The 12th Step on St. John’s Ladder, FALSEHOOD, includes RUMORS and GOSSIP. He states that if it is indeed a grievous sin to bear false witness against our neighbor, is it not also a terrible thing to spread unfounded gossip about our neighbor? Nowhere is the propensity for self-justification more apparent than in the sin of gossip and slander. We frequently hear Christians spreading malicious rumors about others and justifying it by saying, “I heard this from a reliable source.” Several things must be said about this. No doubt this reliable source received this information from another reliable source, and that  reliable source found out from another reliable source. Before you know it, a malicious rumor has spread and become exaggerated over time through a chain of reliable sources. Meanwhile, a person’s reputation has been ruined, or others have become secretly suspicious of him, all because you could not resist a bit of juicy gossip. Spreading malicious rumors about someone is not much better than bearing false witness against him. Believing that it is true and even if it is true, does now give us the permission to share it with others.

Reliable or not, founded or not, we should not spread such rumors. Just as we would not like others to expose our sins, mistakes and stupid off-the-cuff remarks, so too we should not   expose the shame of others. Keeping our mouths shut, even if we know for a fact what someone has done, is the easiest expression of love and compassion. Yet how few of us manage even that.

It seems that we humans find it very easy to gossip and spread rumors. I guess it is because at some level we think that it makes us look better if we expose the weaknesses of others.