Apr 15 2007
How do you combat a bully?
[From Christian Post]
The âDr. Phil of Prayerâ has issued a challenge to outspoken television star Rosie OâDonnell to defend her âanti-Christian hate speech,â surprisingly by the invitation of radio talk show host Howard Stern. This would be the third time Bill Keller, host of Live Prayer with Bill Keller, has spoken on the popular âshock jockâsâ daily program, and he is willing to appear again to debate with OâDonnell, who he felt has had no direct challenge from Christians against her anti-religion remarks.
Read about it here.
[From me]
What Rosie does in her personal life is between her and God. But the woman has major anger issues. Ever since she had gone on the View she has spewed hate towards the President and mostly towards Christians. Elisabeth Hasselbeck has done her best to debate Rosie but she is just too nice. I checked out Rosie’s blog and man is she angry.
Sometimes the only way to defeat a bully is to take them head on. So I hope Bill Keller gets to take on Rosie in person. I doubt Rosie will agree to it but it could be interesting.
I also welcome Rosie to visit here too. I have no problem with you as a person. I’m sorry that you are hurting so much that you want to take it out on Christians. We’re not all that bad. I pray you find God’s Grace.
What do you think?
20 responses so far
Well, I tried accessing that site, but couldn’t. I don’t know of this lady, so can’t comment.
In what way is she a bully?
I define bullies as insecure, frightened people with fragile egos, burdened with massive feelings of unworthiness and inferiority. To prevent folks from seeing that they’re very frightened deep down inside, they present a facade of bluff, loudness, rudenesss, abusiveness, etc. or are physically violent. Does she fit into these behaviour categories?
If she doesn’t like Christianity, well, that’s her choice. Plenty of people don’t.
Plenty of people, myself included, dislike your President. That’s her choce, too. You live in a country of guaranteed freedom of speech, so you have to accept differences of viewpoints. If she’s “anti-religion”, as you put it, that shouldn’t be a problem for you, as your stance is that you don’t have a religion, but a faith.
If I remember correctly, isn’t Howard Stern the bloke who specialises in having “freaks” on his show? Maybe, for some reason, people regard Rosie as a freak and she doesn’t like it. Maybe she’s been deeply wounded. It could be that she’s been sexually abused by some self-righteous hypocrite, like the story you showed me yesterday. There are a zillion reasons why she could be angry. Instead of debating religion with her, why not just ask her to discuss her inner pain?
I’ve got Rosie on the prayer list. I can’t wait for God to show his love to her. It’s just too easy to write people off, let’s pray for em’ instead. Glad Kevin’s got this in mind!
I was taught as a kid to “turn the other cheek”. This strategy may have been out of context somehow, but I still defer to it. Kevin’s right that sometimes you have to stand up to a bully. I think the bully in this case is the spiritual influences rather than Rosie. CBB
So the quote that apparently got Keller worked up is (from the article you linked to):
Though Keller paraphrased a little differently on his web site:
I’m not familiar with Keller, but I get the impression (for example, from the liberal use of all caps and exclamation points) that he may be more eager for the confrontation than for engaging Rosie where she is with love.
The “radical Christianity” quote isn’t particularly offensive to me. I think her intention was to emphasize that radical religion of any sort (i.e. one that tries to impose its narrow view of morality…right or wrong…on others via the government) is neither healthy for personal freedom nor for a secular democracy like ours.
Kevin, you say
Personally, I think there is good reason to be angry about what we have done in Iraq…tens to hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis and thousands of dead Americans and a country in chaos.
Many of her controversial statements seem involve deep suspicion of our government. Her conspiracy theories are probably wildly off the mark, but I think it is healthy (or at least tolerable) to be skeptical of our government.
According to Wikipedia, she has drawn criticism (for example, here) for “anti-Catholic” statements regarding the Catholic church and sexuality. Thousands of priests have been accused of sexual abuse. I think there is room for criticism.
My last comment was probably flagged for moderation as potential spam because of the links I included. In my haste to get to the dinner table, I forgot to make my main point…which is the way to combat a bully is not to. The way to engage a bully is with humility and love. While I’m admittedly almost completely ignorant about Keller and no fan of Rosie, it isn’t obvious to me who the bully is in “The Rosie Challenge.”
