Destroying a good name

A trend that has always caused concern among far-thinking men is the trend toward encroachment upon the processes of justice, whereby various non-judicial agencies or officers accuse, try, convict, and impose penalties without what we have come to call “due process of law.” But there is another type of poaching upon the judicial process which is even more prevalent and persistent—and that is the judgment which malicious and irresponsible people sometimes presume to pronounce upon the character and qualifications of other people. Often in whispers, cowardly accusers try and condemn a man without any evidence except gossip or hearsay or their own prejudiced opinions, and often without the accused ever having known that he was on trial.

The word of the Scripture is positive in its injunction against unjust judgment: “Judge not, that ye be not judged.” This cannot mean, of course, that a man cannot be called to account for his conduct when fairly judged by those whose place it is to judge. But there are those who, because of some real or imagined slight, or jealousy, or envy, or prejudice, or because of the perverted pleasure of gossiping, are given to destroying the peace and effectiveness, the influence and reputation of others. The fact is that if we are looking for it, we can find offense against any man.

We can cut down the stature of any man in the estimation of others by minimising his virtues and magnifying his faults, or we can build up any man in the minds of others by magnifying his virtues and minimising his faults. But the scandalmongers and the gossips so often ignore the real and genuinely fine things about life and people and concentrate on the blemishes. And in the eyes of a jealous or prejudiced observer, anyone may be weighed and found wanting. People who are loose and malicious in their judgment of others are the instigators of more mischief and more misunderstanding than can be calculated. There isn’t any home or any heart that is proof against them. To sit in the judgment seat with malicious intent or with irresponsible thoughtlessness is a flagrant offence against humanity. “With what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged.”

In three lines of flawless poetry, Alexander Pope portrays how gossip is passed from person to person:

And all who told it added something new,

And all who heard it made enlargements too;

In ev’ry ear it spread, on ev’ry tongue it grew.”

If we haven’t considered the subject seriously, we may suppose that there is no harm in the idle telling of tales.  At least it keeps up conversation.  In fact, we may go so far as to ask as one person did: “If gossiping is such a besetting sin, why isn’t it covered by the commandments?” It is a good question, and there is a good answer: It is covered by the commandments. 

As we recall, there is a commandment that reads, “Thou shalt not bear false witness”—and a very considerable part of all whispering and taletelling does bear false witness, if not by actual word, at least by innuendo; and if not at first, at least by the colour that is added in passing it from person to person.  Often there can be more deadly malice in an unkind comment that passes behind hands or in the whispered venom that infectiously spreads from ear to ear than in an open accusation. 

In Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare tells of an innocent victim “done to death by slanderous tongues.” As far back as the memory of man goes, as far back as the record  is written, reputations have been riddled by the loose lips of people who pass on what they hear, plus what they make up or what they imagine.  And almost always they seek to establish their own innocence by saying that someone else said that it was so. “‘They say so’ is half a lie,” wrote Thomas Fuller.  Perhaps all of us have asked ourselves: “Who is this ‘they’?” Whoever “they” are, “they” have much to answer for.  “They” start most of the malicious rumours.  If the truth is too tame, “they” add colour to suit themselves.  And when “they”, are finally identified, and when justice is finally done, “they” will no doubt have to pay a price for every irresponsible word they ever uttered to the injury of others.

Email: samueleghan@gmail.com

By Samuel Enos Eghan