Dear Johan,
That’s not your real name. i’m pretty sure it isn’t. Your comments don’t strike me as the kind that would come from someone who uses their real name. And the email address is definitely not real.
You logged into your computer and you clicked on a link that took you to my blog post and you scrolled down to the comments and with some amount of glee i imagine, you shared a word you had made up with me.
A coostard, you said it was. Actually, a little more than that, it was a word you had made up for me.
What did you say? “That is a cunt combined with a doos and a libtard.”
So you sat down, and you logged in, and you searched for my page, all so that you could deliver those hate-filled words to me.
Oh, and i almost forgot… and you were created in the image of God.
Are. You are created in the image of God.
You seem to be doing your best – in this moment, anyway – to hide the fact [and it is a fact -you not believing it doesn’t make it any less true] because God would never write something like that to me.
God is Love, you see. God embodies Love. God resonates Love. God emanates Love. God… is Love.
Not small-l Hollywood type love, by the way. That is so incredibly tiny and generally lacking much vision. Usually coming from a place of selfishness and often purely associated with sex or conquest or feelings.
No, God’s Capital-L Love is far, far greater than that.
It is all-encompassing. It is creative. It is sacrificial. It is humble. It holds within it the Shalom peace-of-state-of-mind-and-being.
It forgives and calls me to do the same. [“Forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing!”]
It calls me, no commands me to Love my enemies. To pray for those who persecute me. To serve on another in Love.
So, Johan [or insert your real name in here]. i forgive you. Because i don’t think you know what you do.
Not really. You cannot know that you were created in the image of God.
That you are created in God’s image. It’s impossible that you know that.
For you would never in a million years act in this way if you did.
If you woke up in the morning, and realised and remembered that you were created in the image of the God who spoke the Universe into being in a moment [or set it up to evolve over millions of years, either way], in the image of Jesus who lived and walked on earth and embodied the Love of God so completely, then you would not be able to find it in yourself to sit down and log into your computer and find your way to my page and write such potentially hurtful words. It just wouldn’t be in you.
i say ‘potentially hurt’ because the same is true of me.
Your words cannot hurt me. Not when i am aware that i was created in the image of God. As i am.
This doesn’t mean your words don’t sting a little bit. That the idea someone would take all that effort just to try and hurt me doesn’t affect me in any way. That there are some days when the words hurt a little more than others. Because they do. i am human after all and i do have feelings.
But not in any kind of significant way. Because i am made in the image of God. And more importantly i am deeply Loved by God. Capital-L Loved Johan. How could anything you have to say possibly knock me down from that?
You can keep your little invented word, though. i don’t have too much time for that. i already have a name and it’s also made up of three words. Faithful, Serving and Him. That’s why i am called Fish [Faithful In Serving Him] not because of anywhere that i have arrived, but because of a very intentional direction that i am heading in.
The Him is Jesus.
And i will continue to do my best to live out the words and actions and call of Jesus, because a world as messed up and messy as ours needs more people who are committed to Love and to serving others.
i do wish you all the best, Johan, and i hope that one day you won’t be too scared to share your real name and identity with me. What a terrible life it must be to be hiding behind a mask all the time, hoping that no-one finds out your true identity and pieces together that it was you saying all these things.
But more than that, i really really really hope that one day, and sooner rather than later, you will discover the Truth of the fact that you are created in the image of God. You are created to Love. You are Loved.
Because who knows what you might decide to put your time towards the moment you discover that life-transforming Truth. That you don’t have to pretend any more. That for the first time, you can truly live.
i wish all of that on you, and more.
Shalom,
Love, Brett Fish
Powerful stuff man! This must be the best response to a hate comment I have ever seen! Love all the work you’re doing.
If I am created in the image of God, then why don’t you allow God’s voice to challenge you? Why only your own voice and propaganda? You seem thick skinned enough to not let things get to you, so that word shouldn’t harm or hurt you. Are you writing about it now and then you refuse to publish this? Then it shows you are not open to dialog or being challenged. You also thick skinned enough to be a hypocrite. You sew racial hatred against white people. You sew racial hatred all round. Nobody is giving up their land. Nobody is giving up their house. Sorry libtard. You know nothing about me or the others that challenge you yet you act like an asshole in your echo chamber of libtards, promoting hatred and not acting like Jesus at all. Hate hate hate. Go check yourself.
Cunt – Because you don’t have a job except to write this stirring crap all day and to pass blame only on white people. Yet you act like the moral authority. YOU ARE NOT! If you had a job you would not be so quick to pass judgement and tell others to part with their hard earned money. A cunt because you don’t like to be challenged.
People hide behind masks because of the thought police. Say something and you could end up in jail. Just like 1984.
Doos – Yes, clean your own house first. Do not be a hypocrite. A doos because you seem bored and keep on all day with this racist crap. UNbelievable that nobody like Soros pays you. Maybe he does. You got banned off the one facebook page and could not let it rest. Shame.
Tard – Do you sit for hours each day trying not to slit your white wrists? Yes, what you write is poison as it incites hatred among races. You a TARD because you blindly follow every fashionable cause. But never Gay rights, white rights, transvestite rights? Only womens libbers and black rights.
So yes, a COOSTARD. Now you wont forget that word. You a coostard because you probably wont publish this. And I’ve been called worse and so have others yet we don’t blog about it. Safe space much? So you are a coostard.
Get a job. And yes, you are forgiven too. Just had to challenge you. Now you think you’re Jewish with “shalom” lol. Get a grip and stop being blown in the wind.
hey Johan,
For a guy who seems to think so little about me, you certainly spend a lot of time on my blog.
i do have a job by the way. And i volunteer at a number of places. i just happen to be able to do the work i do and spend time on the internet doing the other work of trying to invite people to be more loving and step towards each other. And i don’t ask other people to do anything i am not willing to do myself. Spent the day today at an Anti-Racism workshop for example, that my job paid for.
We encourage people to give as we give, we encourage people to recycle and lessen their meat consumption as we do the same, we encourage others to deepen the friendships they have with people who don’t look like them as we do. Not because we have arrived or are perfect or are the experts or anything like that [you like putting words in my mouth] but because we are on a journey towards justice and we invite others to do the same.
My prayer continues to be that you will discover the God in whose image you were created – the hate and anger you spew suggests that hasn’t happened yet.
i love people and so don’t spend any time at all considering slitting my wrists. i happen to also love people who don’t look like me though. And i am all about building and creating and challenging and reconciling… and i think it happens where it needs to.
All the best
Brett Fish
p.s. yourass@gmail.com is a beautiful email address that you designed purely to come and spill this filth over here? It’s pretty obvious who the hypocrite is here.
Like I said, Brett, I admire your patience. I love your message and agree we need be Love. What I cannot abide is spending energy on hate filled folk. It’s far too costly for me. I could effect so much positive change elsewhere…
i hear you, Hani, but this particular post i think was a lot for me about reclaiming my humanity and my soul in terms of responding to hatred in love and reminding me that is my go to place. Absolutely agree with you that most energy spent needs to be where it might and can make a difference. But for me i needed to remember the driving and motivating force that if i start to sound and become like those i am railing against then i have lost myself in the process and that is too high a cost for me. But your comment is a super helpful reminder to prioritise the spaces of change! Thank you.
This Johan guy epitomises everything that’s wrong in humanity.