I have good friends who believe in God/Jesus/Diety of Choice. I do not, but if they find comfort in that and don’t try to change me why should I try and change them?

I have good friends who believe in homeopathy/horoscopes/tarot cards/psychics. I’m not as dead-against these things but I lean towards disbelief. Again, if they find comfort in that stuff and don’t try to convince me, why should I try and debunk them?

I try to stand by “to each his own” for the most part. You start preaching or selling me on your “thing” I’m going to hold my own and/or argue with you. I’m honest enough for that. Mostly I try for the polite smile and nod.

But I also have good friends who are gullible or needy enough to get drawn into some totally bizarre stuff. At what point do I stick my nose in?  When they tithe to their church even when they can’t pay their bills? When they change plans because of some newspaper horoscope? When they follow some charmer to the detriment of themselves and their families?  My MIL watched and sent money to TV evangelists right up to the day she died of emphysema, hoping for a cure. Maybe if she didn’t chain smoke at the same time she might have stood a chance, though I imagine the damage had already been done.  I once had a friend who gave up her family and joined a cult.

When do you intervene for a friend? When do you cross that line and try to save someone who just believes differently than you?

I have one friend who gets threats in her neighborhood just because she believes something different than the norm. She has the right to believe whatever she wants, but just how dangerous are the threats? Should I advise her to hide it for her own safety or support her in her stand? I’ve been supportive thus far, but I sometimes worry.

I have another friend who appears to be falling under the spell succumbing to the charms of someone who tells her what she wants to hear. He’s playing her with ideas that make her feel strong but I think it’s all bullshit. Will her good sense prevail or should her friends step in and stop her?

When someone is doing something blatantly dangerous like hard-core drugs, the decision is so much easier. Of course you step up and try to stop them. But when it’s a belief  the lines are blurrier.

“To each his own” sometimes wars with “those who standy by and do nothing…”