From Todd Starnes:
As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after an anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible and reportedly called those who refused to listen to his rant “pansy assed.”
Writer and speaker Dan Savage was apparently asked to give a speech on anti-bullying at the National High School Journalism Conference. Instead, it turned into a “pointed attack on Christian beliefs.”
See the video clip below (language warning):
There’s so much in this tirade that ought to be addressed. So much. For now, however, I’ll content myself with making one observation: isn’t it a little ironic that this anti-bullying activist is using the very tactics he supposedly decries?
Linden Wolfe observes,
No one feels bullying is more wrong than I do (I know what it feels like to be bullied). So for all of us, Dan Savage included, I thought I’d share some information from a US Government website on bullying (Bullying Definition | StopBullying.gov). According to this group there are 3 types of bullying; verbal, social, and physical. Here are the some examples of the first 2:
Verbal bullying is saying or writing mean things. Verbal bullying includes:
- Teasing
- Name-calling
- Inappropriate sexual comments
- Taunting
- Threatening to cause harm
Social bullying, sometimes referred to as relational bullying, involves hurting someone’s reputation or relationships. Social bullying includes:
- Leaving someone out on purpose
- Telling other children not to be friends with someone
- Spreading rumors about someone
- Embarrassing someone in public
Based on this, I think it’s safe to say that Dan Savage was acting the bully or, at the very least, using bullying tactics. Yes, there is such a thing as righteous indignation but I don’t think this tirade qualifies.
Nope. Nothing righteous about it at all. “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34)