Not when they are gay. There are lots of parents who have turned their backs on their children because of it. Alan Keyes is one. I'd imagine many FReepers would not be nearly as accepting as the Cheneys.
Lots of people don't know what they would do until they are faced with the situation. They might bluster about it now, but if the chips were on the table, I bet they would have a different reaction.
I don't know how I would react. I would try to talk to them and if they still chose the deviant lifestyle, I probably would not want much to do with them. Hopefully I won't ever know.
My gay brother is sitting on my couch as I type. Should I throw him out because I disapprove of his past lifestyle?
It's a bad idea to assume thing about Freepers. There are some who are vocal but most Freepers aren't mean. Or heartless. Or stupid.
Alan Keyes isn't worthy to shine Cheney's shoes.
Alan Keyes, bless his heart, is a force of nature, but is also bit of an egomaniac. I don't think his ego could handle forgiving a daughter who acted contrary to his loudly vocalized principals.
I believe homosexuality is a sin, but in my book, someone who would disown a child for their homosexuality is a very small person indeed.
Incidentally, I don't think homosexuality is a worse sin than greed, heterosexual adultery or otherwise not honoring God in our daily lives.
I think a lot of Freepers would surprise you. Some, of course, would not.
That said, I really admire the Cheneys and this article makes me admire the VP even more.
What if your child said they were attracted to pre-teens? Or sheep? Would anything cause you to love them with the truth about life and morality?
In my opinion, Alan Keyes loves his daughter much more that the Cheney's love Mary. And the details of his family situation were widely misreported.
Your generalization makes me wonder about you.
The situation with Alan Keyes and his daughter is not parallel. IIRC, his daughter is very rebellious in other ways as well.
Well, I'm the mom of a gay daughter. It was a sad and tormented day that she was outed (against her will by a little high school punk)I had a fit, a tantrum, I cried and I screamed and then I calmed down, I accepted it and now we are as close as ever. I'm not Cher, and we wont be having a bunch of family dinners and when she's in my home she respects my beliefs on the subject. But the real story is that she's my precious (big) baby and you always love your kids.
"I'd imagine many FReepers would not be nearly as accepting as the Cheneys."
Well, the Bible is pretty explicit on the issue. If one is a believeing Jew or Christian, you'd be in a very hard position.
Obviously still love your child, but reject the sin.
The intractable issue seems to be if the kid wants to bring the "partner" home for the holidays.
I'm generally impressed with Keyes, but he's made some statements I don't accept. Still, I would be careful to avoid painting what happened with his daughter with too broad a brush.
A lot of them unfortunately are, and they're pretty vocal about it. Fortunately, there's always the "abuse" button.
I would hope my reaction would be the same as if a child admitted to be cohabiting with a lover...
In either case I hope I'd have the loving guts to say:
"You'll always be my daughter (or son) and I'll always love you, but your lifestyle is a sin. Don't expect help from me to continue in your sin...if you want to change, then I'll be more than happy to try to help with that too."
"You won't bring your lover into my house, you won't bring them to any family functions, and you will never have my blessing in your lifestyle."
Homosexual behavior is a dead end--not only for an unhappy life now, but a very unhappy one for eternity.
Also, I'm not sure we know the whole story of Alan Keyes. If a kid comes and says, "I'm a homosexual, accept that that's how I'll always be, and you're a bigot if you don't approve!" I'm afraid conscience would force me to separate myself from them too... I don't know what happened with Keyes and his daughter (son?), but that's his business.
The bible teaches that when a Christian is incorrigible in sin, Christians are to separate from any fellowship with them--and this includes their families.
Incorrigible is the key, as everyone struggles with sin, but those who refuse to struggle at all, and give in--after being repeatedly confronted with the sin, have no place in the fellowship believers.
Homosexuals who are activly persuing homosexual relationships...not simply those who struggle with that temptation...should be treated exactly like others running after other sinful patterns. There is a time for love and acceptance, there is also a time in love, for discipline.
Maybe the Cheney's don't consider homosexuality to be a sin. Do either of them profess to be Christians?
Let's hope not. It would be pretty scary to think that a lot of Freepers would listen to their sixteen?,(junior in high school)tell them she broke up with her girlfriend,skipped school,ran a red light and crashed the family car and then babble about hoping she was going to be happy and loving her anyway.
I think or hope that most Freepers would act like parents with a modicum of intelligence and a sense of responsibility and after grounding her for the semester,taking away car privileges until graduation and forbidding intimate,exclusive relationships with boys or girls until she graduated from high school,tell her they will always love her but her behavior was not in her best interests or that of society. After that I would say "now lets sit down and talk about what we did that caused you to act like you're acting.Maybe we have been doing something wrong".
There are a lot of parents who have turned their backs on their kids for any number of problems... the fixation on conservatives and gay children is mostly press created nonsense.
Disowning has been around long before the gay rights movement....