Agree! It is something I literally pray for everyday. Not to be judgemental or gossipy. We have no clue what someone else is going through!

We don't know all the facts in the case of that "missing'" woman who left her family. She may have been mentally ill, depressed, victim of domestic violence, any number of things. Judge not,lest ye be judged.

Can you link to the post with all the comments, I must have missed it? Or do you mean just comments in general made everywhere?

I think the knee jerk reaction by most people to a story like this is how could you possible just walk away from your children. We go by how we feel personally in our own lives. Of course there could be mental illness etc. involved, but there's also people who just don't take responsibility and only care about themselves. Only time will tell the full story about this particular woman.

I think you may be being a bit harsh on other people. No we are not to judge, but it is also human nature to have physical and emotional responses to things we see and hear. With that being said, there are people who are down right mean, insensitive, uncaring about what they say about others. And it's oh so easy to say it from behind a computer screen.

What better place for a gossip, judgemental person, sinner to be than in church asking God for forgiveness and for help to be a better person?

Are you referring to comments made on this site?

I was not commenting on a particular site.
The cruelest to me was on the NBC News.
Thank you.

I have been *amazed* at the anger regularly spewed in the 'Comments' under internet news stories -- ALL stories! I had no idea there was so much raw anger and frustration 'out there'. Maybe it's a good thing that it's getting vented, but it is darn scary. Yes, the nastiness posted by self-identifying 'Christians' is doubly ugly.

Again, I do think some of the troll posters get their kicks out of typing some really horrid things. I don't think they believe these things, just want to get a rise out of other posters. They must have sad lives.

People are also significantly braver behind a computer. The vast, vast majority of comments like those are ones that would NEVER be said to someone's face where they would risk a negative reaction or confrontation about it.

As long as people are somewhat anonymous online, they will continue to say whatever they want without fearing the social repercussions that they would if they actually still had to tie their identity to their opinions.

Actually chi83, that isn't entirely true. Whether people are awared of it or not, we are ID by the computer that we use.

Each computer has an IP address that is individually identified such as our own home or email address. This IP address identified us each time we're on the internet at any site. That's how some internet company can identify how we browse or search for certain items. True, others may not know who we are but the website we've logged into does know. And if officials want to know, they can track us down easily by this IP address.

The first few number of the IP address identifies the location of the computer down to the city that it's in even.

No one is anonymous.

Yes, no one is truly anonymous (which is why I said somewhat - usually a general geographic area via IP isn't a huge concern for people) but it's unlikely that someone will be tracked down to their own personal identity. Is it possible? Sure, but for the vast majority it's not going to happen and that is generally enough assurance for people to feel safe hiding behind their user names and spouting out anything they feel like.

Oh, I know people will express themselves with less caution online than if they were face to face, but I had not known so much anger was IN people, so ready to spew! It's changed the way I see society.