Bullying and the Christian Mentality

[Purple Knight]

Question for Debate: Does the Christian mentality contribute to bullying?
(Even if people who are genuinely Christian are less inclined to bully others.)

I've been thinking about what underlies bullying. And I think it's the idea that innate evil exists. In other words, regardless of what this person does, they still deserve to be punished. I include here, people who believe in immoral thoughts - people who believe that those who think a certain thing, regardless of what they do, deserve to be punished.

Someone who beats a kid up for lunch money might not be a bully. They may be a tyrant, demanding their way, but if the kid gives up their lunch money, and the tyrant child never strikes him again, that's tyranny, not bullying. If the kid gives up their lunch money and the bully finds another reason to inflict a beating, that's bullying. The only meaningful thing that makes bullying different from simply demanding an action (which is done quite often in civil society; a person might demand to be given the item he paid for, for example) is that the bullying isn't based on action, or lack thereof. Bullying is done to certain people, because they are weak, because they are ugly, or because they are inherently evil. We can hurt this person because it is justified, and we can continue to do it no matter what they do, because their evil is them, and not what they say or do.

A bully might not think this through, but there's something about the person he chooses to pick on that makes him think it is justified. Otherwise he would pick on everyone, and he doesn't. Even if his only thought is, that person is weak, then he believes in the law of the jungle and thus, weakness is unrighteous in that it is deserving of punishment. So really the idea that people deserve to be hurt not for what they do or say, but for what they are... is the belief in inherent evil.

Now I full well understand that Christians are probably nicer and less likely to bully anyone than atheists, or even than other religious people.

What I'm wondering is if this one Christian idea - that we are all innately sinful - has passed into general Western culture and in effect given people license to bully.

One example that stands out seems to be the insistence on the unprovable claim that everyone is racist. Most people are? Fine. Yes probably. I agree different outcomes can't be explained unless that's true. But everyone? Seems awfully Christian-inspired.

[TRANSPONDER]

Nobody cherrypicks like a Christian.

I think some sects are an exception but yes. You might have bullies within the cherrypickers who latched onto the "everyone is sinful and basically evil" stuff, but doesn't really think humility or being nonjudgmental is that important.

To be fair, it's hard to take something that ought to be a virtue like pride and make it a sin. I'm not talking about being proud of nothing, I'm talking about pride you earned. To me, people who will boast their legitimate accomplishment are honest, and people who will efface it when they well know they did something wonderful, are trying to farm false virtue by being disingenuous.

The problem is, in Christianity you need these humility and nonjudgmental doctrines, because otherwise if you believe everyone is evil you'd go around punishing them.

Yes; my Instinct is to agree, entirely. Before thinking it through. But this all sounds to me like human condition, mindset and thinking. These evolved out of complex society and the methods we develop to deal with them. Religion and philosophy are, at best, efforts to address these problems; at worst, a cynical attempt to use them to gain Authority, and claim the credit for anything good, and blame others for anything bad.

Once we have seen how the trick works, we won't be fooled by it ever again.

(1) I bin watching old wild beauty episodes, a girl surviving in the wild, with just her dog, monkey and an all - purpose machete. But the monkey is interesting to watch. The selfish behaviour it exhibits when she eats snails or scorpions is revealing, whining and grabbing food, even snatching it out of others' mouths. The instinct of the primate is Me first. Empathy has to be taught. Consideration is not god - given but a human discovery.

[bjs1]

Bullying has more to do with what a person feels about themselves than what they think about others.

Psychologically, a bully doesn’t think their victim deserves to be bullied. It is more likely the bully lacks the empathy necessary to think about what their victim feels. Or the bully may lack self-esteem, have issues with anger, a desire to lift themselves by dominating others, or want to inflict suffering on others that they have experienced in their own lives.

This is a trope. I don't know if there's truth to it or not. I think this idea was started not because anyone thought it was true (though it still could be) but to rob bullies of the self-respect they get by exercising their power, with the aim that if everyone thinks bullies are really insecure, no one wants to project insecurity and so no one bullies. The fact that that didn't work, and there are still bullies, indicates to me that even if there is some truth to this idea, there are some instances where it isn't true.

In other words, a bully can be someone with low self-esteem, but if there wasn't self-esteem to be gained by bullying, I don't think anyone would do it. So a bully can also be someone with very very high self-esteem, who is looking to go even higher.

Moral bullies fit this bill. Particularly if they live where some problem does not affect them and demand that others take losses to do the moral option. For example, people who live where there is no immigration, favouring extremely high immigration because taking everyone who needs it is just the right thing to do.

I did not attribute bullying solely to being insecure. I listed insecurity as one of several reasons that people bully others. I also provided a source to support my claim. Here are three more sources:

https://www.britannica.com/topic/bullying
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7957129/
https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/model-programs-gu ... llying.pdf

There is no single underlying cause of bullying. However, the common thread among the causes of bullying is it has more to do with the person who bullies than the person who is being bullied.

[JehovahsWitness]

BULLY

a person who habitually seeks to harm or intimidate those whom they perceive as vulnerable

I don't know that one can refer to "the Christian mentality" as a scientifically quantifiable entity. There is nothing in the Christian message (as contained in the bibles canon) that supports bullying. Christians are called to love their neighbours (this is a famous scripture*) and follow the example of Christ who is portrayed in the bible* as showing tender kindness towards the vulnerable (the poor, the weak and those physically, socially or spiritually disadvantaged).

* This quote of what the Bible says is being used ONLY to show what the bible and what Christianity says. It is not being presented as proof that a statement or story is true.

NOTE I am mentioning the word "bible" , not to preach nor to claim its contents are true , but to refer to the accepted text of most Christians in a thread discussing the Christian "mentality" which if it exist might arguably be influenced by their accepted text.

JEHOVAH'S WITNESS

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RELIGION, CHRISTIANITY and ...RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS