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Rachel Held Evans dies

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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105069

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Some of y’all may be familiar with her work - she was a unique voice, a progressive evangelical writer. She was only 37, and leaves behind a husband and two kids.

 

We never met, but she and my wife run (ran) in several intersecting circles, where her loss is resonating rather deeply.

 

She was a good, decent, and kind voice in a time and place that needs more folks like her. This one sucks.

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Your Mom

Your Mom 4805

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1 hour ago, TexOx said:

So was the problem that not enough people prayed for her, or that the reverend didn’t anoint her with enough oil, or what? I’m really confused how this stuff works. 

I'm not even a Christian or a believer in any spiritual being at all but you have to be a pretty terrible person to post shit like that on a thread where a guy is mourning someone's death.  Grow up man.

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TexOx

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It’s a serious theological question. According to the Washington Post article, they asked for prayers, and a reverend anointed her with oil. How is that supposed to help?

Edited by TexOx
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EE2B

EE2B 1565

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So was the problem that not enough people prayed for her, or that the reverend didn’t anoint her with enough oil, or what? I’m really confused how this stuff works. 

You really are a fucking shit stain. She left behind two little kids that will never have their mom again.
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RomaVicta

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Evans, 37, entered the hospital in mid-April with the flu, and then had a severe allergic reaction to antibiotics, as she wrote on Twitter several weeks ago. According to her husband, Dan Evans, she then developed sustained seizures. Doctors put her in a medically induced coma, but some seizures returned when her medical team attempted to wean her from the medications that were maintaining her coma. Her condition worsened on Thursday morning, and her medical team discovered severe swelling of her brain. She died early on Saturday morning.

That's horrible. I don't know anything about her, but that's horrible.

RIP

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RPM

RPM 26317

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14 minutes ago, Your Mom said:

I'm not even a Christian or a believer in any spiritual being at all but you have to be a pretty terrible person to post shit like that on a thread where a guy is mourning someone's death.  Grow up man.

Same here. I'll call out religious stuff when it attempts to interfere in my life, but to shitpost a memorial thread is very uncouth.

RIP to Rachel and condolences to the family.

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phdhorn

phdhorn 6224

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6 minutes ago, EE2B said:


You really are a fucking shit stain. She left behind two little kids that will never have their mom again.

Why are you surprised?  There isn't a religious thread that exists on this thing, or ever existed, where someone doesn't take the opportunity to make sure the rest of us know that God and anything associated with He, Her, It, Them, Us, You, Me, Whatever is stupid, idiotic, and bullshit, and anyone who believes anything about that idiotic fairy tale is a walking pile of ignorant stupidity.

But you see, the thing is, douchebags like that are what keep people like Rachel Held Evans in business.  RIP Rachel... you done good stuff.

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TwiceHorn

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For those who aren't aware, she was an "evangelical," meaning a member of a congregational/nondenominationaly church that confronted and critiicized, on her blog and elsewhere, most of the things that "we" criticize evangelicals for.  She ultimately became an Episcopalian.  She also wrote well about faith struggles more generally.

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EE2B

EE2B 1565

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Why are you surprised?  There isn't a religious thread that exists on this thing, or ever existed, where someone doesn't take the opportunity to make sure the rest of us know that God and anything associated with He, Her, It, Them, Us, You, Me, Whatever is stupid, idiotic, and bullshit, and anyone who believes anything about that idiotic fairy tale is a walking pile of ignorant stupidity.

But you see, the thing is, douchebags like that are what keep people like Rachel Held Evans in business.  RIP Rachel... you done good stuff.

I shouldn’t be, this is surly after all.
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Parliament

Parliament 14243

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2 hours ago, TexOx said:

So, nobody has a clue why it didn’t help. Got it. 

 

2 hours ago, TexOx said:

It’s a serious theological question. According to the Washington Post article, they asked for prayers, and a reverend anointed her with oil. How is that supposed to help?

