How much would it take for you to do something illegal or immoral to protect your family? I mean if you had absolutely nothing and no prospects for income. No one's hiring and you haven't got a job. Imagine there aren't the governmental programs there are today. Or, imagine there are and you don't have six weeks to wait until the paperwork goes through to eat, and neither do your kids. Your savings have evaporated. You've no check book, no credit cards, no one you know has money. What if you had no money in your pocket, your family hasn't eaten anything today, you've got an eviction notice on your door and you've nothing of value to sell? How would you take care of the people depending on you? How can you tell your kids they can't eat? Could you send your kids to bed hungry knowing there will be no food tomorrow? What will you do tomorrow, when there still isn't anything to eat?

If Lutie was ever at the point where she didn't have any income, how would she feed her son or give him shelter? If there were no other means of her making money, if her son's only means of survival depended on his mother finding a few dollars wherever she could, would it justify Lutie prostituting herself?

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2000

Answers

That is a very good question in just how far ones faith is in their morals. It's one of those made up scenarios where either way you go it is just going to be hideously ugly,and it all depends upon that millimeter of an advantage that one values more. What's more important; making sure the kids can survive, or keeping intact with what you said you'd never cross-you're moral values- your word against your own, your pride. It's a tough choice,and to be honest,I was suprised that Lutie didn't turn to prostitution. I think it makes one weak to go against their own morals, but I think it makes one weaker if they cannot physically feed their own flesh and blood.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2000

I would do whatever I had to do to. I think it would go against my morals by not doing what was in my ability (whether it was legal or illegal) to watch my family starve or be put out of doors. But what may be immoral to one may be comepletely moral to another. Take for instance abortion. To one it may be morally wrong, but to another it may be acceptable, but it is not up to me to pass judgment on the action of others. Each of us is ultimately responsible for our own actions and the outcome of those actions. I also cannot pass judgemnet on another for the decisions they make concerning such issues, as they will ultimately answer for their decisions further in life or thereafter.

-- Anonymous, April 24, 2000