RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
GOSSIP: TABLOID TRASH
DR. JIM DIXON
JAMES 3:1
FEBRUARY 8, 2009
Sometimes on a cold winter day, or even on a moderate winter day like today, we dream of getting away: Maybe going to a warm place, maybe going to the ocean, going to the beach, walking in the sand, swimming in the water, feeling the sun at your back. Perhaps some of you have taken a walk on the beach you’ve seen a starfish that’s washed ashore. If you haven’t seen a starfish actually at the beach, maybe you’ve gone to a public aquarium and you’ve seen a starfish there. Or maybe you’ve just looked at a picture of a starfish in a book. But we all know what a starfish looks like, and marine biologists tell us that these are amazing life forms.
The typical starfish has five appendages. Did you know that if you cut one of the appendages off, it will grow back? It takes a little time. It won’t happen right before your eyes, but it will grow back. If you cut two off, two will grow back. If you cut all five of the appendages off of a starfish, they’ll all grow back. In fact, marine biologists tell us there are some starfish that have as many as 40 appendages, and if you cut all 40 off, all 40 will grow back. In fact, you can take a starfish and cut it in two, and both halves will grow into wholes to become two whole starfish. It’s amazing.
Human beings, we’re not like that, are we? We’re not like that physically. You can’t just cut off an appendage and have it grow back. And we’re certainly not like that emotionally. We’re not that way at the depth of our being. We are easily wounded and sometimes when we’re wounded—when people cut us up, when we feel wounded at the core—sometimes we don’t completely heal. Even in the course of a lifetime we don’t completely heal, and that is why God hates gossip. That is why God hates slander, because gossip and slander just cut people up and they don’t heal.
Sometimes in the course of a lifetime they do not heal. We live in a culture that has virtually embraced gossip. It’s a big business. Celebrity gossip is featured on various television shows. You can go on the internet and find websites that are involved with celebrity gossip or even political gossip. And of course you can go through the supermarket, Safeway or Albertsons or King Soopers or Whole Foods, and you can find tabloids and they are just laden with gossip.
This last week, one of the cover stories of The Globe had to do with the alleged affair between George Bush and Condoleezza Rice and how Laura is handling the news. You wonder how they can get away with this kind of stuff, because it’s not just gossip. It’s slander, and it’s criminal. And yet we live in a culture that acquiesces to it, a culture that almost expects it. It’s just a part of the culture in which we live. Tabloid trash. And it seems to be everywhere.
Through the years I have taken Scientific American, a periodical. I take it because I love science. I’ve also through the years taken Psychology Today, and I take that because I love psychology. Just recently both of these publications, Psychology Today and Scientific American, had articles on gossip. I was very curious to see what Scientific American and what Psychology Today would say about gossip, and frankly, they treated it with kid gloves. I mean, they gave it a pass. It was almost treated with a wink. If you put together what their arguments were, both in Scientific American and in Psychology Today, it goes something like this: We’ve evolved to gossip. That’s the way the evolution has taken place; we have evolved as creatures that need to gossip. The average six-year-old is able to speak 13,000 different words, 60,000 words by adulthood, and our brain evolution has produced a brain chemistry that gives us joy when we use the windpipe or the thorax or the vocal cords. We are, according to Psychology Today and Scientific American, clan dwelling primates skilled in the politics of complicated social living and we use gossip to bond and to connect and to form friends and also to advance ourselves. So, when we say a word of gossip to someone, they say, “Wow, I can’t believe you would actually trust me enough to share that with me. Let’s be friends.” This is how gossip is used in our culture and they say it’s natural, it’s normal, and it’s healthy. Now, they do add a little warning about being excessively malicious or mean-spirited, but generally they treat gossip as natural and normal.
The Bible has a very different perspective. The Bible tells us that God hates gossip and God hates slander. In Proverbs 6 we’re told 6 things that God hates and 7 things that are despicable in his sight. On the list of Proverbs 6 you see gossip. God hates gossip. It’s despicable in his sight, detestable in his sight. The biblical Greek word for slander is “diabolos.” Diabolos also means “the devil” because the Bible views slander as “from the pit.” The normal biblical word for gossip in the Greek is “katalalia.” Katalalia literally means “to speak against.” God would warn us, even if it’s true, to be very careful if you speak against another person. This is the warning of the holy scripture.
