• Oct 25th, 2012 at 11:57 AM (CST)
• By PD
• Categories:

Bullying has never been fun for the person being bullied. When I was a young boy I was bullied a fair bit. I was fat and not good athletically. I recall a few times when I was chased and shoved down, or  ridiculed, etc. as a boy. I can relate to people who are not part of the popular crowd. I always thought bullying was a persistent opposition, not just a negative thought, to which I was taught to apply the phrase, "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me!" (Words can hurt, very badly, as we should admit). 

I have noticed a change in the concept of what bullying is; it seems lately that “bullying” is defined by some nowadays is one negative comment or one criticism publicly announced. The recent incident in which an overweight news personality responded on air at length to insist that a man’s chastising her about her weight online was “bullying,” shows that due to social networking our world is becoming more hyper-critical and hyper-sensitive!

I have taken up Blogging with a fair amount of concern that it is and open invitation to misinterpretation, injection of hyper-sensitivity and rants. I spend no time at other blogs, and I feel the better for it! I have three email accounts and it is work to keep up with them. There IS an incessant pull to please the World (that is, sinful society which cares not for Jesus) when one’s popularity is defined by how many “likes” we get!

I found it interesting that the reporter spoke directly to children struggling with their weight, color of their skin and, “their sexual identity,” which made me pause! So, if I state bluntly that homosexuality is sin, does this make me a bully? If someone else is struggling I am not supposed to have an opinion, or a strong opinion?

The sinful society doesn’t want any criticism, any reminder of our depravity. It is a VERY slippery slope when we cannot strongly voice our belief due to someone else’s hyper-sensitivity, lest we become bullies! Of course, the lunacy of it is, when someone responds in a strong way as the news personality did by airing the entire affair on live TV hasn’t she then started to throw her media weight around and bullied right back?

What if I warn someone that the Scriptures state they will spend eternity in Hell if they reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and they have been struggling with their conscience? Does that make me a bully? If they are hyper-sensitive, I guess so, at least from their point of view. I think it makes me bluntly honest, which is what I read in the Scriptures needs to happen to call people to repentance, whether by diet or moral makeover.