Missionaries of the Sacred

Bullying

Some of you may remember the Calvin & Hobbes comic strip, which was featured daily in newspapers. Calvin had a classmate who would always bully him by taking his lunch money or through some type of violence. Unfortunately, the January 11, 2011 incident in Upper Darby, PA is a loud and clear message that bullying is not a matter of the imagination, but in fact is a harsh reality. On that day, 13 year old Nadin Khoury was attacked by seven Upper Darby Alternative School students ranging from ages 13-17. In addition to knocking him down, kicking him, and dragging him through the snow, the assailants hung Nadin on a fence and began punching him in the stomach. After he came down from the fence, the seven teenagers began stomping on him. Sadly, all this time Nadin was screaming for help, but passers by ignored the incident until a Good Samaritan arrived. This experience has been described as “bullying at its worst.”¹

Many of us have experienced bullying in one form or another. Bullying is expressed in abusive gestures, words, or physical action. Today, even technological media is being used for intimidation. Known as cyber bullying, one may be bullied through the computer, cell phone or other electronic media.² Bullying is defined as:

a form of intimidation or domination toward someone who is perceived as weaker. It is a way of getting what one wants through some sort of coercion or force. It is also a way for someone to establish some sort of perceived superiority over another person.³

Many people naively claim that these actions can be taken lightly, but bullying is something which we must take seriously. It is a behavior that violates the dignity of human beings. When we think of bullying, we often think of our young children and teenagers as victims, but adults too can experience the harsh behavior. Bullying can come from family members, fellow workers, and fellow teachers.⁴ Bullying alienates and disconnects one from his/her family, school, workplace, and community. It threatens a person’s ability to live a normal, healthy life. It instills depression, fear, anger, and hatred towards others. In its extreme consequences, bullying may create suicidal tendencies. An article, entitled “Bullied to Death?” in the October 18, 2010 of Time states that “In the past four weeks, four teenagers killed themselves after being harassed by schoolmates.”⁵ Additionally, bullying can bring about aggressive retaliation from the victim. The 1999 Columbine High School incident is one example of excessive revenge from a ”pair of alienated young boys who had been picked on, taunted, bullied and ostracized throughout their school lives.”⁶

As Christians, we cannot tolerate cruel teasing, intimidation, and prejudice towards another. God wants all His children to live a full life, free from those elements which degrade our dignity and worth. Jesus’ message is clear on how we are to treat others. He gave us the great commandment: “love one another. As I have loved you, so you also should love one another.”⁷ Jesus also gave us an important command for living a fully human life, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.”⁸ This is compassionate love in action. Our vocation as Christians is to build pathways to protect and defend the dignity and worth of all human beings, whether they are young or old, weak or strong. We must pursue that which is good and true.

Additionally, a Christian can never insulate him/herself from that which harms another. He/she cannot respond passively to those who are being unfairly harassed and unjustly treated by others. If the passers-by had followed these truths, perhaps Nadin’s ordeal would have ended much sooner.