Nathan Lawrenson's Twitter

[Spider Burps]

I have noticed sun damage in some of his pics. Not to be mean or anything, but at times Gwen reminds me of an albino. I know she isn't albino, but her paleness is kind of scary.

I know I'm late to respond, but I couldn't let this go.

It's pronounced "albinism." And, seriously? "Her paleness is kind of scary?" I'd hate to hear what you'd have to say about how I looked as a child. For most Caucasian people, tan = unhealthy, because tan = sun damage. Nate's hands match his daughter's face, so I'm going to assume the offensive paleness is a result of crappy Photoshopping and/or too much flash, rather than teh horrificz albinismz.

[crazyforkate]

Nate is really such a jerk. I get that he's having a hard time, but that doesn't mean he has a free pass to go around saying this stuff (and I get the feeling he would be saying it even if Trisha was totally healthy). I only hope Gwyneth and their foster child can go on to have a happy life.

[flyawaystray]

I know I'm late to respond, but I couldn't let this go.

It's pronounced "albinism." And, seriously? "Her paleness is kind of scary?" I'd hate to hear what you'd have to say about how I looked as a child. For most Caucasian people, tan = unhealthy, because tan = sun damage. Nate's hands match his daughter's face, so I'm going to assume the offensive paleness is a result of crappy Photoshopping and/or too much flash, rather than teh horrificz albinismz.

I do think it's Photoshop/Instagram filters, to be honest. Nate tends to OD on Photoshop and IG filters, which make a lot of his pics look bad.

[lilwriter85]

Nate is really such a jerk. I get that he's having a hard time, but that doesn't mean he has a free pass to go around saying this stuff (and I get the feeling he would be saying it even if Trisha was totally healthy). I only hope Gwyneth and their foster child can go on to have a happy life.

I agree with that. Looking at his dad's twitter I can sort of see why he is the way he is. He attended Liberty before he met Tricia and back then he was probably spouting anti-gay or anti-choice stuff. I hate to say this, but I think the situation of Gwyneth's birth has give him more of a platform now when he talks about abortion.

[lilwriter85]

For the past few days Nate focused his tweets on sports and Easter. He is back on anti-gay marriage rants. The link he posts to is worldmag.

NathanLawrenson ‏@NathanLawrenson 2h

"The world will make us choose. And if we choose Christ the world will accuse us of hating, condemning, and judging.” http://www.worldmag.com/2013/04/gay_mar ... de_to_care …

Nate, I hope you realize that other religions predate Christianity. Christianity doesn't rule the world and shouldn't either.

[treemom]

No one is making them choose anything.

[ThatSnark]

The bolded part is what makes me the most angry. Happiness doesn't matter? what kind of crap is that? That's really pathetic and awful to say :/

I hope Nate changes his mind later on, at least.

:angry-jumpinganger: Ugh. That's how I was brought up: godliness trumps happiness, and happiness may be a sign that you're letting the devil get a little too close. My mother would take away toys we loved too much or remove us from situations where we were having too much fun.

People don't get over that training very easily. Nathan should think hard before doing that to his daughter.

[lilwriter85]

This has been making the rounds on FB newsfeed. I hope Nate sees something like this and starts to think.

[lilwriter85]

:angry-jumpinganger: Ugh. That's how I was brought up: godliness trumps happiness, and happiness may be a sign that you're letting the devil get a little too close. My mother would take away toys we loved too much or remove us from situations where we were having too much fun.

People don't get over that training very easily. Nathan should think hard before doing that to his daughter.

I hope he changes his mind, but I don't see it happening. I already feel sorry for Gwyneth and the foster child that might eventually adopted by Nate.

[sparkles]

:angry-jumpinganger: Ugh. That's how I was brought up: godliness trumps happiness, and happiness may be a sign that you're letting the devil get a little too close. My mother would take away toys we loved too much or remove us from situations where we were having too much fun.

People don't get over that training very easily. Nathan should think hard before doing that to his daughter.

So basically, you're a Maxwell.

Based on the little I've read of Nate, he's just a cesspool of anger. Some of it's understandable, but it appears it was always there, just exacerbated by his current situation.

[ThatSnark]

So basically, you're a Maxwell.

Based on the little I've read of Nate, he's just a cesspool of anger. Some of it's understandable, but it appears it was always there, just exacerbated by his current situation.

Only on the happiness-doesn't-equal-godliness front--- my mother was disappointed I didn't go on for my doctorate; education was/is a big deal in my family, as was normal progression out of the house to college after high school. But the Puritan bit was there full force.

The whole foster child situation is deeply concerning to me; as a social worker, it's hard for me to imagine placing a child into a family facing terminal illness in one of the caregivers-- how did that happen? I know of cases where children have been *removed* from the home when a caregiver is unable to function due to illness. I live in the same state with these folks and it's a broken system, but I didn't realize it was THAT broken.

