Yesterday the media reported a survey by Girl Guides Australia into bullying.

They said that 68 percent of schoolgirls are “very concerned about bullying”.        

Experts talk about “stamping out” bullying amongst the young.

It won’t be easy.

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Parents give their children electronic gadgets which are perfect for bullying.

What better than a mobile phone or somebody’s inbox for a bit of fun terrorising?

Are Australian parents ready to refuse their offspring electronic bully-toys?

If they do they’ll cop some bullying themselves — the kiddies blackmailing them one way or another until the privileges are restored.

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Bullying isn’t exactly the problem.

Bullying is a symptom . . . of a universal social cancer.

You can no more stamp out bullying in present-day children that fix a melanoma by putting Vicks on it.

For starters, our children have never encountered a situation where bullying isn’t considered normal.

At home, do they not hear their neighbours being run down?

Do they not watch TV — programs full of insult-swapping, gossiping and violation of the weak?

Our adult society – with its capitalism, deregulation, globalisation, community-consultation-after-the-funding-has-already-gone-through – isn’t it wall-to-wall bullying, dressed up to look nice?

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Christianity, correctly understood, is the one and only antidote to the bullying mentality.

Jesus told his disciples, “Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart.”

It’s the heart that matters.

Christ’s life was nothing but humiliation by those we might call “bullies” from beginning to end.

He welcomed it.

His death at the hands of his enemies he offered up to God.

The merit he gained makes those willing to follow him eligible to be partakers in the nature of God himself.

If we are on the receiving end of humiliations, let us, likewise, be glad to accept them.