 

3 hours ago, TexOx said:

So was the problem that not enough people prayed for her, or that the reverend didn’t anoint her with enough oil, or what? I’m really confused how this stuff works. 

Whose sock are you?

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Wally Fairway

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2 hours ago, TexOx said:

It’s a serious theological question. According to the Washington Post article, they asked for prayers, and a reverend anointed her with oil. How is that supposed to help?

We could pray for your soul, but since it is apparent you don't have one, we will move on and help someone more worthy

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Anastasis

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1 hour ago, TwiceHorn said:

For those who aren't aware, she was an "evangelical," meaning a member of a congregational/nondenominationaly church that confronted and critiicized, on her blog and elsewhere, most of the things that "we" criticize evangelicals for.  She ultimately became an Episcopalian.  She also wrote well about faith struggles more generally.

Can you link any of her writings. Can’t imagine such a tragic situation. May her memory be eternal. 

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Hate

Hate 20106

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How awful. That’s way too young. Thoughts and prayers for her family.

 

And should anyone really be surprised by Texox or whatever his name is? It’s a regular occurrence in Shaggy\Surly. Someone tragically gets ill and doesn’t recover and shortly thereafter some clever poster says “I guess they didn’t have enough thoughts and prayers”. I’m not a Christian per se, but I believe in positive energy if that makes any sense. By offering thoughts and prayers, I’m offering encouragement that things work out well or I’m offering consolation if things don’t. I’m not expecting a miracle to happen when I offer up those thoughts and prayers. I’m hoping for the best, but being supportive if it turns out to be the worst. People need to stop trying to show the world how fucking smart they are and start showing the world how compassionate they are.

 

 

 

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Grade of D as in David

Grade of D as in David 13253

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3 hours ago, TexOx said:

So was the problem that not enough people prayed for her, or that the reverend didn’t anoint her with enough oil, or what? I’m really confused how this stuff works. 

 

I am no fan of organized religion, or religion in general, but this is out of fucking line. I would wish bad things upon you but based on this post and your defense of it I can tell your life is already in a pretty shitty place. The Christian thing to do would be to hope things get better for you. I'm no Christian. Fuck off you piece of shit.

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futureman

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54 minutes ago, Grade of D as in David said:

I am no fan of organized religion, or religion in general, but this is out of fucking line. I would wish bad things upon you but based on this post and your defense of it I can tell your life is already in a pretty shitty place. The Christian thing to do would be to hope things get better for you. I'm no Christian. Fuck off you piece of shit.

his life is in a shitty place?  he doesn’t seem angry at the world.  you seem pretty disturbed and upset though.  I do happen to be a Christian and I am going to pray for you tonight. 

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Grade of D as in David

Grade of D as in David 13253

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15 minutes ago, futureman said:

his life is in a shitty place?  he doesn’t seem angry at the world.  you seem pretty disturbed and upset though.  I do happen to be a Christian and I am going to pray for you tonight. 

Things are actually going pretty well, I guess this prick hit a nerve because like the children of the woman in the op I lost my mom when she was 36.

 

Thanks for the prayers and snap judgement though.

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Newdoc

Newdoc 3439

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8 hours ago, Anastasis said:

Not really.  Adverse drugs reactions are a leading cause of death, ~100k per year by some estiamtes. Would put them in top 5 leading causes of death. 

Of course, a lot of people would be dead without medication as well.

Annnnd, you may have too, but I have seen both sides of medical events from in person to on the news and the news is terribad at reporting medical facts.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they messed this one up.

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Spankytoes

Spankytoes 1739

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12 hours ago, TexOx said:

So was the problem that not enough people prayed for her, or that the reverend didn’t anoint her with enough oil, or what? I’m really confused how this stuff works. 

Congrats. You’re a bigger asshole than me.

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Loco

Loco 3752

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Here's a nice remembrance

Quote

Rachel Held Evans, a progressive Christian author whose writing challenged traditional evangelical views on politics and the role of women and LGBTQ members of the church, died on Saturday. She was 37.

