Some disclosure, this happened in my hometown, so I know more than this article presents. For example, the lawsuit started seven years ago (and the mother was only asking for $25,000 then, darn economy) and she has been pushing back the trial date continuously. This is also the first time the father has been mentioned in any of the news articles. Finally, the FBI initially looked into the death, on the family’s asking . . . I’m guessing if they found something other than what the Sheriff and Coroner found (suicide) they would have said so.
Even from the facts mentioned in the article, which is more likely? In order for the church’s version of events to be true, and 18 year-old boy would have to be suicidal and fool his mother into thinking he was fine. In order for the mother’s version to be true a handful of teens and adults would have to accidently kill a teen, then fool a police department and the FBI with their testimony and statements. And make the physical evidence fit. And create suicidal journal writings in his handwriting. And keep it a secret for eight years.
Occam’s razor anyone? Misdirecting your parents is part of the job description of an 18 year-old.
Yes a teen dying is tragic. Yes suicide is terrible. But money isn’t going to make everything better. $5 million? From a non-profit organization? Greed is one of the seven deadly sins in case you missed that sermon, Mom . . . and now after 7 years MIA, Dad. (And why do you assume if your son would have gotten $800,000 in his life he would have given it all to you? How much would he have given to the church he went to?) It sounds to me like someone is pissed at life and just needs a target.
I can’t help but remember how another mother, ignorant of her son’s suicidal ways started the anti-Dungeons & Dragons movement in the mid-80’s. Its essentially a shame thing: no mother wants to admit to being unaware of their child’s suicidal thoughts so they try to find someone/something to blame.
As solid as the church’s case may be, defending it could cost a mint. There have been organizations nearly brought to their knees defending cases they did or could have won.
Not really my church, but I know people who go there and I’ve worked with middle school and high school kids so I have a skewed view of the whole thing. I hope it’s not just me and it’s obvious to the judge (jury?).
The suit was filed seven years ago. Can you imagine if it was against an individual person instead of a church that’s part of a national . . . whatever churches are part of? Conference?
They were playing “the choking game”? A black teenager was found hanging from a tree? Sounds pretty questionable/creepy to me.
I was on a christian retreat a few decades ago, one of the things we did was exercises in learning to trust others (faith-building, I guess). Someone took my hand, as I was blindfolded, and led me in running on the beach. ISTR seeing others involved in the falling exercise. So, I could see the choking game being applied in this way. It seems a bit extreme, but there are churches that play with deadly snakes, so maybe I could see it.
Insurance companies have a way of weaseling out of obligations or making non-profits sign deceptive waivers (or threaten them with huge increases if they don’t sign them) that remove their coverage for a lot of rare but costly things such as accidental death lawsuits. I would refer to the recent SCA lawsuit as an example.