Friday, April 18, 2014

Internet Theological Bullies

A sharp young man, Teddy Dee, wrote on Facebook: Growing by leaps and bounds in your theological knowledge , without striving to excel in your practicality will ultimately reduce you to nothing more than an intellectual jackass. God help us all. Teddy said I could quote him.

Not everyone on this blog concurs with an end-times view and other issues, and for the most part the discussions have been productive and civil. There has been freedom here to debate issues. The comments were not moderated as I have been trying to discover theology. Now however I have decided to moderate comments on my blogs.

You see, folks, recently I got bullied on another blog. It was awful. It was judgmental. It upset me so much and the bully would not back down or apologize. In fact I felt stocked as he followed me to a message site and kept at it there. Then his attacks were posted on his own blog. I questioned if his pastor or elders read his numerous attacks on others all posted on his blog and he defended himself that they were aware of his pursuits to attack people outside of his church. 

Some theological bullies seem to just have to impress their viewpoints on us. I think that some theological bullies are just plain bullies about a lot of issues and unfortunately their testimony is compromised with the points they try to make as they devalue others in person, on blogs, on Twitter, Facebook and Google Plus. Some perhaps are pharisees and could benefit by reading that book, Accidental Pharisees, that I reviewed earlier on this blog. These individuals can cross the line to a personal attack and they do not acknowledge that they have crossed that line and have become theological bullies.


When I substitute teach, I rap at the end of classes. Several of my raps that will be going on YouTube as MC AC The Rap Lady will hopefully influence students. One of them is my "Bully Rap".  I start out with asking middle school students or high school students who is a bully in the class? The bullies come to the front of the class and in a good natured way I deliver this rap to them:

What he did?
Where you been?
I’m gonna spit it
And you’re gonna get it
Hitting agitating
Spitting aggravating
Take a stand—let’s attack
Rid us of bullies
Always fighting
Gossip behind the back
In person or Internet
Bullies  find excuses
To mess with our weaknesses
As if they have none
And they think this is fun
Just take courage
Report those bullies
Their end is near
Your conscience clear
Let’s get along
Join this song
Let’s be buddies
I’m gonna spit it
And you’re gonna get it
Skip the teasing
Skip the strife
No more hassles
All you bullies
Get a life!

Everyone laughs when I deliver the last line--get a life. The students get the point and I have had students tell me they no longer want to be a bully.  If I know it is a Christian student in the public school who has been bullied or been the bully, I have been able to pray with them after class at times. 

Bullying on the Internet is hard to handle, but I have no choice but to forgive those theological bullies. My pastor or elders handle the situation if it is in our local church, but there is no authority of appeal on the Internet. Instead I have to look to Christ's example. Think how Christ asked His Father, 

Father, forgive them, 
for they know not what they do.
Luke 23:34 



You theological bullies, come to the front of the class and repent of any pharisaic pride you may have. Meditate on this verse:

But this will all men know that you are My disciples, 
if you have love for one another. 
John 13:35


Hey, bullies, you do not need to win those theological Internet battles. Let the church councils and presbyteries do that. The Internet is not the place. 

12 comments:

  1. Love your rap! :-) I bet your students love you! I've been guilty of pride when it comes to doctrine and thinking I've 'arrived'. The Lord is so patient and long suffering and I am so thankful that He continues to bear with us and even loves us enough to humble us. Boy have I been humbled over the years! It's a good thing!

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    1. Our humbling is a good thing, isn't it! Thankful also for the LORD's humbling and mercy.

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  2. It is sad if your stalker thought he had the blessings of his church for what he was doing by harrassing you. My pastor, and others, have adopted the policy of we can disagree about the minors in theology but never on the majors. Obviously the majors are Jesus is God, the Bible is the word of God, the only way to heaven is through Jesus. The minors could be topics like the end times, when the rapture happens, if the rapture happens, infant baptism versus adult baptism, etc. Seems like this guy definitely needs to get a life! It is sad you have to monitor comments; does he do it anonymously? Because otherwise you can not allow anonymous comments.

    betty

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    1. Good points, Betty, about theological differences. I do not allow anonymous comments here. I used to only moderate older comments on two blogs and all comments on another blog.

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  3. Look up "I'm With Shea" on Facebook. She was horribly bullied by her classmates. Just learned about her on Huckabee.

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  4. Well put, Carol. I saw what he said about you and it truly is bullying. It reminded me of the person who not only thinks they're right but also thinks that as long as they shout down other people then everyone will be convinced they're right too.

    Cheers,
    Tim

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    1. Thanks, Tim.

      I was reading this with my Daily Audio Bible this morning: "Good understanding gains favor, But the way of the unfaithful is hard." Proverbs 13:15

      I think that bully is in the process of coming around, thank God.

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  5. My Internet bully did apologize here.
    http://plantcityladyandfriends.blogspot.com/2014/04/movies-with-memory-loss-issues.html
    I accepted his apology. Isn't this rare that you get an actual apology!

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  6. Through the insistence of Aimee I have reexamined the initial exchange between Carol and I that was begun by her comment to me on Aimee's blog. While I was honestly convinced and with good experiential reason, to interpret that comment as I did, I failed to follow the simple biblical principle of speaking to her first and as it turns out, I have become convinced that I very grievously misjudged both her motivation in that comment and consequently her character as an elder sister in the Lord.

    We do continue to have significant differences, but I have asked her forgiveness and promised I would publicly acknowledge that I was very wrong in my assessment of her intentions on Aimee's blog. I am compelled by conviction to stand by the substance of much of what I said to her, but the way I said it was inexcusable and as a result she was I believe genuinely frightened by my aggressive tone. A thing that I certainly did not intend and that does in fact break my heart. She is a softhearted nice lady and nothing like what I took her for

    Regardless of anything else, the last thing I would ever want to do is cause an older woman with her immense responsibilities fear or undue grief by a misunderstanding that was my fault which this was. My hope is that Carol and I can become at least somewhat friendly and that does appear to be happening.

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    1. Thanks so much. Very well said. Everyone has a different definition of a bully and I may always call you my bully, but you are a Reformed bully who has effectively apologized and I respect that we now can dialogue rather than debate.

      Cordially in Christ,
      Carol

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Please be very respectful when you comment. I will try to respond to all comments in a timely manner. All comments are now moderated.