I've recently heard something that makes me sick to my stomach.
My good friend (and ex-boyfriend) Phil told me that this girl who used to work with him got her car keyed. Now this would not be so sickening if it was just someone being a jerk. It was HOW this person was being a jerk that really gets me.
See, this girl is a lesbian and a feminist, and her car was adorned with one of those "Darwin" fish things and a bumper sticker that said "Goddess Bless" on it. Well, you can imagine that that was why her car got keyed by someone who didn't agree with her sentiments. You know why we know? Because they didn't just key her car. They scratched deeply across the entire side of the car, a nice big permanent response to her beliefs:
J E S U S
Now, what the hell is that about? What could this person possibly have been thinking? Okay. Trying to see it from the person's point of view. Number one possibility: Person wanted to be an ASSHOLE. Number two possibility: Person wanted to dissuade her from her un-Christian beliefs. Uh, unacceptable, on both counts.
If you wanted to be an ass, there are ways to make your point without costing your victim hundreds of dollars. There is obviously no excuse for scratching "Jesus" into someone's car just to be a dick.
It's if it was for the other reason that this is really messed up.
If this person honestly thought that they could get the girl's attention and make her think by keying her car with the name of God's only son, I think they are the one that needs to rethink their position. First of all, vandalizing someone's car for Christ . . . isn't that just a bit warped? Could this person have actually thought that Jesus would approve of such an action? Whatever happened to WWJD? and all that? Granted, Jesus didn't have cars around in his time, but somehow I doubt that he would condone vandalization to spread the message. Second, this brings no positive message to the girl. "Oh look, someone's fucked up my car, they must REALLY be serious about saving my soul. Maybe I should think this Jesus thing over." This does not go through anyone's mind! Jesus kind of taught gentleness, didn't he? This is some pretty severe property damage, and abusive at that. I tend to think that the girl would have given the message a bit more thought if it had been tacked to her window with tape, or better yet, shared in person. Incidentally, I think she will probably be even LESS likely to hear "the word" from this point on, as she was assaulted with some semblance of it in such an abusive manner. And lastly . . . whoever did this to her really gave Christianity a bad name. Is this something that other Christians would approve of? Of course not. But this girl probably has fewer dealings with Christians than some do, being non-Christian herself, and therefore her exchanges with them will be more strongly colored by every one she encounters. This is not a way to bring her to salvation; this is a way to make her think, "Wow, Christians sure are dickheads."
Of course, the person could have done it just to be a jerk on purpose.
But I don't think so.