Evans was hospitalized in mid-April for what she described in a tweet as "a flu + UTI combo and a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotics they gave me." She was placed in a medically-induced coma after her brain began suffering constant seizures, according to updates posted online by her husband, Daniel Evans.

On Saturday, he wrote that she had experienced extensive brain swelling after being weaned out of the coma.

"This entire experience is surreal," he wrote. "I keep hoping it's a nightmare from which I'll awake. I feel like I'm telling someone else's story."

He thanked everyone who had prayed, offered the family support and donated money. "Rachel's presence in this world was a gift to us all and her work will long survive her."

Evans amassed a loyal following over more than a decade of reflecting on faith issues. An Episcopalian, she became a popular — and sometimes divisive — figure among evangelicals. As of Saturday she had about 163,000 followers on Twitter.

If you’re the praying type - I’m in the hospital with a flu + UTI combo and a severe allergic reaction to the antibiotics they gave me. (I’m totally going to miss GOT! 😢)

— Rachel Held Evans (@rachelheldevans) April 14, 2019

Evans was born in Alabama in 1981 and moved to Dayton, Tenn., as a teenager according to Slate. After graduating in 2003 from Bryan College, a small Christian college in Tennessee, she worked as a journalist and humor columnist.

 

In late 2007 she started her own blog, calling it a "traveler's forum" for faith journeys. Her writing pushed theological boundaries and sparked debates, as she challenged traditional evangelical interpretations of the Bible, including on the role of LGBTQ people in the church, for whom she was a vocal advocate.

Her first book, originally titled "Evolving in Monkey Town" and later republished as "Faith Unraveled," charted the evolution of her faith and her struggle with questions around Christianity.

"I thought I was called to challenge the atheists, but the atheists ended up challenging me," she wrote in a 2016 post detailing her college graduation years earlier. "I thought God wanted to use me to show gay people how to be straight. Instead God used gay people to show me how to be Christian."

In 2012 she published a second book, "A Year of Biblical Womanhood," about her experience trying to follow the Bible's standards for a woman, which included submitting to her husband's authority.

"That was a challenge because my husband and I have a very egalitarian relationship," Evans told NPR's Guy Raz ahead of the book's release, "so it was kind of weird trying to impose a hierarchy onto that relationship."

In 2016 she gave birth to the first of her two children and wrote about becoming a new parent. "We plan to raise him Christian, despite of our own persistent doubts about God and struggles with the Church," she wrote.

Later that year she wrote an article for Vox justifying her decision to vote for Hillary Clinton as a pro-life Christian.

"Even though I think abortion is morally wrong in most cases, and support more legal restrictions around it," she wrote, "I often vote for pro-choice candidates when I think their policies will do the most to address the health and economic concerns that drive women to get abortions in the first place."

While Evans was hospitalized, fans and friends took to Twitter, using the hashtag #prayforRHE to share what she had meant to them. Seminarian Becky Castle Miller wrote that she'd seen many women who said they wouldn't have pursued the ministry if not for Evans, adding, "I'm one of them."

Sarah Bessey, a friend and collaborator of Evans, said her writing was meaningful to those walking the same path. "She championed the voices and experiences of people who often were ignored or marginalized in the church," Bessey told NPR.

In her last post on March 6, Evans wrote about the beginning of Lent and the frustration and grief that readers of faith might have over their own churches, citing recent divisions in the United Methodist Church over LGBTQ inclusion.

"It strikes me today that the liturgy of Ash Wednesday teaches something that nearly everyone can agree on," she wrote. "'Remember that you are dust and to dust you will return.' Death is a part of life. My prayer for you this season is that you make time to celebrate that reality, and to grieve that reality, and that you will know you are not alone."

 

https://www.npr.org/2019/05/04/720298646/rachel-held-evans-christian-writer-who-questioned-evangelical-beliefs-dies-at-37?utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20190505

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Anastasis

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3 hours ago, Newdoc said:

Of course, a lot of people would be dead without medication as well.

