Edification

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I suppose we’ve all been exposed to gossip. Sometimes, we’ve simply listened to it; at other times, we’ve spread it. Gossip can start innocently enough, or it can start off with a malicious bang. Let’s create a scenario to illustrate each.

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In the first case, gossip begins with a simple statement of fact: “Did you know that Jeannot is going to Paris this summer?” There’s nothing wrong with that statement.

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Next, a few facts are exchanged, culminating with, “She’s going with her boyfriend.” At this point, the troublemaker in the group pounces like a cat on a mouse. “Did you hear what they did at Marty’s party last weekend?” At this point, truth begins to fade into the background, and fiction begins to build, until one would have to wonder why Jeannot was a friend of anyone in the group. Jeannot, of course, has no idea why her friends have turned away from her, because the only things she and her boyfriend did at Marty’s party was to dance, eat, and have a good time.

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In the second case, gossip begins with a bang. “Did you know Jeannot has rats in her hair?” The teller of the tale spins yarn with finesse to the point where no one remembers that a rat in hair has nothing to do with a rodent, but is, in fact, only a tangle. In any case, fewer people want to be anywhere near Jeannot. Her reputation has been ruined, for everyone now imagines that Jeannot does not take care of herself. Again, Jeannot has no idea why her friends have turned away from her.

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In both cases, the damage is irreparable. There is nothing Jeannot can say or do to make her former friends see her as she is and always has been. Her reputation has been destroyed.

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We need to ask ourselves how truth became fiction. Usually, it goes to a matter of having fun. That fun can begin as innocently as a game of charades in which a story is whispered from one participant to the next. By the time it reaches the last participant, it in no way resembles the original story. In real life, however, the originator of the rumor either starts having so much fun or is so determined to spread lies that s/he will say anything to keep it going. Jeannot might have been a generous philanthropist, who would give the shirt off her back to one in need, but by the time the gossipers are through with her, she is seen as being as terrible as a drug dealer, gunrunner, and human trafficker combined.

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So dangerous is gossip that the Bible commands us not to engage in it. “Thou shalt not bear false witness” is one of the Ten Commandments, which appear twice in the Bible (Exodus 20:16 and Deuteronomy 5:20). The New Testament elaborates by telling us, “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and things wherewith one may edify another” (Romans 14:19). Edify means to build up, so we are commanded to say only things that build up each other.

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Gossiping is not allowed – nor should it be; after all, what goes around comes around. That is, if we can gossip about someone else, then someone else could easily gossip about us. I think all of us would agree when I say, “No, thank you! I don’t want to go there.”

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Note: All scriptures are quoted from the King James version of the Holy Bible, which is in the public domain.