Do you blame the person that gets behind the wheel of a car drunk and plows into a tree and kills themselves? DO you blame the drug addict that is shot while making a drug deal?
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I just read a few pages of those Christian Forums comments for context. No doubt: sweetkitty absolutely deserves to be quoted here. It's classic blame the victim.
The background: A story about a girl, 15, who is hit on by a guy, 29. She turns him down, says she's a lesbian. He kills her. He doesn't like to be turned down.
sweetkitty then starts to argue that the girl brought it on herself by "living a dangerous lifestyle" despite that lifestyle not really entering into it, despite her just being a random victim of violence.
The drunk driver, yes. Their actions lead directly to their demise, they had an active part in it. The drug addict can do drugs and not hurt anyone else and they don't take an active role in shooting themselves (just put themself in a position to die easier), so that person doesn't really deserve it.
As far as I'm concerned: one, neither of them deserved to die; two, the drunk drivers death was an accident (or suicide if they crashed on purpose but I'm assuming they didn't); and three, in the case of the drug addict I would blame the person (or people?) who shot them.
And yes, of course, the choices people make can increase or decrease their chance of dying. This applies to every decisions that anyone ever makes. It's called taking risks. Some times the consequences of an action are more foreseeable than others, which is why some things can be concluded to be bad decisions (driving drunk, for example).
As for the situation of someone being murdered for being homosexual, that analysis is simple enough. As with just about any murder: the person who committed the murder could have been reasonably expected to predict that the victim would die because of their actions, so the blame would be on them; also, the person who committed the murder presumable wanted the victim to die, so the result of their actions was not only predictable but intended.
Yes, I blame anyone who gets behind the wheel of a car while drunk, for driving while drunk and endangering other peoples health, not for getting himself killed.
Why blame someone for getting shot? Apparently you can get shot while sitting in class...
Do you blame the seven people in the Korean school in Oakland who died the other day, sweetkitty?
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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