After the tragedy at Ft. Hood this week, I, like many of my miliary family, posted on Facebook that we were praying for the families affected. A few people responded that they, too, were praying. However, someone from my home church, ignored what the post was addressed to and went into a "how do you know so and so". I answered, hoping that it would be the end of it.
Unfortunately, they chose to have a conversation in this thread about how they were doing and how it had been a while since they had seen each other, etc. I was deeply saddened.
I could understand if the person said "I'm praying too. BTW, how do you know_____?" and then proceeded to email that person PRIVATELY or request her friendship. Part of me was sad because I have known for quite some time that my home church is not filled with Christians. It is filled with people who want to be seen as Christians socially and need a conservative place to network. This is not a church that you will see feeding the homeless. They will give money so that another church can feed the homeless, but they will not actually do it.
They are an example of what I believe America has become. People that acknowledge God briefly when its convenient or will help them in some way. Now... I am not saying that there are absolutely NO Christians there. There are. My parents. The Fords. And several others. As a whole, though, that church is just not a picture (to me) of what the Lord expects from His church.
To deal with the situation of my 2 "friends" (because these are people that I knew growing up that I have little to no contact with now), I decided to remove their posts this morning. I then sent them a private message asking that they have respect for the military community who may be reading my post and take their conversation to a more private arena. I believe that I was respectful and I hope that it does not cause any hurt feelings. Although, I am hurt by their indifference.
Just because I am not at Hood or do not directly know anyone at Hood, (I believe my husband does, though) does not mean that I do not grieve. It doe not mean that people that I am friends with are not grieving because they have been assigned there and/or know people assigned there.
I understand that when people are not directly affected by a tragedy, they have a hard time relating. Its something that happens to others and is not real. After Columbine, I went about my day and didn't give much thought other than a quick prayer. I hope, though, that I would have had more respect for people who were affected.
I have no idea where I am going with this post right now. Other than... I am saddened that as a Christian body, we can't even say were praying before we move on.
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