Sometimes bullies do need to be confronted, either verbally or physically. Sometimes, the only thing that penetrates their thick, insensitive skulls is a dose of their own medicine. I have never known a bully who came back for second helpings! I had cause, when young, to thrash a gang who were terrorising my younger sister. They completely went to pieces after being donged. All bullies are cowards, but Rosie doesn’t seem to be a coward.
I finally accessed her site and can’t see anything objectionable. She questions the official story of 911, as anyone with a skerrick of grey matter would. She doesn’t like Bushie-Boy, but nor do millions, so she’s not unique there.
Kevin, where is she angry and hostile? I oculdn’t find any examples.
I don’t particularly have a problem with her criticism of Bush. He’s the Prez, and defending what he does, or doesn’t do for that matter, against public criticism is part of the job. It’s not really fair to lump all Christians together, as media and entertainment personalities like Rosie tend to do, but there was plenty of “hate spewing” at the previous President from Christian sources, and, in the world of politics, turnabout is fair play.
As to her attacks on Christians, I think Retroman is right on the mark. The way to deal with anyone on the attack is to love them and pray for them. That’s Biblical, and while the response that we receive back from the attacker may not change, it certainly becomes a testimony to our faith and to Christ when we follow his instructions, especially in a public forum.
Several years ago, I was watching Bill Maher on “Politically Correct” on a night when he was being particularly abrasive toward the evangelical conservative position. He always had a conservative on his panel, and the ones he invited to participate were always the kind who would get angry and fight back, which was a set up for them to make their point of view, particularly evangelical Christianity, look bad. On this particular night, his “conservative” guest was a Disciples of Christ minister who was also a state representative in some Southern state, Tennessee, I think. Instead of the anticipated “fight back,” I watched as this particular individual kindly and gently dismantled the hostility, took some of the basic points that were being made, and turned the conversation around to the point where they were acknowledging the legitimacy of his perspective, even if not agreeing with it. One of these days, perhaps God will send someone like that Rosie’s way.
Lee,
I hope you didn’t get the idea I was for arguing with her. From what I know about Bill Keller he hosts a prayer show. I don’t think it will be arguing but it would be love & prayer.
Obviously Rosie has been exposed to angry Christians. I would like to think that she would experience love here with people like you & Nathan.
So Rosie’s a lesbian, well that explains a lot. Perhaps she’s had zealous workers of the Lord breathing threats and damnation at her, and as a result, equates Christians with hateful bigots.
Dude that girl’s JACKED. Her blog is freaky. And no comments? I guess there is no way to allow comments, since she is so famous.
She has every right to say and believe what she wants about anything, but you’re right Kevin, she is angry.
What does “jacked” mean? You Americans speak another language!
She does have comments.
What is she angry about?
I’m gone for four days and the first topic I get to come back to is one on Rosie and Francoise is back. WHOOHOO!
WELCOME BACK AND HUGGLES FOR FRANCOISE!
I believe I’ve said this before but I do frequent Rosie’s blog. Usually I read through it before or after this one. Her actual blog no longer accepts comments, but there is a question/response part that she will open at times. She does have a high volume but she claims to read every thing asked in ASK RO even if she doesn’t give responses back.
The quote that Jonathan pulled out is from early this past fall. (why does this radio personality need to mention it now?) Notice the word RADICAL…it wasn’t an insult for Christians in general but RADICAL Christians. (again didn’t we talk about this already?) For her the radical Christians are the ones bombing abortion clinics and saying she is going to hell for who she loves. She is in defense mode because of the hatred she receives.
Is she angry? Yes…sadly some justified and some not. I do think that because she is female she is judged more for her anger than some male counterparts. Known reasons for her anger is the governments handling of situation like Katrina, the war, and WTC7 cover-up. She backs away from gay issues, women’s issues, and children’s issues because these other things are so troubling to her.
Jason, your saying that she is Jacked and calling her a girl is not helpful. Comments like that are hurtful and judgemental. They are what give her a bad view of Christians. She receives comments from people who claim to be Christians thant then tell her she is wrong because she is “fat, lez, stupid, and dull.” Often other not-so nice words are used. If I read comments like that to me everyday, I, too, would build up some anger.
She had posted these past few days that she is going to try to stop talking about the war for awhile. Her goal is to bring some happiness back into her focus and the view hot topics. It will no longer have to look like she and EH hate each other.
