Offended by Truth

How do you spot an angel? According to an episode of Touched by an Angel I watched one early morning, angels may be the people who you find irritating and obnoxious. Why? Angels don't know human rules! Angels are people who are passionate about making sure things are right. Angels are not meek and mild; when angels come down to earth they have real feelings and hurts and dreams.

Humans are tactful, and may be so to the point of lying, for example, to keep the peace, not to hurt someone's feelings, or to be deceitful. Angels tell the truth, but they will tell it from a caring motive. The angel on the show, whom I will call Angela, bumped into someone from a certain ethnic group and started reciting facts, and the person got quite offended. Angela apologised and I seem to remember she couldn't see why what she was saying was offensive, as it was facts, which is the truth!

I have noticed a propensity for people to get offended by the truth. Have you? For example, I was excluded from a group once and I posted a message about this on Facebook. I did so because I was upset and wanted support and sympathy from my friends at what I saw as an injustice, and a person involved in my exclusion saw my Facebook message and lambasted me in private in person, saying she saw what I did on Facebook. Yet all I posted was the truth! Of course I do see why this is so, but should I crawl away into a corner and cry on my own, and tell no-one else about what has happened? If I do so, abuse will have won. I may have had a part to play in what happened, though no-one was prepared to meet to discuss the matter so I am still not sure exactly what their reasoning was, but I am not ashamed of what happened as I was quite prepared to go back to the event and see the people involved and smile and enjoy myself.

Not bringing truth to light is a key reason that abuse continues. Bullying thrives in the dark. Bullies do not expect their targets to tell other people about what has happened to them. And if someone does tell, then they may be threatened in private by the bully, as a form of control. This is akin to the scenario that plays out in child abuse, and it involves different gain of course, but at the heart is control of a target and to keep abuse hidden.

The next time you experience an injustice and are ashamed and want to keep it to yourself, think about who is winning: you or the bully. Change will only happen when good people stand their ground and speak out, or evil will have the upper hand.