If you have not seen Sung-Bong Choi’s story, please take a moment NOW to watch this Korea’s Got Talent clip:
I don’t have too many words to say except this: Wow.
We should know by now that the way a person looks has very little to do with the talents that they possess.
Even if you don’t believe in God, this has to be one of the few times you feel compelled to believe in a Divine Justice.
Unfortunately, the world does not operate under a perfect justice–
The rich get richer. The poor get poorer.
Good things happen to evil people. Horrible things happen to great people.
The Yankees win the World Series.
Heidi Montague and Spencer Pratt have fans.
Etc. Etc.
The story and voice of Sung Bong Choi grab me because I am seeing someone who is walking proof that Grace exists. Yes, he has lived an unbelievably heart-wrenching life up to this point, but he has also been given a gift from the Hand of God Himself.
And he is making sure he doesn’t waste it. This Grace is meant to be shared.
Keep singing, Sung Bong Choi. You are obviously loved and you deserve every bit of the Divine Justice bestowed upon you.
**I am on a quest to blog every day (Monday-Friday) for the next 40 days and I am suddenly feeling flooded with things to talk about. This is both a good and bad thing.**
Today, we will talk a little bit about what not to say in the face of catastrophic human tragedy.
The original video has been taken down and she has since deleted her account, but “TamTamPamela” single-handedly managed to cause a YouTube firestorm a couple days ago with her video proclaiming that the earthquake in Japan was God’s way of turning atheists into believers. “God is SO GOOD!” she exclaimed. It was pure religious lunacy and helped further the notion that perhaps some people have a hard time believing in God because His followers are so full of [expletive]. I was pissed and if you saw the video, you were pissed too.
But hold on! There’s more! In a bizarre plot twist, it seems as if TamTamPamela recorded the video on purpose for the purpose of pissing people off. What?!
Apparently, she is a TROLL, a Web 2.0 term to mean someone who posts content on forums and blogs in order to shake things up and rile people up. I can’t believe there is a term for this type of idiocy. Consider me enlightened… and disgusted.
This is a repost of her original video:
and here is her confession of her “Trolling”:
I’m at a loss for words. Of all the things that people could say to elicit a reaction, why would anyone choose this?
Here’s the scary thing: the video may or may not have been a trolling effort but there are many, many, manypeople out there who believe the very things that TamTamPamela claimed to be satirizing. Yes, people believe that God kills upwards of 10,000 people in partnership with Mother Nature in order to make believers out of atheists and to judge the evil within a country.
That’s not the God I know.
I think what we learn from TamTamPamela (whether she’s a troll, a loon, a person in need of love, or all of the above) is that:
1) These sorts of opinions really do exist and they are unfortunate, destructive and unacceptable.
2) We all have a desire to be noticed at times but the lengths to which we go in order to achieve this is shameful and often times, unbelievably offensive.
3) There are certain things you don’t judge or joke about. You just don’t. A) My momma, B) A disability, C) A tragedy.
4) We all have our blind spots and errors in judgment. Hers just happened to involve 10,000+ dead and the millions who are mourning and trying to make sense of it all.
5) There is grace for idiots and trolls alike.
So while I can cast no stones due to my own mistakes and errors in judgment, I do want to say that this was dumb. Really dumb. Fa’ real.
For Whom the Bell Trolls
**I am on a quest to blog every day (Monday-Friday) for the next 40 days and I am suddenly feeling flooded with things to talk about. This is both a good and bad thing.**
Today, we will talk a little bit about what not to say in the face of catastrophic human tragedy.
The original video has been taken down and she has since deleted her account, but “TamTamPamela” single-handedly managed to cause a YouTube firestorm a couple days ago with her video proclaiming that the earthquake in Japan was God’s way of turning atheists into believers. “God is SO GOOD!” she exclaimed. It was pure religious lunacy and helped further the notion that perhaps some people have a hard time believing in God because His followers are so full of [expletive]. I was pissed and if you saw the video, you were pissed too.
But hold on! There’s more! In a bizarre plot twist, it seems as if TamTamPamela recorded the video on purpose for the purpose of pissing people off. What?!
Apparently, she is a TROLL, a Web 2.0 term to mean someone who posts content on forums and blogs in order to shake things up and rile people up. I can’t believe there is a term for this type of idiocy. Consider me enlightened… and disgusted.
This is a repost of her original video:
and here is her confession of her “Trolling”:
I’m at a loss for words. Of all the things that people could say to elicit a reaction, why would anyone choose this?
Here’s the scary thing: the video may or may not have been a trolling effort but there are many, many, many people out there who believe the very things that TamTamPamela claimed to be satirizing. Yes, people believe that God kills upwards of 10,000 people in partnership with Mother Nature in order to make believers out of atheists and to judge the evil within a country.
That’s not the God I know.
I think what we learn from TamTamPamela (whether she’s a troll, a loon, a person in need of love, or all of the above) is that:
1) These sorts of opinions really do exist and they are unfortunate, destructive and unacceptable.
2) We all have a desire to be noticed at times but the lengths to which we go in order to achieve this is shameful and often times, unbelievably offensive.
3) There are certain things you don’t judge or joke about. You just don’t. A) My momma, B) A disability, C) A tragedy.
4) We all have our blind spots and errors in judgment. Hers just happened to involve 10,000+ dead and the millions who are mourning and trying to make sense of it all.
5) There is grace for idiots and trolls alike.
So while I can cast no stones due to my own mistakes and errors in judgment, I do want to say that this was dumb. Really dumb. Fa’ real.
What do you say?
March 16, 2011 | Categories: Commentary | Tags: atheists, grace, idiots, japan, judgment, reaction, tamtampamela, tsunami, youtube | 5 Comments »