Bottom Feeders

You friends and allies have been following my amazement that so many people have decided to throw darts at my wee little blog. I mean, what I am I? A very, very tiny blip on the Episcopal radar. I've been astonished at the number of "hits" I've gotten on this site, and amazed that 90% of those hits are coming from people on "the fundamentalist right" who clearly hate me.

But one of my friends in the blogosphere got around to calling these people what they are: Bottom Feeders, pure and simple. You can see her initial comments here. They're more developed in her "Bottom Feeder" essay here. She is spot on! (And nervy, too!)

Here’s a snippet from her essay, just to encourage you to go over there and read the whole thing:

"The current mean-spirited tactic du jour is that one of them trolls the progressive Episcopal websites, especially the Comments Section, looking for tidbits to feed their voracious appetite for turmoil and mayhem. They need it, you see, to support their fervently held claims that The Episcopal Church is going to hell in a hand basket. These folk can create an entire banquet out of the tiniest little morsel of confusion – and, they are confused by anything that isn’t writ very, very large and plain – no subtly or innuendo, thank you very much. When they find one – no matter how tiny the scrap – they drag it back over to their websites and suddenly, a throw away line becomes bold-face headline. Within minutes, a veritable feeding frenzy ensues. It is the most amazing phenomenon I have ever observed in my life."

As I get more plugged into the blogosphere, I discover that what Elizabeth described as their “mean-spirited tactic du jour” is true.

And I've seen some evidence in the threads I referenced here.

And Father Jake – who has been in the blogosphere much longer than Elizabeth or I – confirms it: As he says to her in this comment, “I see you discovered the game. When they're at a loss for posts, [that blog] uses one of ours as a dart board.”

So that’s another reason I’m posting those comments. I believe the Bottom Feeders are – whether consciously or (more likely) not – working to silence the progressive voices in The Episcopal Church. They love to find a “victim” [a.k.a. "fresh meat"] and engage in a feeding frenzy against that person. And, ya know what? It just might work. I’m new enough to this blog world that it hurt my feelings for a while, when this started happening. It did make me hesitant to post here, and made me think more about picking and choosing my words.

But, enough! Many other Episcopalians have stuck their necks out much farther than I have. And they’ve been doing it for a lot longer than I have. And it has cost them much more than it will ever cost me.

A friend recently told me about a flippant line she heard: “You just have to pull on your big-girl panties and do it!” Well, this big girl is going to try to grow some thicker skin, pull on her asbestos panties, and do it!

We’ll always have the Bottom Feeders with us. But we must get on with business. We must not let the pseudo-orthodox "Anglicans" dominate the debate.

I'm back in the fray. Pray that I'll be able to grow that thicker skin.