see her posts when I choose to go to her FB page, and sometimes I do, just to see how she is doing. I found, again, that she had posted some really unpleasant things that made me wince. One of the most harmless was something that was going around, apparently. A worksheet from some school. It showed sketch drawings of images, for kindergarteners I guess, and the students had to draw the letter that represented the picture. Necklace=N. Lion=L. The faces of 2 little girls exchanging a chaste kiss on the cheek for "K" (I think this worksheet had to be pretty old (10-15 years, perhaps?) based on the style of the drawings.) There was apparently some uproar over it. People screaming about how this sort of filth was part of the modern homosexual agenda trying to desensitize us to sin. My friend was all up in arms about it too. I didn't see a need to respond to it. It's just so sad to me. Two little girls sharing a kiss on the cheek. I wish we shared affection more openly in this country. I miss the days when I could hold my friend's hands and kiss them on the cheek. That's one of the reasons I loved living in Europe. There was no point in making her angry at me. I made the mistake once of responding to a piece like that she had posted a year or so ago, very gently and thoughtfully, I thought, and got smacked down for it. I still want to be a part of her life, but when I see these things, I'm so dismayed and sort of disappointed that I can scarcely manage it. Anyway, FB makes me crazy, but it's very needful to me, as well.

So, so sorry! This is horrible--unless it's not. (Sometimes these cases can go either way.) I hope you have lots of loving friends and support. Rely on them for as long as you can. People who love you will want to be there for you and your children. Help yourself and work to keep you all healthy and secure for now. HUGHUG!

My grandmother started when she was 11, and my aunt started when she was 10. There's a range of "normal". Don't make your daughter's menstruation something sexual. It doesn't mean she's no longer a little girl or will automatically become a sex fiend or want boyfriends. It's going to be ok, Mama!

Hmmm, I hope this can become as controversial as cupcakes! My waffles are yucky! I have a belgian waffle maker, and my waffles always come out limp and steamy. I want crispy-outside, light-and-chewy-inside waffles. Does anyone have ideas for a waffle maker (any kind) or a great waffle recipe that can help me? Help me! Seriously. I want some good waffles.