charity wrote:My answers in bold.the road to hana wrote:charity wrote:But they will probably get quite a bit of money out of the guillible ex-Mormons. Notice their little "dontate" button? Estimates are that when the Tanners filed their suit against FAIR on the registration of domain names, which was dismissed rather quickly, they took in a lot more for donations to their legal fund than they could have possibly paid their lawyers.
Charity, I have three specific questions for you:
Do you think a child who is abused by a parent should be able to sue that parent for damages?
For counseling expenses, yes. For "lottery" winnings, no.
Do you believe anyone who is abused and tells clergy who fails to report it should be able to bring action against the clergy who failed to report it?
If it is against someone not connected to the church, no. There are many other avenues of reporting. If it is telling one clergyman that a clergyman of the same church is the abuser, then yes.
Do you believe anyone who leaves an abusive spouse should expect the support of their clergy?
I think that would be a reasonable expectation, depending on what you mean by "support." Church assistance in food commodities and rent subsidy? "There, there, dear, you are right, he was a brute." Church disciplinary action against the abuser? What?
If you are talking about a situtation where both abuser and victim are both known to the clergy, you have a more complicated circumstance than where the abused can go to an advocacy agency, and then it is all black and white, and she is completely innocent and he is a kin of Satan.
But then, in the imperfect world, we can't expect the reasonable to take place. So it isn't a matter of suing the clergy.
In my opinion, unless there are damages which can be remediated with money, money is not the solution. Today, if somebody crosses their eyes at you, you can sue them for causing you "stress." It is part of the "entitlement" theory. Children are entitled to a set of loving parents. Well, yes. And if you don't get them, there isn't anything money can do to make up for the fact that you were on the short end of the stick. Go on from where you are. Learn and be a good parent yourself.
Did you tell someone you needed help and they didn't help you? Go tell someone else. Don;'t just roll over and play helpless.
Should you be able to expect support and help from people? Yes. We are all supposed to be our brother's keepers. What if you don't get it? Get over it. Be as good a person as you can and help others.
So do you just automatically assume that if someone is claiming "abuse" their claim is without merit?