Dear Amy: This summer, I chose to invite lifelong friends for a week at a mountain cabin. Knowing that they are ultra-conservative and evangelical, I decided to keep my mouth shut and listen. Listening became difficult when I was sitting at a table in the main room and the other two, not far away in the sitting area, engaged in a critical dissection of a former neighbor’s marriage to another woman (and their new son). I said nothing, but I found it puzzling, as well as offensive, since the woman discussed happens to be my cousin. Why would anyone do such a thing?