There's a Troll in the Blog!

Journeying through the swamp infested blog, our adventurer is "Scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, Battling Rodents of Unusual Size, Facing torture in the Pit of Despair". . .I suppose we shouldn't be surprised.

Mark Byron is a blogger who stepped into it with a very controversial post--he was doing a thought experiment for a supposed "Christian Liberation Front". Then he got hammered by the libs. Byron does some introspection over the weekend over the post and returns, refocused.

Well, the blog entry has Byron being pretty open and honest about things, but some troll gets in there and just bangs on him to "return to the closet where Jesus can explain to you what he meant". I presume that Mr. Troll does know what Jesus meant and, therefore implies that Byron does not Understand.

This is what bugs me about the dark side of electronic discourse: the free interchange of ideas turns into an ugly flame war led by trolls on both sides. I'd like to think that although the people who make up the Carpetbloggers do take and espouse a particular stand on issues, that we are capable of responding and commenting in a thoughtful manner (ed: most of the time). This is also another reason why I am very guarded about posting more personal entries; there are some who delight in taking advantage of such expression. Such people remind me of a couple of guys I knew in high school who weren't known as terribly nice blokes.

Thankfully, the best thing to do is that I can just stop looking at the monitor, look up at the blue sky, take a breath and take stock of life. Ultimately, no blow hard in some online comments section can invade your offline life: family, faith, friends, work. There is only so much you can concern yourself with, concern yourself only with today:

25"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (courtesy of gospelcom.net)

I presume that just as the birds of the air and the lilies of the field didn't worry about the day to day issues of being cared for, so they also probably didn't worry about their blogs. In the end, the opinions of people who leave the electronic equivalent of graffiti (really, blogging is a sort of a glorified poster wall) don't matter that much at all, in comparison to living the non-electronic life. Gee, go figure.

That is, unless the opinionated people are stalking you ;).

UPDATE: Another comment appears in Byron's blog. Keith says, "You better pray you SOB. My kids read that trash.>". Is this indicative of the quality and level of American rhetoric today?