Huggles to you, too, Janna ( whatever it means :)!! It sounds nice, whatever it is.
Oh, yes, it’s OK to be a woman who speaks her mind, but puh-lease, let’s not let her get angry! Goodness, no. She just might challenge your way of thinking, and that would never do.
In case it isn’t obvious, I’m a great fan of Queen Boadicea.
All too often, passion is mistakenly labelled as “anger”. Rosie is right to be angry about the despicable handling, or lack thereof, of the Katrina disaster. The USA considers itself civilised, yet it permitted thousands of sick, stranded, hungry, injured, thirsty, helpless citizens of all ages to fry in the sun and wallow in contaminated water, at the mercies of both weather and predatory thugs. Meanwhile, where were the troops who should have been restoring water and elctricity supplies, feeding the children, assisting the pregnant, dispensing insulin to diabetics, and air-lifting the injured to hospitals?? Yup, you’ve guessed it- they were stomping around Afghanistan, telling the locals how to run their lives. Disgraceful and unconscionable!
She’s right to be asking questions about WTC - it screams to be questioned!
She’s right to be opposing an immoral war. Yes, immoral, based as it is on lies, greed, deceit and hypocrisy. Just where the Hell ARE those WMDs?????
So, it’s nice to meet up with Rosie- I don’t care a hoot who she finds attractive. Go, girl! I’ll be keeping an eye on you from now on!
Sayonara ,Janna- thanks for the emotional support. I’m firing on 8 cylinders right now- fighting the local council who wants to develop ( ha!) an historic area. My tail is lashing and my fangs are well out!
Janna,
I didn’t mean to call her jacked. I meant to call her WHACKED. Because she is. And she is a girl, too, in case you hadn’t noticed. I raised three daughters, and was unaware that calling a female person a girl was an insult or non-Christian.
I do not say she is whacked without cause. She is using her influence in a destructive, horribly destructive way. Suggesting that the government orchestrated 9/11 is ludicrous. Calling radical Christians the same as radical Muslims is purely insulting, and simply not true. And what is this deal with her and Trump? If Don Imus got fired for his comments, then Rosie should have been fired long ago. And so should Bill Maher.
These people give liberals a bad name.
And by the way, I have no problem with angry females, or women, or girls, or whatever I’m supposed to call them. I usually appreciate it when my daughters get angry over some issue, because it means they have passion. It means they give a flip. I am glad for that.
So, with all due respect to you Janna, I stand by my comment. Rosie is not a bad person because she is a lesbian. She is not a bad person because she is angry. But she is messed up in the head.
Here’s a little more about what little I’m seeing of Keller in this is leaving a bad taste. After the “ROSIE CHALLENGE!!!” comment I quoted above, he added the following paragraph to his web site (these quotes are from his daily devotional page which has, of course, since changed but you can see them in the Google cache here: link)
So he’s got his listeners deluging The View with emails challenging Rosie to “debate” (not join him in a time of love and prayer). ABC isn’t interested in receiving those emails, so they close those email accounts. Keller finds a new email address for someone else from ABC and asks his listeners to deluge it. I don’t approve of this approach.
Also, the fact that Rosie used the term “radical Christians” doesn’t necessarily mean there is no potential for offense. I believe the example of Christ which we follow is a radical one, but not in the ways that Rosie means and (I agree with Janna) not a blanket insult of all or most Christians.
I’m all for debate between opposing sides that does not turn into insult-slinging and defamation, which is where I often see the tiffs Rosie gets into head. I checked out her blog, and had difficulty finding anger there. Certainly there were politically charged comments, but the design of it (written with much text message shorthand thrown in) seemed to me to be more of a calendar or personal reminder than a journal of sorts. Perhaps I need to go back to technogeek class to catch up on my technese.
Benjie,
Check out her rant on Tom Delay. I saw him on O’reilly tonight and they played a clip of Rosie blasting Delay with untruths.
Who is Tom Delay?
Francoise,
He was the former Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. He is a Republican.
A politician? I hate him already
Benjie,
I agree that reasoned debate can be helpful. The point I was trying to make is that Rosie and ABC are not interested in a debate yet Keller seems to be trying to “bully” them into it. I would prefer that Keller be as eager to show Rosie compassion and speak the truth to her but with gentleness and love as he seems to be to trounce her in a debate.