JON ALLEN

In my ministry and life experience I have found that there are people who seem to exist to be contentious. You will run into them in all areas of life, but lately I have been noticing them online especially. Although I believe the internet is an amazing tool for us to use, it definitely has it’s shortfalls as well. On Saturday we had an article run in the Salisbury Post about the new Salisbury West Campus. On the Salisbury Post website people have the ability to comment. As I read the comments, my heart sank because there were several people who made negative comments about the church and even wished us harm! It is unbelievable what some people will say in a public forum, and I got the impression these were Christians writing! Amazing. Someone also made a critical comment on a skit video we posted on YouTube. (don’t lose heart though, there were good comments too)

My first reaction when I read something like that is to respond… bad idea. The response rarely comes out right and is often looked at as combative. I made the right decision and didn’t respond to the Post comments, but I did respond to the video comment. I should have known better. People like that don’t want to have a reasonable discussion, they just want to be contentious. If you respond to their comment, they will simply try to find something else to complain about. Their whole goal is to inform the world of their uninformed opinion and get a rise out of someone.

So lesson learned. Given the opportunity, there will always be someone who is negative no matter how positive the topic is. We can’t let it bother us and cause a knee-jerk response. Just rise above it and move on.