RANT MODE ON!

Something about bad behavior and ignorance just gets my goat.

My sister, who has been having a rough time of it lately, was interviewed for the San Francisco Chronicle in an article about middle class families that have fallen on hard times. The gist of the article was that not enough is being done to help families and that our traditional safety nets have really large holes in them - holes large enough that even formerly well off lawyers are falling through them.

I read the article on my sister's facebook page and the comments were entirely from her friends and family showing support and offering prayers for her. What I didn't read was the article's comments on the SFGATE.com official website for the San Francisco Chronicle. My sister called to tell me about some of these comments.

1) If you weren't so fat, you'd have a job.
2) If you can't support your children, maybe you shouldn't have had them.
3) If you can't afford to live here, you should move to some place cheaper.
4) I saw a story about people like you on Dr. Phil and I hope the IRS investigates you to make sure you're not cheating the hard working tax payers.
5) I looked up your former employer on Google and their website is atrocious - no wonder you're out of work.

Aside from the arrogance and ignorance shown in these comments, the pure mean-spiritedness of them took my breath away. Has our society really gone so far into negative territory that we've forgotten our basic humanity? Is it really every person for themselves and to heck with the next guy?

Now, other than those people who comment on my blog, we all know that most commentators on other websites are complete idiots. They are ignorant. They can't spell. And they truly represent the lowest common denominator in this country.

Except that their behavior is spreading. It's in Congress now. It's on talk shows. It's all over the main stream news and media. The idea of civil discourse appears to be taking its final bows.

This kind of behavior is categorically un-Christian. Which isn't to say that all Christians refrain from this kind of speech. In fact, in many cases, so called Christians are the worst offenders. The difference being that Christians ought to be called on it when they say offensive things like this. When Pat Robertson says that Haiti deserved to be flattened by an earthquake or Glenn Beck says that Jesus wasn't about social justice, I expect Christians to stand up and say, "You guys need to pray about what you're saying first." That being said, I find that people who make these comments again and again are the first ones who are convinced of their own righteousness (whether Christian or not).

It is telling that these comments come from people reading a newspaper in a city that has only 4% regular church attendance. I know that of the remaining 96% there is probably a large portion that believe that church has nothing to offer them - that they'd much rather spend their time with groups of people that agree with everything they say and think 100% of the time and are never challenged to assume that maybe the world doesn't revolve around them. That's probably true of many communities.

My counter comments to these people would be - get out into the community and find people that are struggling and help them. After just one day of doing that, you will never make such ignorant and hurtful comments again. And if not, then I hope you never find out what life on the other side of those comments is like.