I'll tell a story about something that actually happened: [View all]

My former wife and I lived across the street from another house. At one point a family with three children bought that house and moved in. The children were a girl of 13, another daughter, aged about 6, and a boy who was 11 years old. They were quiet folks and the children were well-behaved. We got along with them pretty well.

Within a year, the children had made friends with us and often dropped by after school while their parents were at work. We'd talk with them, give them books to read and generally act as safe neighbors they could trust if their parents weren't home.

Then, one day, the oldest daughter came by, crying. My wife asked her what was wrong. She said, "I'm pregnant, I think. This boy at school and I had sex a couple of times and I haven't had my period for two months." My wife said, "have you talked to your mother about this?" "I can't," she said. "If I'm pregnant, my parents will disown me." My wife calmed her down after a while and told her that she really needed to tell her mother, who wouldn't do something like that to her daughter.

My wife was wrong. The girl's parents actually kicked her out of their house, at age 14. She came to us, not knowing what to do. I went over to talk to her parents. They were adamant that no pregnant daughter would ever live in their house. Her father called her a "little slut" and said she'd have to figure it out on her own. "We're finished with her. She has sinned with a boy and cannot live in our home."

Uff da. We talked more to the girl, and asked her if she had other family she could go to. She did. Her mother's sister lived about 100 miles away. So, we had her call her aunt and tell her what had happened. The aunt drove up, had a horrible argument with the girl's parents, and loaded the girl and some clothing into her car and off they went.

We didn't hear much more for a while. Eventually we learned that the aunt took her in, took her to Planned Parenthood, where she was able to terminate the pregnancy. But, as far as I know, she never saw her parents again. They truly cut off all communications with their daughter and with the aunt as well. They were violently opposed to abortion for religious reasons.

Soon, they sold the house and moved away, which was fine, because they had also begun to assault my wife and I, calling us vile names and screaming at us for "taking their daughter away from them," ironically.

Anyhow, the church they went to supported them in their decision to kick their daughter out for "getting pregnant," and shunning her and her aunt for "killing her baby."

One of the weirdest things I've ever encountered, that was. I was never able to really understand how anyone could behave that way and think that it was OK. But, apparently they and the church they went to saw no problem with any of it. Unbelievable. Any religion that would countenance such a thing is almost impossible to believe.