Many folks of a certain age who think we’re still young but who are we kidding, played with things called trolls when we were kids. Whoa baby, times have changed. Trolls today are mean-spirited bullies who verbally and wholly rip to pieces those with whom they disagree.
Trolls in the 1960s were small hand-sized dolls, if you will, that had wild, “Don King hair” of colors such as fuchsia, canary yellow, blue or green. They were creatures otherworldly but benign to our childlike minds and hearts. They were play things.
There may be one or more troll dolls in a holding pattern somewhere in the crevices of our attic or I may have thrown them away in my more zealous Christian period. In the Scandinavian folk stories of long centuries passed, the trolls of legend, were quarrelsome, antisocial, and slow-witted creatures.
Today’s trolls, and there are aplenty in the world of the Internet and beyond, are especially quarrelsome, human beings. Their entire existence is based on malicious intent to inflame a reaction from their many targets.
If you have a weakness, and you feel strongly about something, anything, you’re likely to be baited by a troll. Trolls viciously attack people personally just because they disagree with them.
The Internet has given every ordinary citizen the opportunity to express his or her opinion in increasingly harsh terms and nasty language. And we had a President, like him or not, who bluntly disparaged everyone with whom he disagreed. This President does the same, really, but in a slightly different style. This is now.
Some of the first targets of Internet trolls, way back in the 90s were Christians. Imagine that. The Bible says something about Christians being targeted for persecution and voila, here we are, prime bait for trolls.
Why bait Christians? Many have strong, uncompromising beliefs. And there are so many kinds of Christians with a myriad of specific beliefs that make this group enticingly ripe for the spoils of Internet-anonymous, vindictive trolls.
I’ve heard it said about Judaism, that there are practicing Jews and there are ethnic Jews or folks who are of Jewish heritage but do not practice Judaism, the religion. But I’ve not heard the same about Christianity.
However, there are Christians who identify as Christian because of family or ancestral tradition. Or, maybe historically, these guys associate with Christianity as their religion, but they rarely practice it except on religious holidays and tragedies or near-tragedies, when prayer is emergent.
The Bible, an historical document, sacred to millions, and which references three historical religions: Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, makes its “hermeneutics,” the science of interpretation, ripe for trolls. Some Christians are militant political warriors and will put up a fight in defense of Scripture. This is all delightful fodder for trolls.
Do you know that one definition of evil is, intent to harm or at the least, ambivalence toward harm done? Trolls of any ilk, however, are so extremely self-centered that they don’t consider their assaults on another’s emotional or spiritual well-being, to be wrong, or evil. “What’s wrong with making a point,” they ask.
Sadly, because of the “you bully because you’ve been bullied” circle of life, there are Christian trolls out there on the world wide web, alongside the others who troll. Christians are not immune to intentionally perpetrating unkindness toward other Christians not of their kind, denomination, sect, worship-style, church attendance, shared political favorites, or interpretation of the Bible. Unbelievers are considered okay fodder for Christian trolls because they’re not “one of us.”
Trolls are otherwise called, “malignant narcissists,” or in plain speech, self-involved bullies who often hide behind the shield of Internet anonymity. They just don’t care who they harm. It’s a “me first, you thirst” attitude.
I believe that most Christians don’t intend to offend when they act out their spiritual faith. But I also think that some of us just offend some people by being who we are.
Internet trolls, however fully intend to offend the folks they target for offense. Who does that? I thought such behavior was reserved for sociopaths or psychopaths. But if you follow any thread of conversation or comment on the Internet, you’ll encounter a troll or two with their daggers out.
Perhaps folks like this just don’t have enough to do. If you have the time, or maybe I should say, take the time, to make ignorant comments about random people on the Internet, seriously, you need something productive to do with your time.
If you’ve ever looked at a well-developed depiction of a family tree you will have observed that it’s loaded with branches. From the main trunk, large branches extend outward with bunches of branches growing out of other bunches of branches.
When I think about Christians, “the Family of God,” I’m reminded of The Pointer Sisters song, “we are fam-i-ly, I got all my sisters with me…we’re together…birds of a feather….” Christians are a family with all kinds of brothers and sisters, half-sisters and step-brothers, all stemming from the same root system and trunk.
Many families don’t see eye to eye on everything, but most of us acknowledge our connectedness. We’re kin, and there is a history and familiarity that reminds us that we’re related through a similar ancestor. Kinship garners respect, if not agreement.
You’ve heard the saying that you can’t pick your family. And honestly, we can’t expect to agree with the whole “family of man,” or even accept them. But maybe we should start acting like kin, just the same.
There’s something to be said for the concept of “live and let live,” and to just shut up. How about instead of trolling the folks we don’t see eye to eye with, we scroll on past and adopt the benign concept of, “no comment.”