So, as you go through your day, as you get up in the morning and go through that day, be very careful about speaking against another person. God is warning us in the pages of scripture. In Numbers 12, you have the account of Miriam, the sister of Moses, and how she gossiped about Moses and brought the judgment of God upon herself. In Daniel 6, you have the story of Nebuchadnezzar’s advisors and political officers in the region of the Babylonian Empire. They gossiped about Daniel because they were jealous of him, because they wanted to take his place, because they had selfish ambition in their hearts. You actually see the same thing even with Miriam with Moses. It was jealousy. It was selfish ambition that prompted her to gossip and to slander. It wasn’t evolution. It wasn’t the joy that comes from using the vocal cords. It wasn’t the effort to make a friend. It was about jealousy. It was about selfish ambition. So, we have this warning in scripture about the sin, the deadly sin, of gossip.
This morning I really have two simple teachings. The first teaching is this: Gossip, in all of its forms… and understand it’s gossip whether it’s something you say with the mouth or something you write with the pen—it doesn’t matter whether you’re text messaging or whether you’re sending off an email, or whether you’re using Facebook or Twitter or just on the phone or talking to somebody over a cup of coffee. It’s gossip when you are saying something negative about another person. The first teaching then is that gossip, the Bible tells us, is a fire from Hell. It’s a fire from Hell, and that’s our passage of scripture for today, that the tongue is a fire and the tongue is set on fire by Hell.
We see even in Genesis 3 how the Devil is a slanderer. Back in Genesis 3, Satan comes to Adam and Eve in the context of Eden and slanders God. “Did God say this? Well, it’s not true. Did God tell you this? It’s not right.” So, the Devil has the audacity to slander God. Jesus tells us in the Bible that the Devil was a liar from the beginning. When we gossip, when you’re having that cup of coffee and you start to gossip and you start to put down another person, there is something of the Devil in that. If you get a little bit of joy, a little bit of satisfaction out of putting somebody else down or feel a little better about yourself, there’s something of the Devil in that.
I think sometimes we don’t understand the power of words spoken or of words written. I have some books at home by Paul Harvey. I think many of you have heard Paul Harvey before. You’ve listened to his radio show or you’ve read some of his books and you know his voice. Paul Harvey is a Christian guy. He spends a lot of time with Billy Graham these days. I learned just about a month ago that Billy in his elderly years spends almost every day with Paul Harvey. They are both very old and they’re great friends and they both love Christ. Paul Harvey’s books that I have at home are all titled The Rest of the Story. I’ve often wondered who does Paul Harvey’s research, because he has some amazing stories. My guess is he has a vast group of researchers, and they must be getting it pretty right or Paul Harvey wouldn’t have the respect and the integrity that he does today.
One story told by Paul Harvey that I read some years ago fascinated me because it took place a long time ago right here in the city of Denver. In 1899, according to Paul Harvey, four guys met at the Oxford Hotel bar. The Oxford Hotel is still right there in downtown Denver, and the Oxford Hotel bar is still there. These four guys met in the Oxford Hotel bar and they represented the four Denver newspapers. Today we only have two newspapers and we may be moving towards one or none. The economy is impacting the newspaper business and modern technology—the use of the internet, the way people process information—is all changing it. But in 1899, there were four newspapers: the Denver Post, the Rocky Mountain News, the Republican, and then there was the Times. There were these four newspapers, and these four guys were writers for these four newspapers. There was Al Stevens from the Denver Post, Jack Tornay from the Times, John Lewis from the Republican, and Hal Wilshire from the Rocky Mountain News.
The four of these guys are gathered at the Oxford Hotel bar and they’re commiserating because nothing is happening in Denver and there’s no news. What do they write? Everything seems so boring. So, they have a drink and they talk some more and they have another drink and pretty soon they are brilliant, at least in their own minds. They come up with this idea that they are going to make up a story and they are going to make it so good and nobody will be able to figure it out. They talk some more and have another drink, and they decide to make up a story about the Great Wall of China and that the Manchu Dynasty, the ruling House of China, had decided to tear down the Great Wall of China as a message to the world that they are now welcoming international trade, that they are opening doors for tourism and as a gesture of good will. The Great Wall of China represents isolationism, represents a defensive posture and separation. The Manchu dynasty is going to tear it down.
The four newspapers in Denver know this because one of the construction companies or destruction companies, their personnel passed through Denver on an ultimate journey to Beijing and they are going to bid on the job. They put this story together, they concoct it, and they have another round of drinks and they head out. Fortunately, in 1899 there were no automobiles to get into. The next day front page is, “Great Wall of China to be Torn Down,” and it’s on all four of the Denver newspapers and people buy it.
