Electronic Gossip
The Bible contains strong warnings about gossip and slander. "A perverse
ma0+-0.n sows strife, And a whisperer separates the best of friends" (Proverbs
16:28). "Where there is no wood, the fire goes out; And where there is no
talebearer, strife ceases" (Proverbs 26:20). Yet gossip continues to be a plague
upon God's people because, in all honesty, we enjoy it: "The words of a
talebearer are like tasty trifles" (Proverbs 26:22). Now technology has brought
an entirely new way of gossiping. It is just as sinful as before, but now it is
easier than ever to slander and lie about others. We can gossip electronically,
via email!
Incredibly, such gossiping allows Christians to do things they would never do in
a face to face fashion. We all know that repeating dubious reports to others is
gossip and wrong. If someone told you "Brother so-and-so is a Satan worshiper"
we all know that such a report would need to be personally checked before it was
broadcast around. To do otherwise would be gossiping, right? How then does that
change when the medium for spreading lies and slander becomes electronic? Is it
right to gossip about people over email, when we would never do such "face to
face?" Yet my email box brims with electronic gossip nearly every day.
For example, did you get the email about Proctor and Gamble's CEO going on the
Sally Jesse Raphael show and announcing he is a Satanist? I received this email
from no less than ten different people. Each email me assured me this was all
fact, that I could verify P & G's ties to Satanism, that I could write Sally
Jesse and get a transcript, P & G was changing their logo to a "666" to let
everyone know they were a Satanic company, etc. The point of the email was to
urge all Christians to boycott P & G products. Yet it is all a lie. No P & G
executive has ever gone on any television talk show. P & G is not "coming out"
on their satanic ties. Their CEO is not a devil worshiper. P & G has dealt with
rumors about their logo (no, it isn't a satanic symbol either) for years.
Several years ago this CEO rumor started, originally with the CEO supposedly
going on the Donahue show. Now the rumor has mutated and says he went on the
Sally Jesse show. But again, it is not true at all. There is not a shred of
truth to any of it. How many people are boycotting P & G products based on these
lies? How much harm has been done to this innocent company by well-meaning
Christians who simply didn't check their facts before they clicked "forward?" As
an extra word of caution, you should know that P & G is so tired of all of this
that they are actively suing (and winning!) those who are participate in these
malicious rumors!
Have you seen the rumor about Janet Reno? Supposedly she went on 60 Minutes and
said "A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the Second
Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible studies; who has a high level of
financial giving to a Christian cause; who home schools their children; who has
accumulated survival foods and has a strong belief in the Second Amendment; and
who distrusts big government. Any of these may qualify a person as a cultist but
certainly more than one of these would cause us to look at this person as a
threat and his family as being in a risk situation that qualifies for government
interference." Guess what? It is a lie. Whether you like or approve of Janet
Reno and her politics is simply not the issue. Does her political stand on some
issues justify Christians spreading rumors and lies about her? Of course not.
These are just two of examples that could be multiplied over. Just because
something shows up in your email box crying "wolf" doesn't mean it is true!
Let me make some observations about these multiplying urban legends and rumors.
First, some folks are pretty gullible. What if the CEO of a major company was a
Satanist? How stupid would he have to be to go on national televison and tell
everyone? Does that sound very likely? Why then do we believe this kind of
nonsense, falling it for "hook, line and sinker?" Most of these Internet rumors
and gossip are transparently false. Have you seen the one about the American
Cancer Society donating two cents for every person who gets a copy of an email
plea? Honestly, how is the ACS going to keep up with that? Who checks the list?
When will it end - if it were true ACS could go bankrupt off the deal! Further,
where does the ACS get all this extra money to throw around based on email
forwarding? Recently I received (for the twentieth time) the infamous Clinton
Body Count email. It lists scores of people with some connection to Bill Clinton
who all died under "mysterious circumstances." Most of it is just made up and
not true. But even if it were, doesn't anyone find it amazing that Clinton can
bump off minor players in his scheming but somehow couldn't deal with Linda
Tripp and Monica Lewinsky? I'm not defending Bill Clinton by any means but just
a little thinking ought to cause a person to say "Hey, wait a minute here!"
By the way, the supposed "Lost Day" that NASA computers found is also a hoax.
Ditto for the Neiman Marcus/Bloomingdale's cookie recipe story, all stories
claiming an email can infect your computer with a virus, and the repeated story
that if you "forward this email 1000 times Microsoft will give you $1000." All
are Internet hoaxes. All are obviously false. If we will just think before we
click "forward" many times it will be apparent that we are being hoaxed.
Secondly, while some of the rumors on the Internet are silly and harmless (if
not tiring and a waste of time) many are nothing but sinful gossip. The Janet
Reno story and the P & G story cited above fall into this category. As
Christians we bear responsibility for what we say and what we communicate to
others. Slandering persons or companies is simply not right. Titus 3:2 reminds
us to "speak evil of no one." 1 Timothy 5:13 warns about young widows who "learn
to be idle, wandering about from house to house, and not only idle but also
gossips and busybodies, saying things which they ought not." Wouldn't being idle
include wandering from Internet site to Internet site, emailing gossip about
things we ought not?
To make it even worse, all this email gossip is just destroying the ability of a
good medium to pass along real news and sound genuine alarms. So many untrue
reports make it even more unlikely that anyone would believe a real report of
danger if such arose.
Third, electronic gossip is a particularly sad sin because it is so easy to
check out these rumors. P & G's web site has an area devoted to debunking these
terrible lies (http://www.pg.com/rumor/index.html#sally). Several web sites are
devoted exclusively to tracking urban legends and lies. Enter "urban legend"
into any search engine and you will get a long list of such sites. I personally
like the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society's site (www.snopes.com) because it
is searchable. It took only a moment to go to this site, enter "Reno" into their
search form, and receive a full page of information discussing this rumor and
its origins. Since it is so easy to find the truth, what possible excuse do we
have for spreading lies?
The Internet and email are wonderful technological innovations that improve the
quality of our lives dramatically. We can use these tools to spread the Gospel
of Christ literally all over the globe. Let us make certain that we are not
falling prey to perverting these tools into something that spreads the kingdom
of darkness. "Deliver my soul, O Lord, from lying lips and from a deceitful
tongue" (Psalms 120:2).
From Abundant Life, Vol. 32, No. 9, Sept. 1999
By Mark Roberts
From Expository Files 7.1; January 2000