Annnnd, you may have too, but I have seen both sides of medical events from in person to on the news and the news is terribad at reporting medical facts.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they messed this one up.

Totally on the same page in terms of perspective. Gonna spoiler the supporting cites to avoid cluttering up this thread too much with the sidebar.

Source: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-interactions-labeling/preventable-adverse-drug-reactions-focus-drug-interactions

Why Learn about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR)?

The first question healthcare providers should ask themselves is "why is it important to learn about ADRs?" The answer is because ADRs are one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in health care. The Institute of Medicine reported in January of 2000 that from 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur annually from medical errors.1 Of this total, an estimated 7,000 deaths occur due to ADRs. To put this in perspective, consider that 6,000 Americans die each year from workplace injuries. 

However, other studies conducted on hospitalized patient populations have placed much higher estimates on the overall incidence of serious ADRs. These studies estimate that 6.7% of hospitalized patients have a serious adverse drug reaction with a fatality rate of 0.32%.2  If these estimates are correct, then there are more than 2,216,000 serious ADRs in hospitalized patients, causing over 106,000 deaths annually. If true, then ADRs are the 4th leading cause of death—ahead of pulmonary disease, diabetes, AIDS, pneumonia, accidents, and automobile deaths.

These statistics do not include the number of ADRs that occur in ambulatory settings. Also, it is estimated that over 350,000 ADRs occur in U.S. nursing homes each year.3 The exact number of ADRs is not certain and is limited by methodological considerations. However, whatever the true number is, ADRs represent a significant public health problem that is, for the most part, preventable.

1Committee on Quality of Health Care in America: Institute of Medicine. To err is human: building a safer health system. Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press; 2000. 2Lazarou J, Pomeranz B, Corey PN. Incidence of adverse drug reactions in hospitalized patients: A meta-analysis of prospective studies. JAMA 1998;279:1200–1205. 3Gurwitz JH, Field TS, Avorn J, McCormick D, Jain S, Eckler M, et al. Incidence and preventability of adverse drug events in nursing homes. Am J Med 2000;109(2):87–94.

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Anastasis

Anastasis 23463

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Made CNN feed this morning:

https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/04/us/rachel-held-evans-dead/index.html

Rachel Held Evans, popular Christian writer, dies at 37

Rachel Held Evans
 
Rachel Held Evans

(CNN)Rachel Held Evans, a New York Times best-selling author, died Saturday morning at age 37, according to a blog her husband maintained on her website.

The Dayton, Tennessee, native wrote books that examined faith, doubt and life in the Bible Belt, her website states. She was also a featured contributor to the CNN Belief Blog where she wrote articles discussing LGBTQ culture and its relationship with evangelicals and the reason millennials are leavingevangelical churches.
Evans' 2012 book "A Year of Biblical Womanhood" reached No. 18 on The New York Times Best Sellers list upon its initial release, according to her website. The book looks at her year of "biblical womanhood" in which she participated in acts such as growing out her hair, making her own clothes, obeying her husband, waking up before dawn and camping in the front yard during her period.
"This is a dream come true for any writer, of course, but even more meaningful than making the elusive 'list' has been hearing the stories of readers impacted by the book," Evans wrote in November 2012.
Evans' other books include "Faith Unraveled" (2010), "Searching for Sunday" (2015) and "Inspired" (2018).

