HWJS—How Would Jesus Surf?

There is an unusual fad in China reported in a recent article in the New York Times about persons using the Internet to gather a crew to act on their revenge fantasies. According to the Times,

It began with an impassioned, 5,000-word letter on one of the country's most popular Internet bulletin boards from a husband denouncing a college student he suspected of having an affair with his wife. Immediately, hundreds joined in the attack.

"Let's use our keyboard and mouse in our hands as weapons," one person wrote, "to chop off the heads of these adulterers, to pay for the sacrifice of the husband."

Within days, the hundreds had grown to thousands, and then tens of thousands, with total strangers forming teams that hunted down the student, hounded him out of his university and caused his family to barricade themselves inside their home.

Since then others have used the Internet to gather an outraged mob to seek vengence on their behalf. The fad has also included using the power of web users to solve unsolved crimes and combat fraud at an auction site on the Net.

HWJS—How would Jesus Surf? I don't know, but as he taught us to turn the other cheek, Jesus would seem to be an unlikely person to gather a crowd to violence for any cause. It would be more likely that he would once more ask the one without sin to cast the first stone.

What do you think?

peace,
Frank+
The Rev. Frank Logue, Pastor + King of Peace Episcopal CHurch