Christine, I don't get all lathered up by "reports" of incidences of things happening that I've never heard of in my life. I agree that undoubtedly a whole bunch of children run away from home every year, and that some children are kicked out be incredibly abusive and unloving parents.
But again, I'm waiting for someone who has actually had a sighting of a conservative Christian parent kicking their kid out of the house because they are gay.
And NO, I wouldn't say that my personal beliefs or non-beliefs are in ANY WAY responsible for other people's deaths. If that were true, I would have to bear personal responsibility for the deaths of:
1) Alcoholics, because I disapprove of them. Does that disapproval from a personal belief cause them to get in their cars and drive off bridges? Nuh uh.
2) Promiscuity: I personally might not approve of this. I don't want to offend anyone here by "forcing my beliefs on them", so let's just for make-believe purposes, assume that I don't personally approve of promiscuous sexual activity. Now suppose someone here ENJOYS being promisuous, or maybe even has a medical disorder where they have a sexual addiction. Suppose that such a person commits suicide for some reason, why I don't know. Maybe their boss fired them for not getting enough work done.
Is it my fault that such a person commits suicide? Particularly if that person had never even met me or even once talked to me? What if I did once talk to them, but I was very polite and didn't mention anything about how I felt about their behavior? Would it still be my fault? I hope you're getting my point here. However, if the person asked me about my personal beliefs and I told them, and that made them so depressed that they comitted suicide, then I guess they were in a somewhat fragile state anyway. I would be sorry of course, but they shouldn't have asked. |
