"our words reveal our hearts. our actions reveal the condition of our soul."
- Anthony D. Williams
do church members gossip?
I think we know the answer. And I think we know that all of us have been guilty of gossip at some time.
But we also know that gossip is a horrendous habit that can assault, crush, and destroy even the strongest person of any faith.
Countless religious organizations cite historical religious texts as a guide for understanding the power of words and the value of prudent and positive speech.
The Jewish Talmud advises that “guarding one’s tongue,” is considered one of the first steps to correcting more serious character flaws; the Bible advises to put away “anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth;” the Qur’an finds “Allah does not love the public utterance of hurtful speech;” Buddha’s writings on “right speech” advises followers in “abstaining from lying, from divisive speech, from abusive speech, & from idle chatter.”
feathers in the wind
An old proverb relates the story of a person who repeated gossip — some rumor about a neighbor. Soon, the whole community had heard the rumor. Later, the person who spread the gossip learned that the rumor was untrue. The person was very sorry and went to an elder in the community who had a reputation for great wisdom to seek advice. The elder told the person, “Go to your home and take a feather pillow outside. Rip it open and scatter the feathers, then return to me tomorrow.”
The person did as the elder had instructed. The next day, the person visited the elder. The elder said, “Go and collect the feathers you scattered yesterday and bring them back to me.” The person went home and searched for the feathers, but the wind had carried them all away. The person returned to the elder and said, “I could find none of the feathers I scattered yesterday.”
easy to scatter, but impossible to get back
“You see,” said the elder, “it’s easy to scatter the feathers but impossible to get them back.” So it is with gossip; it doesn’t take much to spread hurtful words, but once you do, you can never completely undo the damage