“The parents locked Leelah away!. They took every form of
communication away from her except CHURCH! They took her even out of school (which
was confirmed by WPCO News). They gave her back her stuff after months of
isolation then they restricted where she could go. She said over the last year
she had seen her friends 3 times! You tell me how the hell that is right?”
Are you saying non-religious parents wouldn’t do this? I don’t
believe I’ve seen any Biblical or church directive that has ever prescribed
this. Maybe their brand of Christianity or their pastor advised this; I really
don’t know (and neither do you). I think a commentary on the choices these
parents made can be assessed on their own. Any causal relationship their behavior
has with their religion from what we can draw from what we know of the case
would only be speculative. My opinion is that imposed isolation is not helpful
for anyone that has symptoms of depression.
“And we are not talking about Leelah being a bad person
and getting caught stealing or harming others, BUT BECAUSE SHE IS TRANSGENDER!”
So it would be justified punishment for those things?
“Come on Laurence how the can you sit there and type this
with a serious face? It is not because Leelah killed herself just because she
was depressed. She was isolated, taken to counselors that do not care to deal
with transgender issues (probably because they they do not believe in it) and
give a high dose of anti depressants which in teens has been known to cause
suicide.”
Christopher, individuals commit suicide for all sorts of
reasons. Everyone has varied thresholds of what their personalities can bare to
take. It would only be opinion to suggest that it is because of the imposed
isolation and inadequate counseling that led to the suicide. I was not aware
the child was prescribed antidepressants. By whom was this prescribed? Primary
physician or psychiatrist? As in any case even in adults psych meds can precede
suicide, but you can’t really say they cause suicide.
“So if an atheist or apitheist house hold respected a
child for any reason to that extreme of a basis, sent them to counselors that
only practiced pseudo-science, and then allowed their child to take high dose
of medication that has been shown to increase the risk for suicide then I would
be just as angry. And if this same house hold did this because of something
they did not understand that did not harm the family, I would be fucking irate.”
I didn’t ask if you would be mad. I asked what would you
blame? If parents make bad choices then let’s talk about the choices. It is
illogical to just blame their choices on their religion as the irreligious can and
do make the same choices. You added “counselors that only practiced pseudo-science”.
I was talking about atheists going to atheist therapists. Suicides happen
for various reasons, Christopher. If a client commits suicide, you can’t just
blame the methods of the professional. If the professional violates the code of
thics for their license then that’s a different story.
“So I am not being unjust in my analysis of their
parenting. I am taking the known information and making a judgment based on it
which is what all normal people do. I even gave them the benefit of the doubt
and said that their religion had poisoned their thinking. You eluded to that
they were bad parents and their religion had nothing to do with it.”
If the religion influenced their choices then we would have
to get that from their admission. Otherwise we are speculating on it. Maybe
they learned it from their family culture? Who knows?
“Now I have reasons to believe and there has been books
written by others that suggest we would be better off without religion. You do
not get to make the claim that I am using mystic power to see what would happen
without religion and then turn around and say if we diid not have religion that
we would be narcissistic personalities rising up. You are guilty accusing me of
what you did your self in the next sentence.”
Good point. So, let me retract my precognitions. That still
leaves you with my objection. We can only imagine a world without religion.
However, we do have atheistic societies that have nevertheless replaced
religion for nationalism or some other personality cult. They have new
documentaries on happiness ideologies by self-help gurus.
“Now the problem is that this blog nor my second one was
not the time or the place to discuss life without religion. I can write a
future blog if you want but these blogs were not about the total overview that life
would be better without religion.”
OK. I look forward to it.
“Last I bestow anger and vitriol when ignorance is
displayed. Her parents with either bad parents or ignorant because of their
religion.”
Not sure who you will win over if vitriol is your approach.
The parents may or may not have been ignorant because of their religion. I can’t
say as I don’t know what their religion taught.
“But my latest batch of vitriol comes because while I
will continue to have the conversation about religion and will keep my vitriol
in check for that, THE LIVES of Transgender individuals and the ignorance
displayed in society for the UNEQUAL treatment of those individuals I will not
keep my tongue. I will speak out, and pointedly because those that do not care
nor understand the issue at some point are not worth discussing and I will
fight to change the laws so people can not suppress Transgender Individuals.”
More power to you. I can appreciate when people are
passionate about causes they believe in. I was just curious if you feel your
style wins people over to your cause. Otherwise you are preaching to your
choir.
