GOSSIP

GOSSIP

A good description of the power of gossip suggests you go up on a roof with a feather pillow, tear the case open and let the feathers fly out, then try to gather the feathers and put them back in the case. Like the feathers, once the gossip is out there, it is impossible to call it back. How many lives have been ruined this way is impossible to calculate.  Even some so-called historical facts are actually gossip. Today with information gushing at us like water from a fire hose, there is no time to stop and ask questions.  Before you know it, everyone has heard it and believes it.

The amount of damage that is done by gossip is immeasurable and yet we are very casual about it.  Someone says, “This is just between you and I”, and while they are telling us the story, we are thinking, “Who shall I tell first?”

Another facet of gossip is the tendency to embellish.  Everyone wants to be part of the story so why not include a little spice in the retelling?   That, then, sets off yet another lie attached to someone else’s name.

During Jesus’ ministry, some people tried to stone him twice and once tried to throw him over a cliff. Then finally applauded when he was whipped, scourged, humiliated and ultimately crucified.  How much of the anger toward him was fueled by gossip like this:

“He is an enemy of the people.  I heard he wants to usurp the power of the priesthood. He wants to overturn all that Moses commanded.  I heard he killed a boy when he was a child.  He is a murderer.  He is an abomination, he travels with women.  He flies in the face of all our laws.   He is a blasphemer and a liar.” 

In his anguish, Jesus could not have been unaware that gossip about him had fueled the rage of the mob and yet he called out to the Father to forgive them.  We must pray that God forgives us.  God calls us to love one another.  How about in this one area we pledge to do just that?  What if we say before the story is told that we don’t want to hear it?  What if, even if we know a story, we don’t repeat it?  What if all of us enlist the Holy Spirit to help us? 

We could start a trend with a raised palm that says, “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to hear it.”  That could go along way toward stemming the tide of gossip, which has become the National Pastime.  No one escapes and almost no one is innocent of this sin. 

Years ago a couple walked past me down the church aisle. The woman next to me, whom I hardly knew, leaned over and said, “He’s got a nerve coming to church.  He’s having an affair.”  At the time I was only interested in the gossip but since then, I’ve carried the burden of that knowledge. Gossip stains everyone, the subject, the teller and the listener.

May God be with us as we strive to love our neighbors.

Carol Lemelin OPA