Unlike other types of activities, gossip and slander are games that everyone can play.
With devastating effect.
Why do we do it? Depends who you talk to....or about. Generally, our need to tear down others is usually rooted in our need to build ourselves up.......at others' expense.
Make no mistake about it. Whether on the phone, by the coffee machine, at the laundromat or in the church parking lot, gossip and slander are not harmless entertainments: they are games with deadly consequences.
"Slander is a kind of murder."
(In III 29)
"Whoever removes slander from the world
would remove a great part of its sins
and injustice as well."
(In III 29)
"I ask you never to slander anyone,
either directly or indirectly."
(In III 29)
"Refraining from imputing imaginary faults to your neighbor,
from revealing those which are secret
and from exaggerating those which are obvious."
(In III 29)
"There are some who, before actually slandering someone,
will say something good about that person.
These are the most subtle and venomous of slanderers."
(In III 29)
"Do not generalize from a particular instance.
Do not say that a certain person is a drunkard
Because you have seen him drunk once.....
A single act is not enough to justify such a label."
(In III 29)
"If you are speaking with someone who is truly a
slanderer, do not, in order to excuse their behavior, say that
the person speaks frankly."
(In III 29)
"When I must speak up about another person
I must do so in so balanced and just a way that I do not utter
one word too many."
(In III 29)
"Let us be as precise and balanced as possible
in our words."
(In III 30)
"To speak little does not consist in
uttering few words, but
in not speaking useless ones."
(In III 30)
"Above all, avoid false accusations
and the distortion of truth regarding your neighbor."
(In III 29)
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