Social Regression

Anxiety, worry and fears surround us on every side. Leaders in positions who were formerly trusted are so full of nervous energy and are reacting so fearfully to almost every change that hysteria reigns in politics, education, the court system, psychology and religion.

Jesus promised us His peace that surpasses all human understanding but it seems far from many Christian leaders who use their time on radio, TV and news media to pour out more and more stress filled anxiety that we leave a sermon feeling worse that when we arrived. This is tragic because Christianity becomes just one more voice of conflict among hundreds of other nervous Nellies who are shouting so loudly that the cacophony is deafening.

The following story says it all about hos much over reaction is happening among people who need to be rational, reasonable and responsible.

A student at TeWinkle Middle School in Costa Mesa, Calif., started an invidious group on the MySpace.com Web site, the Associated Press reports:

According to three parents of the suspended students, the invitation to join the boy's MySpace group gave no indication of the alleged threat. They said the MySpace social group name's was "I hate (girl's name)" and included an expletive and an anti-Semitic reference.

A later message to group members directed them to a nondescript folder, which included a posting that allegedly asked: "Who here in the (group name) wants to take a shotgun and blast her in the head over a thousand times?"

The AP says that "police are investigating the boy's comments about his classmate as a possible hate crime." The school district is also seeking to expel the boy. That's reasonable enough; it does sound like a genuine threat.

But of course that wasn't enough for school officials, who also suspended 20 students for two days simply because they saw the posting. Assistant superintendent Bob Metz "said the students' suspensions in mid-Febuary [sic] were appropriate because the incident involved student safety"--even though they logged in from home, after school hours.

Anxiety makes us stupid and this group of educators must have an extreme amount of anxiety to over react this stupidly. Because of the media's past hysteria and the ability of lawyers to sue over every small issue principals and teachers expel kids for drawing a gun let alone making a threat.

When will we as a society get tired of this hysteria and begin to think clearly?