[lilwriter85]

Others have here who have followed the Lawrensons for years have said that the foster child has been with them for most of his life. It seems Nate's parents are the ones who take care of him while Nate and Tricia are in Durham. I think maybe the foster child is better off remaining in the care of Nate's parents. Last week, Nate announced that his father-in-law has cancer and he said something about his mother-in-law taking care of Gwyneth. But he didn't mention the foster being care for by his MIL, IIRC.

I think even if Nate wasn't in the situation he in with Tricia, he would still be angry. Let's say Tricia didn't have CF or Nate wasn't married to her, but someone else, he would still be on anti-gay marriage, anti-atheist, anti-Catholic rants etc. Nate's pastor father is pretty hateful too. Nate has tweeted about being angry over things related to Tricia and her treatments. He tweeted something about have problems with an insurance company. He didn't say what kind of insurance company, but I got the feeling it was the health insurance company. I can understand some of those tweets, but he has bashed Duke a few times.

[lilwriter85]

Nate posted on the blog last night.

cfhusband.blogspot.com/2013/04/five-years.html

It's been five years. Five years that we will never take for granted. Five years ago at this exact moment I was getting settled in for a long night, awaiting the word that Tricia's double lung transplant surgery had been successful. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people, mostly strangers stayed awake with me, reading my blog updates every few hours, holding their collective breath, praying for Tricia's second first breath.

I know it's been frustrating for you who care so much for Tricia for the past several months as the blog has been quiet. For reasons I won't share, we felt it best to use only Twitter and Facebook to update about Tricia's health, and we deeply appreciate your patience.

Tricia's health has very slowly continued to decline since arriving in Durham in mid-October. She is down to 100 lbs, her breathing numbers are severely low, and she is very, very weak. She has had several different kinds of setbacks which have kept her from being re-listed...signs that her body is shutting down. Tricia has been working incredibly hard, participating in physical therapy as much as her body will allow. This journey has been incredibly difficult and frustrating for her.

We believe that the end is coming soon. Either she will be relisted because she become a "now or never" case, or the transplant team decides she cannot be re-transplanted and sends us home. We are not ready to be told "no"...as I've explained before, very few people get this second chance to begin with, and we are thankful that Tricia was given this opportunity, for which we are thankful. It is amazing that Tricia has survived this long, through the winter, and until the team sends us home, we have some hope. But, as I said, all the signs are pointing to the fact that a decision will need to be made very soon.

Tricia is not ready to end this. Although ultimately I believe we will both be able to accept God's will for this situation, Tricia doesn't want to leave her family, and I certainly don't want to continue this life without her. We need your prayer and encouragement that the next few weeks will provide us with the clarity to see things as God sees them. We are praying that Tricia will hit her weight and strength goals and that the setbacks will cease so that she can be listed and transplanted as soon as possible, and if not that God will give us peace.

Thank you so much for your support over the years and now. I will update the blog again when I can.

Nate

[chaotic life]

Selfish asshole. Take that tortured women home to her children and give her peace!!! I've said it before and I'll say it again, Nate's selfishness is driving this insanity. Tricia is well beyond the ability to make her own decisions in this and he openly admits he doesn't want to live without her. Tough shit. She had this when you married her and it is your JOB TO PROTECT HER.

[flyawaystray]

Yeah, and he keeps thinking something is going to change. The fact is, her weight is even LOWER now, and her pft's are probably horrible as well. Lower weight combined with everything else = extremely low chance that she'll get lungs, and probably no chance she'd survive the surgery. Isn't the window between needing a transplant and being well enough to survive it very, very small?

[lilwriter85]

I think Nate knows that not a lot can be done for Tricia, but he just hasn't accepted it completely yet.

[HeckBound]

Tricia is in all likelihood dying. What on earth is the fucking point of being a fundy if an afterlife in heaven is still to be feared and resisted? She's not being relisted. Let her relax and enjoy - as she can - her last weeks with her family.

[already hungover]

Poor Tricia.

[uber frau]

Tricia is in all likelihood dying. What on earth is the fucking point of being a fundy if an afterlife in heaven is still to be feared and resisted? She's not being relisted. Let her relax and enjoy - as she can - her last weeks with her family.

I was with a group of ppl talking about end of life care this morning and there was someone who was having trouble comprehending that in all probibility there comes a point where the level of morphine needed to cover pain will suppress breathing and nudge someone toward an earlier death than they would otherwise have. Most of us don't come from fundie backgrounds-in this woman was more of a case of naivety, rather than any religious extremism.

