Trial by Tabloid

Maureen Hall Puccini Wandering Thoughts
Bullying Decades Ago

The urge to bully and demean other people has been in our culture for a long time. Back in middle school, a gang of 4 girls made my life miserable with their cruel words. That was decades ago. Now those women have hopefully grown into loving grandmothers.

A heavy adjustable wrench with a face terrorizes four smaller crescent wrenches.

But back then I had some smart ways to defend myself. One was avoidance. I knew where my gang of bullies would be, so I made sure I went elsewhere. Plus I wasn’t aware of what unkind people said about me behind my back.
So I skipped a lot of pain.
Unfortunately, our electronic media makes bullying much more damaging. Because in the digital age, teenagers feel compelled to check out what their enemies are saying about them. It’s never good.
Cyberbullying
The definition for this type of bullying is pretty clear.
Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation. Some cyberbullying crosses the line into unlawful or criminal behavior.
(My source is Stopbullying.gov)
Six hands pointing fingers at a little girl who's covering her face.Interestingly enough, when the mean content isn’t caught and deleted, cyberbullies can end up building a permanent online reputation for themselves, which impacts them negatively as adults.
The technology might be new, but when I saw the words
…sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else…causing embarrassment or humiliation…
I realized it was time for some internal evaluation
Personal Questions

As a believer, I have to ask myself; how is my mind bent? Am I quick to believe evil of others? Usually I would say no. I tend to make positive assumptions about people when meeting them for the first time. But wait a minute. What about celebrities? Or politicians? Or just well-known TV personalities?

If I hate a Senator’s or President’s politics, how easily do I believe anything evil that’s said about them?

Pretty easily.

So this proverb I read recently is pretty convicting.

Those eager to embrace evil listen to slander,
for a liar loves to listen to lies.
(Proverbs 17:4 The Passion Translation – TPT)

Ouch.

Trial by Tabloid

The tabloids in the checkout line often catch my eye. But even if I don’t buy them, glancing at the headlines does harm. I’m prone to believe the “featured scandal” if it’s about a celebrity I dislike.

Yet I know many of the articles are outrageous lies, only meant to make people buy the magazines.

The Cure

Does the cover of a tabloid ever trigger an urge in me to pray for the celebrities pictured? No, of course not. It only triggers my curiosity.

So I’d like to suggest a new course of action. Anyone featured in a tabloid is obviously under heavy attack. So let’s provide some “prayer cover.” Take a moment to lift these famous people up into the throne room and ask the Lord to minister life to them.

Then buy your groceries and go home.

It would be a very God-honoring habit to develop.

These images came from Pixabay.com

Resources:

My late mother, Kathleen Hall, had a cardinal rule she lived by. If she heard something good about someone, she passed it on. But she heard something bad about someone, she kept it to herself.

Smart lady.

A feminine smiley face with a halo and angel wings, resting on a cloud.

 

 

 

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2 thoughts on “Trial by Tabloid”

  1. Mary Scro

    Good post, Maureen! We always need to be reminded, it’s so easy to get led off track these days. I shared on FB 🙂
    Thank you!

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