The ripple effect goes out and it reaches Europe and it reaches Asia. In Asia you have a very volatile situation and there is a group of insurrectionists who are in China and they were popularly called the Boxers. Of course, they did not box. They were athletic. They did calisthenics. They did gymnastics, but the western world called them the Boxers. In Chinese, their name was the Yihetuan. The Yihetuan means “The Righteous and Harmonious Fist,” and that was the name of this sect, this group in China. It was really a political group that had once been part of the White Lotus sect. They had broken away, but like the White Lotus sect they hated the Manchu Dynasty. But they joined with the Manchu Dynasty in this: Hatred for the western world; hatred for western interference; hatred for western missionaries; hatred for western ambassadors; hatred for everything western. They get the word, “Western groups are bidding on tearing down the Great Wall of China.” This is just more rage for them and this precipitates, according to Paul Harvey (and indeed as I researched it, it’s true), what is known in history as the Boxer Rebellion.
The Boxer Rebellion was a major event. In the year 1900, the Boxer Rebellion and the Boxers in combination with many of the Manchus began to attack western embassies and burned them down to the ground. They had begun to attack also western ambassadors in the homes that they lived in. Legations (that’s what the homes are called where ambassadors live ) were attacked by the Manchus, by the Boxers, and burned to the ground. Foreign ambassadors were killed, murdered, slaughtered in the streets. They began to butcher western missionaries, Christian missionaries. They killed hundreds and hundreds of Christian missionaries. Even civilians who stood against them were killed. Ultimately, eight different nations sent military forces to China to try to protect their own people. Finally, on September 7, 1901, you had the Boxer Protocol, the treaty that was signed by the Manchu Dynasty and also by 11 nations. All of this was fueled by this meeting that took place at the Oxford Hotel bar and the decision to make up a story.
I know you don’t need to be convinced that gossip is dangerous. You don’t need to be convinced that a lie is dangerous. You never know how the dominoes are going to fall. You don’t know how it’s going to come back. But you do know it’s dangerous. We have the warning of God to not lie, not deceive, not to gossip, and not to slander. Even to speak against somebody, even if it’s true, can cause devastating results to them and to you.
We all know that there are many people who just love to gossip. I think in evangelical Christianity it is almost the acceptable sin. It’s tragic because in evangelical Christianity there are certain sins that are particularly demonized, sins like homosexuality. Yet so many of us as evangelicals have our own sins and we wink at our own stuff. We don’t want to acknowledge how messed up we are. We don’t want to acknowledge how serious gossip is. There are a lot of people who just get a lot of joy out of sitting down with somebody and divulging something, or saying, “Did you know?” As Christians we don’t gossip, we just “share prayer requests.” But you know what I’m talking about. There is just a pleasure that is twisted that comes from these kinds of conversations and we really need to stop it.
Many years ago, I read about the Taurus Mountains. The Taurus Mountains are in Turkey. They are amazing, with great cliffs. Ornithologists particularly and all wildlife experts say there is a great variety of animals there in the Taurus Mountains. And ornithologists tell us there’s a great variety of birds. There is a special kind of crane in the Taurus Mountains that is a beautiful bird that is able to fly in the night and even hunt for food in the night. But the bird has a problem because it has a large mouth cavity and when the bird flies, when it leaves the cliff, the tongue moves back and forth inside its mouth cavity and makes a clicking sound. Other predator birds, like predator eagles, hear the crane and attack it. So, these cranes have learned, according to ornithologists, to do this amazing thing. Before they take off from the cliff, they put a rock in their mouth. They put a rock in their mouth, these cranes do, in the Taurus Mountains of Turkey. They put a rock in their mouth to fill the mouth cavity and to keep the tongue in place. Now they’re stealth and the predator eagles cannot hear them.
I was thinking a lot of us should do that. Before leaving home in the morning, before soaring off the cliff, before leaving the home in the morning, put a rock in the mouth, just put it in there. Pick it up outside the house because this is serious stuff, it really is.
I have a second and final teaching this communion Sunday, and it’s about blessing. God doesn’t want us to use our words to curse or to tear down. God wants us to use our words to bless people. This is the thought he wants us to leave the house with every morning, “Who can I bless today?” This is the will of Christ for his people. Every day you leave the house think, “Who can I bless today? How can I use my words? How can I use my writing? How can I use all my messaging? Whatever communication, how can I bless?” This is the opposite thought from the tabloids. This is the will of Christ for his people.
