{"id":1006,"date":"2010-04-08T10:35:21","date_gmt":"2010-04-08T10:35:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/prayers-for-a-beliefnet-blogger.html"},"modified":"2010-04-08T10:35:21","modified_gmt":"2010-04-08T10:35:21","slug":"prayers-for-a-beliefnet-blogger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/prayers-for-a-beliefnet-blogger.html","title":{"rendered":"Prayers for a Beliefnet Blogger"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"michele.jpg\"<\/span>We wanted to ask if you’d please extend your prayers to someone in the Beliefnet blogging family, Michele McGinty, who writes “Reformed Chicks Blabbing<\/a>,” a conservative political blog.<\/p>\n

Her friend Angela Arnold posted this today on Reformed Chicks: <\/p>\n

“As you know, the cancer has returned, and it is very aggressive. The
\nchemotherapy that began in January was totally ineffective. Yesterday
\nshe started a new drug, and we are hopeful that it will stop the growth
\nof this cancer.”<\/p>\n

We at Fresh Living and Beliefnet are sending our hope and light her way.<\/p>\n

I also wanted to share an earlier posting from Angela<\/a> on Michele’s blog, in response to some unkind comments on Michele’s news. Political blogs on our site and elsewhere tend to attract the most vociferous, unkind, below-the-best snipes and Michele’s is no exception. News of her cancer has not been met with collective compassion. It’s awful. And yet I notice these uncharitable tendencies in myself, especially around loaded political topics–and I’m also a cancer survivor. Another rashy symptom of being human, me thinks. And though I usually contain my not-nice urges within my cranium, clearly others do not. Angela has some beautiful things to say about that, the way we hide behind pseudonyms to express the bile in our souls:<\/p>\n

“Among my friends and acquaintances are political conservatives,
\nmoderates, and liberals. They are Christian, decidedly not Christian,
\nand decidedly undecided. Full quiver, no quiver, vegan and meat loving,
\nschool teachers and home educators, people from every era and corner of
\nmy life are represented there.<\/p>\n

I do not always agree with their comments.
\nI do not always agree with their lifestyle choices.
\nI do not always agree with the ballots that they cast.<\/p>\n

But I will never elevate my own desire to be “right” over your desire to just be.
\nNo matter how eloquently I may speak, without love, I am a clanging
\ncymbal. And so, my mission is to be encouraging and loving in every
\nonline interaction.<\/p>\n

Why is it so much easier for some people to be charitable face to
\nface than it is for them to be that way in the anonymous blogosphere? I
\nunderstand that when a person creates a blog, he or she invites a
\ncertain level of public scrutiny and criticism. But why does the very
\nsemblance of human decency cease to exist when one is hiding behind a
\npseudonym? If I were your neighbor, your co-worker, your high school
\nhoney, would you feel quite so comfortable calling me an idiot and
\ntaking joy in my suffering? And would I deserve such contempt simply
\nbecause I dare to disagree with your political leanings?<\/p>\n

There can be peace, even among those who must agree to disagree.
\nThis is not some wishy-washy surrender to moral relativism, but a real
\ndesire to live at peace with all people, as much as it depends on me.” – Angela Arnold <\/p>\n

Here’s a link<\/a> to Angela’s entire post.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We wanted to ask if you’d please extend your prayers to someone in the Beliefnet blogging family, Michele McGinty, who writes “Reformed Chicks Blabbing,” a conservative political blog. Her friend Angela Arnold posted this today on Reformed Chicks: “As you know, the cancer has returned, and it is very aggressive. The chemotherapy that began in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-valerie-reiss","category-holistic-living"],"yoast_head":"\nPrayers for a Beliefnet Blogger - Fresh Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/2010\/04\/prayers-for-a-beliefnet-blogger.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Prayers for a Beliefnet Blogger - Fresh Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We wanted to ask if you’d please extend your prayers to someone in the Beliefnet blogging family, Michele McGinty, who writes “Reformed Chicks Blabbing,” a conservative political blog. 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She was a founding editor at Breathe magazine, and her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Women's Health, Natural Health, Yoga Journal, Lime.com, Vegetarian Times, and ABCNEWS.com. A native New Yorker, Valerie holds an M.S. from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and a B.A. from Beloit College in Creative Writing with a minor in Women's Studies. She also lived in Maui for a while where she drank green papaya juice and taught some creative writing. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/author\/vreiss"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1006"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1006\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/freshliving\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}