Bullies.

This morning on 103.5 the morning talk show was about school bullying.  They were discussing Bill O’Reilly’s appearance on The View.  It was interesting to listen at first, but then as calls came in, I realized that no one was talking about the underlying issues!?!  Why is it that children bully and is it a new thing?  So far as I know there has always been schoolyard bullying.  It is the tactics that have changed and, perhaps, escalated.

As I consider what it was like to grow up, I think that bullying was simply a part of my formative years.  I’m not saying that it is right, but I think it natural as children learn about interpersonal relationships.  In fact, having been the victim of bullying (although I never thought of myself as that) helped me to become the person I am today.  In fact, it is still a part of my life, today...does bullying ever stop?  We become more sophisticated with how we bully, but it continues throughout our lives.  We perpetrate bullying and we are victims even as we move through adulthood - we just have new names for it:  “business”, “politics”, and “war”.

I don’t believe that bullying is something that we can stop.  I’m not even fully sure we should - even if we could...  I believe we must accept that bullying is part of our growing up process, but we can not accept the escalation of violence and the new ways in which bullying now takes place.  Most of all, we must work toward the elimination of hate crimes that happen daily in schools.  We must make schools a safe place for our children and we can accept nothing less.... but can we control the actions and words of others?  No.

We can only control ourselves:  our own actions and our own words.  We must consider this when dealing with the issue of bullying.  How do we model kindness for others?  How do we change attitudes?  It is not by creating a new law or rule!  It is not by retaliating!  We can only affect a change of heart when we share the love that God gives us.  We can not simply implement new District-wide policies or put more police on-campus.  We must mobilize our churches to go into the schools.

First UMC in Green Bay has begun to do this.  They do not go preach or evangelize in the school - that wouldn’t work (or be legal).  They have 80 adult volunteers that volunteer as aids in the classroom.  They are there to show the children that they are important and loved.  I have seen this first hand and I have to believe that it is working.  It doesn’t just help the child experience God (LOVE).  It can be a deeply spiritual event for the adults who volunteer without even the uttering “God” or “Jesus”.