Some years ago, I read about George Schuler and Ira Wilson. I know certainly almost all of you have never heard of George Schuler and Ira Wilson, but they were friends. The year was 1924 and they were both at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, a great educational institution. They are both at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and roommates, George Schuler and Ira Wilson, and they both loved music. Ira Wilson was very skilled at lyrics and George Schuler very skilled at melody, and so, they got together these two friends, these roommates and they created a Christian hymn. In all humility they loved their hymn. They thought it was a wonderful hymn and they called it Make Me a Blessing. But they couldn’t get anyone to publish it. George and Ira tried to get someone to publish this hymn they loved, that they’d worked so hard on. No one would publish it. Nobody liked it.
So, they ran off a thousand copies of Make Me a Blessing and they tried to self-market it out. Again, they couldn’t find anyone who liked it. So, the years passed and the years passed and became decades, and finally a guy named George Dibble, a well-known Christian vocalist, found one of the copies of Make Me a Blessing. And as he read the lyrics and the melody, the music, he liked it.
George Dibble wrote George Schuler and asked permission to sing this song at the International Sunday School Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. You’ve got to understand that in times past these Sunday School Conventions were huge. I used to be on the board of Rocky Mountain Sunday School Association, and these were huge events. We took the whole old convention center, and we invited some of the best vocalists and some of the best speakers from around the country and even the world, and that was just in Denver. This was an international deal in Cleveland. George Dibble sings Make Me a Blessing and it goes over great. It’s a big hit and word begins to go out there. Now churches all over America and Canada begin to sing Make Me a Blessing, and the song is known everywhere.
Of course, the tragedy is that Ira Wilson, who had written the words, no longer knew that he had written them because he was afflicted with Alzheimer’s or some kind of dementia (in those days the medical community was not as precise). And so, here his song becomes hugely popular, he’s still alive, but he no longer even remembers writing it. The words are wonderful. “Out on the highways and byways of life, many are weary and sad. Carry the sunshine where darkness is rife, making the sorrowing glad. Make me a blessing, make me a blessing, out of my life may Jesus shine.”
I sang those words many times growing up. For me, reading about this was almost a personal event because growing up I sang those words again and again and again. I was in youth groups and our youth groups had singing times (and this was of course many, many, many years ago when I was a kid). In these youth groups we’d have a teaching, but we’d sing songs for about an hour and almost every time we gathered, we’d sing Make Me a Blessing. We’d have conventions “sings” where youth groups from churches all over Southern California would go to the Church of the Open Door and we’d sing the great hymns of the faith and even there we’d sing Make Me a Blessing.
But I’ve got to honestly say that as a young guy growing up, I thought, “What a dumb song.” As a young guy growing up, I literally thought, “What a dumb song.” I just went to these things to meet girls and to maybe make fun of the world and have a little fun. I wasn’t unusual. That’s what most of the kids were like. Most of the guys went to meet girls and the girls went to meet guys and we all tried to have fun.
Every once in a while, God would break through. We had a little divine moment where the spirit of God would somehow touch your heart and you’d feel a divine presence and some conviction, and I always knew when we sang Make Me a Blessing the words were right. I knew that out on the highways and byways of life many are weary and sad. I just wasn’t one of them, and I didn’t care that much, but I knew it was true. I also knew that God has called his people to bless people. I knew it, I just wasn’t convicted and wasn’t committed.
President Obama in his inaugural address quoted the Bible from 1 Corinthians 13. The passage he quoted was, “When I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I reasoned as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things.” I think this needs to happen in the church of Christ, that we put away childish things. I think the desire to put somebody down is childish. I think the desire to just chop people up or promote yourself is all childish. And it’s only as we really grow that we begin to want to bless. I think it’s been a slow process for many of us (I know for me) to actually begin to want to bless and to use my life to bless others in my words and my mouth, my pen, whatever, to bless. But this is the will of Christ for us, the will of God in Christ Jesus for us, that he would make us a blessing.
So, we come to the communion table and we remember the one whose body was broken, whose blood was shed. And he did it all to bless us. He died to bless us. He now lives to bless us, and I think this would be a great time, as we partake of communion, to commit ourselves anew that we will war against the sin of gossip and we will seek every day of our life to bless people. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.