eGossip is Still Gossip & God Hates It

        I read an interesting blog by a Methodist pastor in Alabama about eGossip.  A friend emails you something that makes your blood boil, or makes you afraid, or breaks your heart.  Since the person who sent it to you is above suspicion in your eyes you forward it right away.  The problem is that many or most of these just aren't true.  Passing along political gossip, religious gossip, and even some versions of celebrity or important people gossip--without taking the time to verify it--is still gossip.  And gossip is roundly condemned again and again by God in our scriptures.
       It's like the story about a man who passes along a choice bit of gossip that deeply wounds someone, someone who ends up being entirely innocent of what was said about her.  In fact, the story damages her reputation in the eyes of their mutual circle of friends and the man feels terrible about it.  He goes to his pastor and asks what he can do to take it back, to make it all better.  The pastor tells him to take a down pillow, slice it open, and put a handful of down feathers on the front stoop of everyone who was touched or deceived by the gossip he passed on.  
       He comes back to the pastor and says, "Now what?"  The pastor says, "Go back and gather up all the feathers--and don't miss a single one."  It becomes apparent to the man very quickly that he cannot get those feathers back.  It turned out to be a blustery day and the feathers have been scattered everywhere.  He does the best he can, but he comes back to the pastor more or less empty handed.  "I can't get them all back," he blurts out, "So what do I do now?"
      The pastor then says just like you cannot get those feathers back after taking them out and spreading them around, you can't go back and retrieve the harm your gossip has produced.  But, the pastor said, it doesn't mean that you don't try.  "You go back and apologize to the one you've hurt and beg her forgiveness. But before you do that, you need to do your best to figure out who was harmed by what you passed along. It's your job to correct the impression you gave.  And then, of course, you don't ever do anything like that again."
      Once you negatively alter someone's perspective--prejudice or poison someone's view of another--it's almost impossible to get all of the poison out of their system.  It doesn't matter if they are an acquaintance or the President or the Governor or a movie star.  Gossip is almost always false witness.  Gossip may even be true.  Having a juicy piece of knowledge that others don't have is intoxicating, that is it is intoxicating when you share it. But is it noble?  Is it building up or tearing down?  Are you yourself above similar reproach in your personal life?  Is this how you would want others to treat you or your husband, or your son, your best friend?
       I am personally tired of the paranoid conspiracies of the political left and right being passed around as truth.  I really get worried when stories about missing children are sent around--where someone might actually go out and try to help--when the story is ten years old.  I think I'm going to scream if I get another forwarded email about how Hollywood, or the government, or the Target Stores are running God out of the public square.  God doesn't need to be in the public square--God needs to be in the lives and homes of faithful women and men.  God needs to be alive and well and at work through God's church.  If the celebration of the birth of Christ has to rely on a department store standing up for Christmas, then we've got a lot bigger problems than holiday greetings.
     I always tell myself, "They mean well."  But I wonder if God differentiates between well intended gossip and the garden variety gossip that is batted around.
     Please check out the web site snopes.com before you send something along--no matter how innocuous it may seem.  Please be careful what goes out from you on social media:  facebook, twitter, email, texts.  It is so easy and immediate to just push send that often what we send has a very different effect than what we may have first thought.  Once a piece of gossip travels from your phone or computer out into cyberspace it is not only beyond your control and ability to take it back, but in many ways it can become a permanent byte of data that will live far beyond your frustration, anger, or rash judgment of the moment.
    If you'd like to read the full blog about egossip, check out:
http://www.churchandtea.com/2012/11/avoiding-egossip/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ChurchAndTea+%28Church+and+Tea%29