Episode #55 - Rumors, Gossip, And Fake News

Earlier this week, a horrible rumor was going around town in Stanford, KY that one of our elders wives had passed away. After just a few minutes of digging and phone calls, I discovered that was most certainly not true. It's crazy how these kinds of rumors get started through gossip. Well...gossip is warned about repeatedly in Scripture. Just because something is true does not give us the right to share it, but especially when something isn't true. More often than not, we enable deceit to continue because we do no due diligence to find out the truth of a matter, we just share it and cause problems. Be careful what you say and share. 

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Transcript

Welcome back to all of our listeners! I’m BJ Sipe, and you’re listening to the Set Your Mind Above podcast – where everyday ordinary events teach us extraordinary eternal truths. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today, I am excited to share my life and my faith with you, and I sure hope that you’ll do the same with me along the way. 

If you tuned into yesterday’s podcast, I put in a little easter egg that todays podcast was going to be about gossip or something to that effect. Today’s story takes us back to Tuesday morning around 9 am. I was getting ready to leave the house and get on to work when I received a call from one of our members named Annette Cooper, who is known as “Nana Net” in our house. Seeing her name flash across my phone surprised me this early on a Tuesday morning, but I thought nothing of it and answered the call. “Hey BJ, did I miss a very important and sensitive email this morning?” she asked. Here in Danville, I am responsible for sending out email updates to our church members about events, news, or prayer requests, hence her question. I had sent out no email, so puzzled I said, “No, I haven’t been asked to send anything out, why what’s going on?” “Oh BJ, I just got a call from Jeff (her husband) at the bank, there were a group of ladies all talking and they were saying that Loretta just passed away.” My heart dropped to my stomach – Loretta Godbey is Harold Godbey’s wife, who is one of our Shepherds here at the church. She is one of the kindest, most lovely people that we have ever had the pleasure of knowing – and to our knowledge has been perfectly healthy. I caught my breath and said, “Wait, what? Who was saying this? Have you tried to call Harold?” “That’s just it, I can’t get a hold of him – I thought I should call you after I tried to call him,” she said. We got off the phone and I immediately called Jimmy, Harold and Loretta’s son. “If you’re calling about my mom, she’s just fine as of an hour ago,” Jimmy said right off as he answered the phone. Apparently, someone else in town who isn’t even a part of our church had just called Jimmy and asked him the same question. This rumor was going around and quick. Relieved I decided to at least give Harold and Loretta a call to see if I could get through, and sure enough Harold picked up his phone chipper as ever. “Hey BJ, how’s it going?” Harold asked? He was way too happy for there to be something wrong at all, so I laughed and told him about the phone call I had just received. “Well, BJ, she looks just fine to me,” he laughed, “That’s just small towns for you – you never know how something like this gets started. Someone says something and before you know it the whole town’s got you dead.” I couldn’t have been more relieved as we got off the phone to hear the gossip from the old ladies club at the bank wasn’t true. As it turns out, apparently another fellow from Stanford, KY also named Jimmy did in fact lose his mother this week – and our prayers most certainly do go out to him. But as that news got circulated, someone confused this Jimmy with our Jimmy Godbey, and before you know it the news around town had spread that Jimmy Godbey’s momma had died, which is our sweet Loretta. How crazy is that story? It’s like the worst game of telephone you’ve ever played. Unfortunately, stories like this are not uncommon in everyday life. Rumors, gossip, and fake news are their own pandemic as people will blindly share any kind of information without ever looking into it’s validity. I even had someone come up to me about a month ago and say, “I heard a rumor that you were leaving Danville to go somewhere else, so I wanted to come ask you for myself – is that true?” “Well, it would be news to me, although it wouldn’t be the first time I was out the door and didn’t know about it yet,” I laughed with them. “Most assuredly, we have absolutely no intention on ever leaving Danville.” I don’t know how these things get started, but I do know this for certain, we must be much more careful about the things that we chose to share with others. 

Gossip is warned against and condemned time and time again throughout Scripture. In fact, in Romans 1 those who gossip stand as condemned as those who murder, slander, or are ruthless. But gossip does not necessarily mean that someone is spreading falsehood – sometimes it means you are simply spreading information that is not yours to share. Proverbs 11:13 says, “Whoever goes about slandering reveals secrets, but he who is trustworthy in spirit keeps a thing covered.” In thinking about these recent events, even if the news these ladies at the bank had heard was true, it was not necessarily their news to share. As Christians, we must use discretion and sound judgment in what we chose to say to others. Simply because something is true does not give us license to pass along that information to everyone else we meet. I have seen families broken hearted because they were the learned of either good or bad news second hand as a result of someone sharing information they should not.  I have seen reputations destroyed because of something that someone did being spoken about to people who had no business in knowing the details. But more often than not, what I believe so many Christians are guilty of today is not just sharing true information that they should not, but sharing false information as though it is true. Consider Proverbs 12:17-19, “Whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence, but a false witness utters deceit. There is one whose rash words are like sword thrusts, but the tongue of the wise brings healing. Truthful lips endure forever, but a lying tongue is but for a moment.” Notice what the text there says – whoever speaks the truth gives honest evidence. Those who are wise and interested in the truth do their due diligence to ensure that a thing is in fact true before believing it and especially before sharing it, if it is appropriate to do so. No truer words have even been spoken than this: you cannot believe everything you see on the internet. And yet, week in and week out, I see Christians sharing false information and fake news as though it is absolutely true. They take the click bait and share an article, sometimes obviously without even reading the actual article just the misleading headline. The most ironic times I have seen this happen is when people I’ve known have shared Babylon Bee articles, which is a satirical news website, as though it was a legitimate news source. They obviously made no effort to verify what they believed to be true and simply just shared it. My friends, do you realize that you will be held accountable for being so rash with your words and actions? You may not intend to do so, but you have become an accomplice or enabler for deceit. Christians, you must be much more careful about the things that you chose to say and share with others, not just with your mouth but also through social media. You do not want to be the one that is responsible for the damage that is done through the spreading of falsehood and false information. Because that’s the thing about a lie: it holds the exact same power over someone as the truth does if you believe it to be true. Love rejoices in the truth, and that means that if we want to act in love, we best make sure that what we chose to discuss and share with others is in fact true before we do so. Be wise, be thoughtful, and be truth seekers in all things. 

Thank you so much for listening to today’s episode. Tune in, Tuesday-Fridays, as a new podcast episode will be uploaded each day. Also, be sure to follow the Facebook page for the Set Your Mind Above podcast for future announcements and video sessions that are uploaded on Saturdays. As you have the opportunity, share these thoughts with your friends and family, and share with me what important lessons you are learning from every day, ordinary events. Until next time know that I love you, that God loves you, and may we all each and every day set our minds above.