ChristiansUnite Forums

 :(

Hi all,

Question:  Do you believe that it is easier to be hypocritical on line than it would be in person where people know you and where  others see what you are truly like day by day?
  I ask this for a reason as lately I have see first hand how some Christians act on line toward other believers and think that it is OK because they can hide their identity and some how not take responsibility for their actions. I have known one person who has made false allegations and innuendos about others, knowing full well that it was done to hurt the reputation of the person and to cause others to view them in a bad light.
  When confronted with this sin, this same person played innocent victim and gave no excuse for the action other than the fact that she felt  "vulnerable" and wanted to play head games with her friends and to make them feel that she was being attacked unfairly even though she knew she really wasn't.  It made me want to leave the internet completely after I had seen what was going on and how this person got support from her good friends all the while knowing she was casting undo remarks toward another.
 I just would like to know what others would do in this situation and if any one else has had a bad experience with someone on line.


Thanks.

Oh definitely!  Just as you say, people will be rude anonymously.  I think some get a feeling of “power” from it.  Is it their “true personality”?  Unfortunately, I think so.  You can also tell a lot about a personality by their driving habits – and it gets back to the same “power with anonymity” thing.  The person who would cut you off on the roadways would never try it with a shopping cart in the supermarket – because then they would have to confront you personally.  It’s not that they don’t want to cut in line in the supermarket – they just don’t want to pay the consequences.

What can we do when this happens to us online?  Not much!  Pray for the person and if they have angered you, ask the Lord to take the anger from your heart.  (Wow!  Do I ever have to do that a lot!)   ;D

God will have his vengeance on them if found as such in the end. They better straighten up their act and get right with God and His Son. THEY know the heart and the psuedo-Christian is lost in sin just as the non-Christian. Christianity is not play acting. It is a for real way of life under any circumstances internet or not internet.

They need to get real.

 Pray they do!

LD,

I've noticed this as well (and caught myself in the act even). Unfortunately, on-line forums can become a haven for people to act and speak in ways they'd never do to someone's face.

Amen!

 ???

This persons at it again I see. I just happen to check in her forum she has, and sure enough, she's back to playing head games with those in her little group.
  Why she does this I have no idea but it looks like those in her circle would see the kind of person she is and either rebuke her or at least leave her forum until she repents of her meanness. This is how she works, she makes an innuendo about someone giving the impression that she is being treated "un-fairly" she never calls names, but implies who she means my subtle hints. than she will say something like, "I have to close my group for now, I feel "vulnerable," her code word for saying she wants others to feel sorry for her and to cast suspicion on the one she does not like giving those in her little circle the idea that some thing is really going on when in fact she is making it all up.

  I do not hate this person and I wish things could have worked out, but the truth of the whole matter is that I have seen this time and time again and every time it always ends the same. She comes across as being a victim while those who disagree with her come out looking like un-kind monsters. I made the mistake of believing her sincerity before when she said she wished to be friends, but the moment I disagreed with her, she started the whole thing all over again trying to make me out to be the villain.
  I just needed to get some of this off my chest because mainly she is in every forum I had been in at one time or other and has just about got everyone buffaloed. I had enough of her lies and deciet and just wanted to get away from the mess
that had been made. I know I had made my share of mistakes and offenses while on line and I would not deny that, but I never tried to play head games with people or try to make myself out to be something I know I'm not, namely a theolgical know it all so I could impress my friends.

  Any way, thanks for letting me vent. Please continue to pray for this person that she will truly repent and stop her game playing.

God
bless

"The Luke 6:31 Rule" (some folks call it the Golden Rule):
Do to others as you would have them do to you.  

It is applicable in church, at home, at work, on the road, on the telephone, in hotels, airplanes, parks, grocery stores, on sidewalks, on the moon and on internet forums.  

It is a message of love – but I believe the main point of Luke 6:31 is respect.  Disrespect has no place - particularly between professing Christians, yet we see that disrespect around every turn, and in many, many posts – including here on c-unite.

Isn't it amazing how many folks will claim to know the bible inside out, upside-down and backwards - yet they never seem to grasp such a simple piece of scripture which leaves itself open for absolutely NO interpretational argument?  

I don’t know what else we can do but pray for them.

 :'(  I'm sorry that's how you feel.   ;D  I have to say one thing good about us all though--none of us have gone as far as saying ""we're the one true" on-line chat group"  And none of us will be mad if you visit another chat group.  And none of us are claiming that our chat group is the only true version of the official chat groups of Christ or none of that.  Isn't that cool?  All of us acknowledges that we are a part of this chat group and every one of us matters as if we were the only one of us.  Adnthe onlhy problem with there being only one of us is that there would be no one else to chat to.  :)    If on earth the body of Christ were actually just ONE, we would run out of things to say.

One thing I try to do when someone makes me so mad that I wish I could bite their head off is I remind myself of that saying, "Staying mad at someone is like eating a whole bunch of rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die!"  

candice
 yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One thing I try to do when someone makes me so mad that I wish I could bite their head off is I remind myself of that saying, "Staying mad at someone is like eating a whole bunch of rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die!"  yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't think that being online makes people more hypocritical; I think it's that there are all kinds of people out there and some of them are malicious. There are false professors-I run into them frequently, because they know you don't know who they are. Or, they hope you don't. (I've run into my share.)

They don't know what to make of the truth, so they go to Christian forums to "entertain" themselves. Typically this "entertainment" will invlove some kind of deceit.  But once you learn how they operate, you can avoid getting burned by them. The hard part is seeing others fall for it, and you know they're in for a heartbreak. It's just a matter of what to look for in a friend. Don't worry-the good people are out there, same as the bad. It's through these indicators, like private messages that are designed to do injustice to someone, that you find out what they are like. If it's a just point being made in the pm, and there's a valid reason for your receiving it, then okay. If not, you know what the person is about.

I'm sorry for your disappointment.

Hmm...the scriptures according to Candice Cavalier, huh?  :D I like that quote! That's exactly what we do, we get angrier and angrier, and we end up hurting ourselves. A friend of mine got throat cancer, and was told by the doctor that it may have been caused (at least in part) by the way she holds her anger and lets it build up.

There are hypocrites in the "real world" same as there are online; at least when you meet a person face to face and know their actions, they may not have as much chance to fool you.

Hmm...the scriptures according to Candice Cavalier, huh?  :D I like that quote! That's exactly what we do, we get angrier and angrier, and we end up hurting ourselves. A friend of mine got throat cancer, and was told by the doctor that it may have been caused (at least in part) by the way she holds her anger and lets it build up.

There are hypocrites in the "real world" same as there are online; at least when you meet a person face to face and know their actions, they may not have as much chance to fool you.