Evans was in medically induced coma

On April 19, Evans' husband, Daniel, began posting updates about her health on her blog. He said that during treatment for an infection, doctors found she was having constant seizures.
Evans was put into a medically induced coma on April 19 because of seizures, her husband wrote. Over the next 10 days and transfers between three facilities, Evans was comatose.
Doctors began weaning Evans off coma medication Tuesday, but she "did not return to an alert state during this process," her husband wrote.
"The hospital team worked to diagnose the primary cause of her seizures and proactively treated for some known possible causes for which diagnostics were not immediately available due to physical limitations," he wrote.
Thursday, Evans had "sudden and extreme" changes in her vitals. A medical team found "extensive swelling of her brain" and took emergency action.
"The team worked until Friday afternoon to the best of their ability to save her," Daniel wrote. "This swelling event caused severe damage and ultimately was not survivable."
Daniel said the entire experience was "surreal."
"I keep hoping it's a nightmare from which I'll awake. I feel like I'm telling someone else's story," he wrote.
"I cannot express how much the support means to me and our kids. To everyone who has prayed, called, texted, driven, flown, given of themselves physically and financially to help ease this burden: Thank you. We are privileged. Rachel's presence in this world was a gift to us all and her work will long survive her."

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troph

troph 24781

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It’s not a big secret evangelicalism fucked me up quite a bit. I hoped that brand of Jesus would chase the gay* away. And it’s less of a secret it didn’t. It’s even less of a secret evangelicalism is one the greatest threats to our accepting, secular society where all religions and all people are allowed to join in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.

When I was coming out she was one of the most influential voices and helped me see that real Christianity isn’t monopolized by any one group and that people can be super serious about loving Jesus and think I’m more than just ok, I’m actually a full member of the tribe, no asterisk required. That’s a huge deal given how much we hear we are less than equal and worse from voices in every direction. And it’s gotten a lot better because brave people like her.

I’m very sad.

*trans, queer, gay, all of it.

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Asithappens

Asithappens 974

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30 minutes ago, troph said:

 It’s even less of a secret evangelicalism is one the greatest threats to our accepting, secular society where all religions and all people are allowed to join in the pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
 

That's why I'd rather not see her described as being "evangelical".

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troph

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That's why I'd rather not see her described as being "evangelical".

I hear you but there needs to be a place for folks who are that zealous who also don’t hate difference. I actually have several friends from my past who are like this and the best way to understand them is non hating evangelicals but I hear you.
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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105069

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I hear you but there needs to be a place for folks who are that zealous who also don’t hate difference. I actually have several friends from my past who are like this and the best way to understand them is non hating evangelicals but I hear you.

It’s important that she WAS from an evangelical background. That’s a big part of why her voice resonated - because “evangelical” need not be what it has become.
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Brisketexan

Brisketexan 105069

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I hear you but there needs to be a place for folks who are that zealous who also don’t hate difference. I actually have several friends from my past who are like this and the best way to understand them is non hating evangelicals but I hear you.

It’s important that she WAS from an evangelical background. That’s a big part of why her voice resonated - because “evangelical” need not be what it has become.
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KYHorn

KYHorn 17014

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3 hours ago, Brisketexan said:


It’s important that she WAS from an evangelical background. That’s a big part of why her voice resonated - because “evangelical” need not be what it has become.

There was a huge debate in some of my circles during and after the Trump election (no CR) around whether the term evangelical should be abandoned because it really has just come to have little meaning, as there is quite a diverse group who at one point or another considered themselves evangelical, including people who never attend church, but who associate it with southern or rural values, or whatever it may be. 

Also, I appreciated this tweet from John Dickerson. 

 

  

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Bevo

Bevo 13567

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19 hours ago, Newdoc said:

Of course, a lot of people would be dead without medication as well.

Annnnd, you may have too, but I have seen both sides of medical events from in person to on the news and the news is terribad at reporting medical facts.  I wouldn’t be surprised if they messed this one up.

Maybe, but many PCPs over prescribe antibiotics. She had the flu and should have been told to take fluids and give it a couple of weeks for recovery.

 

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Cajun

Cajun 11705

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On 5/4/2019 at 6:30 PM, RPM said:

Same here. I'll call out religious stuff when it attempts to interfere in my life, but to shitpost a memorial thread is very uncouth.

RIP to Rachel and condolences to the family.

All of this.

Why piss on a thread like this?

smh

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