I have been praying about the recent reports of suicides, most recently of the suicides of a number of young men who had been bullied.
A spiritual healing response is demanded here. I had planned to write a blog about this, but found Evan Mehlenbacher's interview on "A spiritual approach to bullying"
Evan's article is so thorough, it is well worth while to read it through. He approaches the topic from the point of view of those who have been bullied and those who have bullied others; bullying when it happens with young kids, in organizations, in workplaces, in the military, or even in nightmares; how to protect and pray about bullying, and more.
Throughout the article, the power of love is explained and shown as an effective way to rid ourselves of any bullying tendency, and to strengthen our efforts in healing bullying.
Here is an excerpt:
...some of the different forms that bullying can take—for example, name calling, spreading gossip, or rumors about people. It could be making faces, it could be obscene gestures. A little more aggressive—on the level of verbal abuse, malicious teasing, or threats.
It could be physical in the form of hitting, kicking, pushing, choking, to get our way or to get someone to submit to our will. It could be less obvious, such as excluding someone from a group that they would otherwise be a member of.
In the workplace, it could be sexual harassment or just workplace harassment. In relationships, it could be a form of date or marital violence, child abuse. On a larger scale it could be the use of physical force in the form of war, terrorism. In the community, it could be gang attacks.
And they even have what’s called cyber bullying now, where, through the use of e-mail, slandering people, spreading malicious rumors, or just spamming you with a huge amount of overload e-mails. It takes many different forms.
But the bottom line is the bully is striving for power and control over a situation, and they work through fear and manipulation. They usually have no remorse about what they’re doing and show little sympathy.
The good thing is, it’s not normal behavior. This is not the way God created any of us. No one was born a bully. And that’s what we need to remember today. That’s why we can be healed of bullying and its effects, because it’s not ingrained into anyone’s behavior to be that way.
And so healing is possible. We can experience a transformation of character there and bring out more of the loving child of God that was put there to begin with.
... I’ve learned how to deal with bullies. I’ve learned a lot of spiritual lessons. And one of them is that love is a power that can transform an ugly situation to a better situation. It can not only protect us from being abused by the bully thought, it can also liberate the bully from the thoughts that cause them to act that way in the first place.
This is an important article. And please continue with me and many others in healing this imposition on us all.
Again, click here to see the whole article
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