Examine free-will and its impact on determining whether or not a person is responsible for his or her

immoral actions. Are there degrees of responsibility for actions, or are actions judged on absolute
standards? Respond and substantively reply to at least two of your fellow students.

Freewill is Gods greatest gift to humanity. However this gift still does not give humanity the get out of jail
free card. Free will is having the ability to make choices. They can be good choices or they can be bad
choices. It appears that free will issues always come to the surface when there is an issue of a poor
decision. This tends to be used as an escape goat to not having to obey moral principles to others.

My example; In the City of Portage, Mi there is a trial going on over the death of a teenage girl. This girl
died from an overdose of heroin. The story goes something like this. Two friends get to gather for a sleep
over at one of the girl’s houses. They sneak out of the house near evening. They go to a known heroin
dealer. One of the girls buys the heroin. Both girls inject the heroin. The girl who was the guest of the
other for the sleep over, stops breathing and goes into cardiac arrest. She is unable to be revived and
dies. The parents want justice. The heroin dealer is arrested and charged with delivering the heroin to the
girls. The living girl who bought the heroin is arrested and charged with having an illegal controlled
substance and for delivering it to her friend who died. She is also being charged with negligent homicide
because the prosecuting attorney states it was ultimately her fault because she handled the money and
was the one who handled the drugs.

The issue; was the dead girl coerced into doing the drugs. Was she held down and injected with the
heroin against her will. Answer of course not. Each party had their own responsibility and choice to do the
drugs or not. Anyone can go back down the line to point blame even to the country where the heroin was
grown. The fact of the matter is the dead girl had a choice and she chose to use.

The problem this society has is not taking ownership of faults. When things go bad the fingers get a
pointing. “I am not to blame”, “It was not my responsibility to look after her”, “she is a big girl who can
make her own decisions.” The party that seems not to be getting any blame is the parents themselves.
Where were they? Did they know of this girl habits? The mom of the girl on trial did and did nothing to
control it. This is why as a parent regardless of wanting to lose the freedom chain on your child all the
way, discretion should always outweigh letting go of the last chain link. Kids or teenagers are given to us
as gifts from above to care for, to teach life lessons and to love.

This sermon by Jeff Strite could not sum this situation on free will any better.

A man once wrote about the fact that when he was a teenager, he had a drug
problem.
I was “drug” to Church on Sunday Morning.
I was “drug” to Church on Sunday night.
I was “drug” to Church on Wednesday night.
I was “drug” to Sunday School every week.
I was “drug” to Vacation Bible School.
I was “drug” to the family altar to read the Bible and pray.
I was also “drug” to the woodshed when I disobeyed my parents, told a lie brought
home a bad report card, did not speak with respect or spoke ill of the teacher or the
preacher.
Those”drugs” are still in my veins, and they affect my behavior in everything I do
and say, and think.

There is a lie going around. Actually, there were people believing this lie way back
when I was a boy… and perhaps for years before that. The lie? That dragging our
kids to church turns them off to church. There are people who won’t “force” their
kids to go church with them because they fear that result …and so the kids never,
or they rarely go. And most of the time they end up without a spiritual foundation
for their lives.

These same parents will force their kids to go to school.

They’ll force their kids to go the Doctor
They’ll force their kids to do their Dentist
BUT they won’t force their kids to go to church under the mistaken impression that
this will somehow be better for their child.