Our children & bullying

There are a lot of articles going around the web about the young man who committed suicide because someone videotaped him having sex and put it on the web. Because the young man was having sex with someone of the same gender many are calling it a hate crime. But all bullying of children by children or adults is hate. The act is horrible and abusive.

I have six children and many grandchildren. I know what it is to have my children bullied. One, a son, was horribly and physically bullied. They were awful terrible bullies. And he was and still is just a sweet exceptional person who cares for and helps everyone around him. And that was in the days when many schools and principals would not do anything about bullying. We removed him from school and after moving into a better school district found a wonderful public school that fit his needs perfectly.

Another child, a daughter, had a girl hand her a horrible note each day as she arrived at school. It was always a different person who handed it to her, but it was always the same girl who wrote it. I saved up all the notes and finally, realizing how depressed she was becoming, I took them to school and dumped them on the principal’s desk. The principal was reluctant but took care of the problem. I called the students mom also and her one response was, well your daughter does wear six earrings in one ear. Sometimes words fail me.

Several years later when this daughter was on her own and working, the same person, who was selling magazines, fraudulently, ordered a huge amount of magazines in my daughter’s name. Perhaps it is our failure to understand that people are sinners and that individual evil is real, that allows such acts to go unhindered and unpunished. I am one who believes only Christ can change the sinner, and only Jesus, usually through us and /or the Church can help hurting children.

They do need to know they can tell us and the church anything. There is no other way we can reach out with comfort, guide through love and scriptures and help them.

Although I know from experience it isn’t just females or homosexuals that are bullied, and it isn’t just males who do the bullying, so I would widen the concern, still I think the former Moderator of the PCUSA, Bruce Reyes-Chow, has some important things to say in this video.