Nathan doesn't have ignorance as an excuse. Not that kind of ignorance anyway. I think his problem is that he subscibes to a version of Christianity that has exchanged any rational consideration of ethics with a series of sound bites that are applied as one-size-fits-all solutions to life's problems. The 'pro-life' line maintains that all life, any life as long as it has a heart beat (or brain activity in anyone past the stage of a fetus), must be fought for, no matter the quality, no matter if it's likely to last for a week or a month or a year or a decade. There is no consideration to the risks or consequences on the heartbeat in the bed or the people around them. It's all about keeping that heartbeat going for as long as humanly possible.

Either that, or I'm just being hopelessly optimistic about his motives and he's just a selfish jerk who can't see past his own wants not to loose something, bugger the fact that his actions are prolonging his wife's agony and denying his children the chance to farewell their mother. Or maybe it's a little of both.

[2xx1xy1JD]

It sounds like Duke had given them hope initially by listing Trish for a second transplant, and then continued to hold out hope to them that Trish could be re-listed if circumstances changed. I can't totally fault Nate if Duke hasn't come right out and said, "there will be no second transplant - take Trish home".

I haven't been in his position and would hate to be in that situation, so I don't feel that I have the right to snark on the fact that he's having difficulty coping with the idea of losing his wife and mother of his child. Perhaps it is inevitable, but it is still tragic.

[Beammeup]

Are the reasons he won't share a) comment problems because he's a nasty bigot or b) book deal?

Poor Trish and Gwyneth.

[tamster59]

When I haven't seen any posts from him in 12 hours I get nervous that something has happened to Tricia They are almost being at Duke for 6 months.Can't be too much longer when Duke makes a decision one way or another.

I know many fundies do not believe in DNR .On one hand you have to give Nate credit for believing in organ transplants.Some of you have mentioned Carmen in California and she is against them. Last year at ths time my sister turned off machines for her husband to follow his directive.When I told some people you would think she was taking a shot gun to him because they are of thought that terry Schiavo was murdered.

[lilwriter85]

Are the reasons he won't share a) comment problems because he's a nasty bigot or b) book deal?

Poor Trish and Gwyneth.

I think it is probably because of the book deal. On the FB page for the book deal, he said back in November that a big publisher was interested in his book. He pulled down the blog archives sometime in December. He shows his bigotry quite a bit on twitter. On the blog he didn't show that. Several people here have said that they saw his true colors on twitter. His twitter is way too easy to find and he will never back out from his hate speech. I have to wonder if people from the publisher have been looking at Nate's twitter. I can see some publishers backing out of deals based on some of the crap Nate has tweeted. I think maybe he has a deal with a large Christian publishing company. But some Christian companies wouldn't want to be associated with somebody that is very extreme like Nate.

If Nate has signed with a non-Christian publisher, he could be writing the book from more of a secular viewpoint. Whether his deal is with a Christian publisher or not, I don't see his book being very huge. To start off, he has turned off potential book buyers with his awful attitude. He gets into spats often with some of his twitter followers. A few weeks back one woman on twitter was totally shocked by Nate's tweets regarding LGBT topics. I'm sure some people involved in the CF community have been turned off by Nate because of what he says about other subjects. I think his very conservative Christian followers will be the ones to buy his book right away. Less conservative or liberal Christians have been turned off his extreme views on abortion and LGBT rights. Some people in the CF community won't even bother buying Nate's book and if they read it they will probably go through libraries. Of course, there will people who will buy the book out of curiosity without knowing what Nate is about. Those readers will end up finding Nate's twitter and will see his true colors.

Nate's book if written from a religious viewpoint will be marketed to various churches and Christian organizations. Megachurches often pay for authors to speak at their churches. Nate would easily take those offers. I can him going to anti-choice events to shill out the book and speak about. I can see that nut Ray Comfort getting involved with Nate and making some kind of documentary on how Nate and Tricia didn't abort. The hype in Christian communities would eventually die down for Nate. I don't see him making huge profits from a book either.

[Koala]

This whole situation is heartbreaking. A mother having to leave her baby, a baby having to lose her mother. No winners there. I wish peace for both of them.

[HeckBound]

When I haven't seen any posts from him in 12 hours I get nervous that something has happened to Tricia They are almost being at Duke for 6 months.Can't be too much longer when Duke makes a decision one way or another.

I know many fundies do not believe in DNR .On one hand you have to give Nate credit for believing in organ transplants.Some of you have mentioned Carmen in California and she is against them. Last year at ths time my sister turned off machines for her husband to follow his directive.When I told some people you would think she was taking a shot gun to him because they are of thought that terry Schiavo was murdered.

I think the difference between executing a DNR and this situation is that, conceiveably, you can keep somenoe on life support and take drastic measures indefinitely without anyone else being impacted. In this case, giving Tricia another set of lungs actively takes them away from another person who needs them. The transplant list is a zero sum game. Tricia's just one of many (it sounds) people who need them, and the big difference between her and the rest of the people on the list is that she has a huband that's been blogging about it.