It turns out that someone had accessed my account and sent out a message to all my friends on Facebook, recommending that they link to pornographic sites online. Being the Internet dunce that I am, it took me a while to learn how to delete the offending message and send out a true message from me to all my Facebook friends.
My son, David, was the first to call me about it. He was howling with laughter. He had examined the hack at length. My first thought was, “What has Rupert got against me?” I had been watching the evening news about Rupert Murdoch’s newspaper hacking scandal in England. Later, David was very serious when he called again to tell me to remove my home address and telephone number from my Web site, www.southern-fried-preacher.com. He reminded me that people who hack your computer are not your friends and might even wish you harm.
When I saw the cheeky (I speak with tongue in cheek.) picture the scoundrel had put on my page, I hit the delete button so rapidly that I failed to pay close attention to what I was deleting.
I know David is correct. Still, it is a hurtful thing to be forced to be less than fully accessible to anyone who would like to reach you. Apparently, many of my Facebook friends have also been hacked. Monday night and Tuesday morning I spent eight hours answering e-mails from friends who had written me notes, all of which began, “You’ve been hacked!” Some of my friends said to me, “Don’t take this personally. The hacker probably doesn’t even know you. He probably hacked lots of people trying to drum up business for those pornographers.”
One person said, “Maybe it was someone playing a practical joke on you.” That would be the most hurtful thing of all. I’m no prude, but I don’t have any friends who would think something like that is funny. At first I was angry and I thought about writing some bitter screed against any person who would do that. After a few minutes thinking of several cleverly scornful things I could say, I cooled off and began thinking I would simply let it pass and not dignify it with a response.
Still, I was unsettled. So I asked trusted friends for their advice. They counseled me to use the troubling occasion for good, and that is what I have decided to do. It is the “pray for your enemies strategy.” It begins with the recognition that all is not bright, beautiful and benevolent in this world. There are plenty of malevolent forces at work. How else can one explain the meanness, greed, libel, gossip, false witness, backbiting, faithlessness and infidelity in the world? And that is only in the world of religion! Beyond that is violence, murder, war, crime.
Only a person in complete denial would attempt to dismiss the reality of abundant evil around us. What do you do if you have been touched personally by this reality? Recognize the reality of it and begin the practice of subterranean mission. Start praying for that person who despitefully uses you. Tunnel under the barriers that prevent redemptive confrontation.
You may never even know the person for whom you pray, but you do know it is a person who is wounded in his or her spirit. This may make a difference in that person, and you may never know the outcome. But, your friends may detect a change in you. You may become less inclined to become dour and embittered. You may become better able to stay deeply rooted in the soil of trust when stormy winds of life begin to blow. Sometimes some things are simply best left to the Spirit.
Harold Bakes is no hack. He’s a retired Methodist minister who lives in Kannapolis. Contacthim about his Facebook page, or anything else, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .
