ANONYMOUS OFFERS GOOD ADVICE...MY REPLY

By Tim Rohr

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "ANONYMOUS: "THERE'S A SPECIAL PLACE IN HELL FOR YOU"":

If I were in your shoes and the hate comments kept coming in against me, I would, 1. Refuse to dignify hate comments 2. I would refuse to comment back 3. Understanding I cannot change a persons position especially if they believe it to their core would prompt me to go into silent mode 4. Respond only to conversations worthy of dialogue that are productive, positive and engaging. People will never be satisfied even if you're doing something positive. There's always that negative anomaly lurking about. People that express hatred openly have a real issue with decorum, maturity and healthy dialogue. They come into a conversation to win the argument and ignoring results. 

MY REPLY

Thank you for your thoughts. Whenever I get hate comments, the thought does occur to me to do as you say. However, I also see these comments as an opportunity, not to change the haters’ minds, but to educate other readers on issues that wouldn’t make sense if I brought them up in isolation. 

For instance, the post IT’S JUST NATURE: MY RESPONSE TO THE HATERS gave me an opportunity to share the solid Catholic teaching about God’s plan for our procreative faculties. If I had brought this topic up on its own, it may have been seen as preachy and out of context of anything. 

The post on which you are commenting, initiated by the latest hate comments, allows me to continue to spotlight what the Catholic Catechism terms an “objective disorder.” I keep heavily hinting at it, but I am still allowing readers to determine what it is for themselves. 

The fact is that this level of hate is itself an “objective disorder” which is way out of line from just a difference of opinion. So I want to put it on display as evidence of what I am talking about. This kind of unhinged malevolence can only come from someone who's intellect is deeply darkened by sin.

Also, the accusations against me in my legal matter are well known since the press smeared them all over the media in 2018. I was able to disprove them but the press is never going to print that side of the story, so whenever I’m accused by a commenter, it gives me the opportunity to set the record straight.

One more thought on this. Your advice - I know it is well meaning - is exactly the advice I received from my lawyer after I was falsely accused of child and spousal abuse. I took the advice and promptly lost my children and 5 years of their lives and who knows how much damage to their psyche for the rest of their lives. All because my lawyer didn’t want to “dignify” those accusations with a response. 

When falsely accused, what we don’t want to do is get angry and lash back in the same unhinged way. Better to expose the accusations and deal with them rationally in a truthful, calm way which is what I try to do and will continue to do. 

People like to say “the truth will come out.” I have learned that it doesn’t happen that way. Someone has to do something to make the truth come out. So I do it.

Thanks again.