“Mormon internet trolls, cyberbullies, and doxing”

I don’t follow her, really, but, from what I can tell, my fellow Patheos blogger Gina Colvin and I don’t agree on very much, whether the issue involves politics, America, or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

However, I can sympathize with her discomfort at the online behavior of some of my fellow Mormons:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/kiwimormon/2015/04/mormon-internet-trolls-cyberbullies-and-doxing/

I’ve seen some quite inappropriate things things online from my “side,” some really unchristian rhetoric and genuinely shocking unkindness.

But let me bring a bit of balance to the issue:

Active, orthodox, mainstream, believing Latter-day Saints don’t have a monopoly on bad online behavior.

Far — very far — from it.

I myself regularly receive hateful anonymous emails, including a few threats that I’ve reported to law enforcement authorities.  I’ve had to ban people from commenting on my blog because of flagrant obscenities and grossly abusive personal insults.

I don’t think a day goes by without my being anonymously accused, online, of (among other things) anti-Semitism, shallowness, destroying families, stupidity, voyeurism, callous hatred, childishness, mercenary motives, racism, “homophobia,” misogyny, violent fantasies, insanity, flagrant dishonesty, religious bigotry, corruption, fascist inclinations, slander, hatred of science, libel, pseudo-scholarship, and/or seeking to destroy other people’s careers.

This has continued for literally years.

And I can’t think of a single case — not one — where these sorts of things didn’t come from somebody closer to Ms. Colvin’s position on the ideological spectrum than to mine.

The perpetrators have always, without exception, been critics of Mormonism and of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

That’s not to say that faithful believers are without sin.  And even good people can lose their tempers and forget to be charitable when they’re being taunted and their most sacred beliefs are under harsh attack.

I just want to set the record straight: Unbelievers and critics can be at least as trollish, bullying, and abusive as actively believing Latter-day Saints can be — and, in my (considerable) experience, they’ve been far, far worse.  Incomparably so.