Accountability

LZ Granderson makes a number of good points in an article he writes about parental responsibility and criminal behavior in children.

Accountability is in short supply.

When my daughter was in 8th grade, she and three friends were caught with a Burn Book (just like Mean Girls, I imagine). My daughter called me from school devastated and admitted reading and laughing at some of the crude entries. She said the principal would be calling me about the punishment.

I asked her what on God's good earth would possess her to take part in such a cruel demeaning act of bullying. How hurtful it was. How wrong it was.  Did she not remember how much trouble the girls in the movie got into when they were caught?

Sobbing, she acknowledged her mistake.

Then I told her I would fully support whatever punishment the principal wanted to give her. And that I expected not one word of complaint from her.

When the principal called me a short time later, I told her Liz had informed me about what happened..

The principal told me my daughter would have in school suspension for a week for her participation, just as would the other three girls. She explained that the suspension was basically day long detention, where she would work on her schoolwork in isolation.

I asked if she could have some math support, since it was a subject she struggled with. The principal assured me that would be arranged so that she didn't fall behind.

"Sounds good to me."

Now some argued that I should have fought for a lesser punishment- my daughter didn't write the burn book, she was only shown it...

I disagreed.

Because the moment she saw that someone wrote those mean things, she should have told her teacher. That bullying or supporting bullying was never okay.

She needed to be accountable for her actions. And what she did was wrong. I believe she is a better person for my harsh stand.

“If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

"Preach the Gospel, using words when necessary."

While I was away, one of the big news stories was about Pope Francis and his thoughts on gay men and women. And with the spin doctors going at full speed, you can tell it was not what the conservatives of the Catholic Church were expecting to hear... Though I am pretty sure it is pretty close to WWJD.

When Pope Francis was asked about the "gay lobby" as in an inter-curial pressure group (nobody is sure if they lobby for or against the acceptance of gay Catholics), he said while that might be an issue, he did not have a problem with men and women who are homosexual.

“When I meet a gay person, I have to distinguish between their being gay and being part of a lobby,” he said in reply. “If they accept the Lord and have good will, who am I to judge them? They shouldn’t be marginalized. The tendency (to homosexuality) is not the problem ... they're our brothers."

He is very like Pope John XXIII, who will be made a saint this year- the Pope of Vatican II. (Why is Vatican II so important). Ed Asner did a great job or portraying this humble man in "Pope of Peace".

I really like this man. He is a breath of fresh air. I pray for his on-going leadership of the Church.