GOSSIPS & FAKE NEWS

James 3:1-10

Luke 6:43-45

“How great a forest fire is set ablaze by a small fire!  And the tongue is a fire…”

“It is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.”

This year more than 7,000 wildfires in California have damaged or destroyed more than 3,000 homes and other buildings and burnt over 3,000 square miles.  Now we hear that a devastating fire is threatening the Sequoia National Park and the tallest tree in the forest, the General Sherman Tree, which stands 84 metres high and is 31 metres in circumference at its based.  I once visited that famous old tree and marvelled that such an enormous tree grew out of a tiny seed that once fell to the ground where it now stands.  How incredible!  But everything starts life as a tiny seed or sperm, an idea in the mind or the glint of an eye.  Even creation with a word or two: “God said: “Let there be light, and there was light.”  We are also told that we began as a speck of dust and to dust, we are ominously reminded, we shall return as will that giant sequoia tree,

St. James, the brother of Jesus obviously knew about such wildfires.  “How great a forest fire is set ablaze by a small fire” he writes before going on to attack in the strongest language the abuse of the tongue.  “The tongue is a fire” he says, that “sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell!”  Eugene Petersen translates the passage: “It only takes a spark … to set off a forest fire.  A careless or wrongly placed word out of your mouth can do that.  By our speech we can ruin the world, turn harmony to chaos, throw mud on a reputation, send the whole world up in smoke with it…  This is scary,” he continues: “You can tame a tiger, but you can’t tame a tongue…it runs wild, a wanton killer!”  How many catastrophes have resulted from angry words, insults hurled, or rumours that spread like wildfire. The danger today is greater because social media spreads fake news at the speed of lightening and sets passions ablaze as quickly as a spark ignites a forest.  And those who continue to deny the realities of global warming with their Facebook messages and tweets are stoking the fires.

I seldom use Twitter, but now and again I check out what is being said by twitters, some of them great twits who spend much of time making comments about what is going on in the world.  Twits, short and often puerile and ill-informed as they are, have enormous influence in shaping opinions, winning elections, and spreading rumours. And rumours have power. The early Christians, it was rumoured, were cannibals, anarchists, and atheists, and persecution followed.  And Jews, so Christians said, were “Christ killers” so pogroms and the Holocaust was the result.  But rumour mongering was also a pastime among some in the early church as we can see from James’ letter and those of St Paul.

In his letter to the Romans, Paul lists it alongside “every kind of wickedness” including “envy, murder, strife and deceit.”  The Greek word he uses means “falsehood”, often translated colloquially as “gossip.”  Gossips, says Paul, are “slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful. Inventors of evil!” (Romans 1:29-30).  Gossiping is not just a harmless pastime we indulge in over coffee or at tea-parties; gossip is on a par with killing someone.  Or as James says, the tongue, despite its small size, can ignite a huge blaze of deceit, lies and, fake news, that can leave a trail of destruction in its wake.  If we are concerned about wildfires, and angry with people who carelessly or wilfully start them, we should be equally concerned about gossips who spread rumours and fake news.  Gossips, let me hasten to add, are gender inclusive.  Men might think that it is only women who gossip.  But anyone who knows about locker-room talk, boardroom, or pub chatter, knows better.  Gossiping is a human pastime that often turns racist, sexist and destructive.  Racist and sexist slurs, innuendos, and jokes are not harmless, they are hurtful and potentially dangerous.

In his classic book On the Imitation of Christ, the fifteenth century monk Thomas a ‘Kempis counsels his readers to avoid “unnecessary talk.”  That is virtually impossible for me and probably most of us who love to talk, engage in conversation, and indulge in chit-chat at every opportunity.  After all, as Ogden Nash said, gossiping is something anyone can do “and it is much more interesting than any other form of speech!”  Few of us are called to be Trappists who are pledged to a life of silence. But Thomas knew the danger of idle talk in a monastery and, by extension in any community.  So, his counsel like that of St James’, “watch your tongue,” is advice we should heed, especially those of us who wag our tongues a great deal!  If we are not careful, we could be starting a forest fire!  Gossiping is not harmless fun anymore than it is harmless to throw a cigarette butt out of a car window or have a braai in a forest on a windy day, even if it is tomorrow when we celebrate “Heritage Day”.  So how do we learn to control our tongues and avoid the dangers of gossip that can so easily destroy relationships and undermine community? Where do we draw the line? 

Apart from us recognizing the problem, which is always the first step in such matters, let me suggest seven rules for conversation that prevent it becoming destructive gossip. Firstly, resist rumours.  When we hear someone say: “people are saying…” we need to challenge them, check the facts, and certainly not pass on the rumour as though it is the truth.  Secondly: we should not be silent when lies and falsehoods are spread.  If we do, we become complicit.  A fire cannot spread if we douse the flames when they are still small, but if we do nothing we are as guilty as those who started it.  Thirdly: we should not break confidences.  If someone shares their lives with us, especially their failures, faults and struggles, we should respect their trust as much as a priest when hearing confessions. If something is confidential it should stay confidential.  Fourthly, we should not turn a good conversation into a bad gossip session.  Good conversations are wonderful, enriching, informative, and often fun.  It is when they degenerate into gossip that they become destructive.  Fifthly, we should listen before we speak, and think about our words before we utter them.  I personally find this very difficult t times, but I keep on learning to my cost when I don’t do what I am counselling others to do.  Finally, and above all else,as counselled in the New Testament, we should try and speak the truth in love, that is, in ways that heal and build relationships and community.  Of course, true love is tough and honest. and sometimes love may dictate that we do not tell the truth or all of it.  As Bonhoeffer once said, it is better sometimes when a good person tells a lie than when a bad person tells the truth!  Think about that one… It has to do with what Jesus said when he told his disciples that good people speak out of the abundance of the heart.  And while you ponder on that conundrum keep in mind what James translated by Petersen wrote: “A word out of your mouth may seem of no account, but it can accomplish nearly anything—or destroy it!”

John de Gruchy

Volmoed, 23 September 2021