Quote:
Originally Posted by bren1975
I can relate to this! This is my third site, as I search for friendly respectful people to converse with. I was motivated to go online because of Elder Ballard's admonition, but have encountered a lot of nastiness.
Occasionally I visit the old sites, and am quickly reminded why I left. One of the problems I've found is that the majority of posters are young (teens and 20's), and blatantly immature. Many young people are great, but the rude ones just seem to be noisier and more aggressive. Of course many of the older posters could use a lesson in respect also.
One site the ex-LDS were among the problem. The other site, even some of the LDS posters, along with the non-religious were abusive.
Which raises the question: Why do non-religious people post in religion-based forums?
All in all, it's kind of depressing.
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As I mentioned, it's actually
exciting to have even mocking responses to your posts because that is what brings in sometimes hundreds of lurkers looking for entertainment. And that provides you with golden opportunities to teach gospel principles and link in your signature to
Mormon.org. Who knows, the Spirit may guide even only ONE of those lurkers to mormon.org and reach and teach him or her, and you will have JOY IN HEAVEN!
I find that if I ignore things like depression and fear they quickly fade away or are soon replaced by their opposite, which is of God. Depression is just an attitude, we have power to change it to love for our fellow brothers and sisters who share our turn on earth. This is OUR watch, we are the ones who have been blessed with a knowledge of the fulness of God's truths. It's up to us to pass at least portions of that knowledge along to those who haven't, and it's up to them to make their choices.
I encourage you to do what you can. If you write for twenty years and it brings only one soul to Christ it will be worth it. But always keep your calm when you write so you do no harm. The Holy Spirit is in this cyber missionary work, I experience that daily...