Investigating the Bible: Good gossip

By David Carlson Pastor

Here’s a word for Scrabble: quidnunc. It’s Latin for what now? Webster’s Dictionary says this a person who is “…avidly curious and given to speculating, especially about ephemeral or petty things.” A quidnunc is a gossip and it is little surprise how the Bible treats this behavior.

The ninth of the 10 Commandments is: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.” (Exodus 20:16, English Standard Version used throughout.) The apostle Paul was concerned about his next visit to the believers in Corinth: “For I fear that perhaps when I come I may find you not as I wish, and that you may find me not as you wish — that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit and disorder.” (2 Corinthians 12:20). He later admonished some young widows who were apparently “…going about from house to house, and not only idlers, but also gossips and busybodies, saying what they should not.” (1 Timothy 5:13). The origin of the Greek word for gossips that Paul used described boiling and agitation that produces bubbles of steam or soap. It illustrates both the damaging heat and emptiness of mean and small-minded conversation.

Gossipers harm others and ultimately themselves. Jennifer Flanders wrote in the Reader’s Digest of attending a dinner party. When one of the guests learned that he and the host had attended the same high school, the guest asked if the host had been a student during the tenure of a particular vice principal. “I sure was!” answered the host. “He’s the biggest jerk I’ve ever met. Did you know him too?” “Sort of,” replied the guest. “My mother married him last Saturday.”

However, current research has shown that many have learned this lesson. Sociologist Jack Levin found that good gossip, where people share rumors of positive things about others, is more common than the malicious variety. “Most of what people are talking about is ‘Did you hear something good happened to X?” This is behavior supported in scriptures. “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” (Proverbs 10:12). “Whoever belittles his neighbor lacks sense, but a man of understanding remains silent. Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.” (Proverbs 11:12-13). “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near. (Hebrews 10:25).

Positive words can have a lasting impact. The late Mary Taylor Previte established a school in New Jersey for tough teenager boys, those convicted of serious crimes and considered by many to be beyond hope of saving. She succeeded where many had failed. On their annual “Deep-Cleaning Day,” she brought one of the boys, Lauren, to a large shower stall. The once-bright enamel was a dirty gray from the dried soap of a thousand boys’ showers. They started scrubbing together. “You gonna pay us for doing this?” Lauren asked. Previte replied. “Pay you? I’ll tell you what. Do you want a dollar or a letter to the judge?” She wrote that the reaction came so fast that, “it was like the shower stall had been bugged with microphones.” Out of nowhere a mob of boys arrived with warm water and brushes.

Afterward, hands wrinkled like prunes, they high-fived and the stall glistened. At the end of the day, she slid a very serious looking letter on the official Youth Center stationary and with her signature underneath the doors of the young scrubbers. Each letter had the boy’s name in bold letters across the top and started with, “Dear Judge Page…”, then praised in detail the work. The boys fell asleep with their letter propped proudly by their pillow. For most, it was the first letter of commendation they had ever had.

Mr. Pastor (yes, that is his last name, not his profession) is a Polk County, Oregon resident and graduate of Bethel Theological Seminary in Minnesota (M.Div., M.Th.).