Published: February 21, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
Church of England Uses Twitter to Urge Acts of Kindness
By Robert Paul Reyes
"The Church of England is embracing the latest technology as it urges the online community to mark Lent with 'simple acts of generosity and thoughtfulness in the real world'.
Church leaders will use the social networking site Twitter and a new Facebook application to encourage people to share their top tips for helping each other.
Suggested acts of kindness will include donating unwanted clothes and toys to a charity shop, writing to an MP about a global poverty issue, or giving away a home-made gift." The Press Association
I echo the call of the Church of England in urging the online community to perform simple acts of kindness in the real world. I am in front of a computer for eight hours at work, and when I come home I'll put in another four or five hours online. It's easy to forget that there's a real world out there, with real people who have real needs.
But people don't have needs only during the season of Lent, throughout the year we should strive to be a blessing to others. Being a decent person isn't a part-time job, it's a full-time ministry.
Thoughtfulness ia a precious commodity in the real world, but it's also lacking in the online community. There is a surfeit of ugliness and profanity in cyber space, we need to perform random acts of kindness online. I'm often flooded with obscene email after posting an article on a controversial subject like abortion. It would be nice if someone performed a random act of kindness and sent me a positive letter.
But if you can't force yourself to be nice to me, do something good for a stranger online. Tell someone you don't know that you really like the layout of his MySpace page, or that you really got a lot of his blog.
We need to be more considerate of each other, both in the real world and online.
Robert Paul Reyes is a NewsBlaze writer on Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating. Contact him by writing to NewsBlaze.
* The views of Opinion writers do not necessarily reflect the views of NewsBlaze
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