Defiled by Gossip

Gossip is yucky.

One of the surprises (which shouldn't have been) of working on this doctoral project on the sin of gossip is just how sinful gossip can be.

I wanted to pick a "garden variety" temptation that we all face daily and write helpful things about it, and gossip rose early as a possibility.

What I wasn't expecting was that, as I got further into researching it, I would discover depths of depravity and feel dirty just by getting close to it.

This shouldn't have surprised me.  Gossip finds itself in terrible company in list of sins in Romans 1 and 2 Corinthians 12.  Gossip is always seen as negative, distasteful, undesirable, dangerous in both testaments.  Gossip is bad news delivered badly from bad hearts.  Gossip is sin.  Sin is yucky. What did I expect?

A few weeks ago, I read Scorpion Tongues: Gossip, Celebrity, and American Politics. It was well researched and clearly written but it made me feel icky to read all of that dirt about people who should be honorable (and some of them were honorable just had their names drug through the mud).

I'm glad to be able to write about resisting gossip and about responding when it comes at you so that the gospel remedies for this problem get taught to others.

But I'll also be glad to be free of the yucky-ness of gossip, too.  That's a good reason by itself to work to finish this project quickly and well.