Brothers and sisters, do not
slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or
judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you
are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. (James 4:11)
We’ve thought about a lot of things we are to do, and if we were doing
those, we probably wouldn’t have to worry about not doing the negatives. Unfortunately,
the negatives are so natural to our lives, we can do them while doing the
positives. They need more than simple replacement – they need conscious effort.
Since slander is a national pastime. Just so we’re clear…
Slander is the
action or crime of making a false spoken statement damaging to a person's
reputation. (Libel
is written/published slander.)
Gossip: casual
or unconstrained conversation or reports about other people, typically
involving details that are not confirmed as being true.
Technically, slander and gossip aren’t the same thing, but in practice,
slander is often gossip, and gossip, slander. They’re so easy to do, and we can
even sound spiritual while we do it. We don’t ask for prayer for someone, we provide
a five-minute explanation of why the prayer is needed. Do we think God doesn’t
know? Do we think those with us need the details in order to lift the need to
God? Maybe it’s something else, but have you noticed how much we seem to think
we have to tell, or be told?
James tells us that when we speak against people, we’re judging them and
the law. We have a right to voice our opinions, we say, and that’s true, but
that doesn’t mean that doing so is the right thing to do. We may even claim to
have a responsibility to inform others about how bad a political candidate is. Really?
When we warn others against a candidate, we’re trying to harm that candidate –
to keep him/her from being elected to office. How often do we do this because of
our love for that candidate as an individual? I suspect it’s more often hatred.
This is something I’ve seen a lot in the past five years. Christians
have railed against Mr. Trump – and at least some of what they’re saying is
true, but they are saying it to destroy him and his presidency. Strangely, they
aren’t promoting any other candidate, they’re whole focus is on getting him out
of office. It doesn’t matter who gets in. Some of them are even suggesting that
we vote for candidates whose platforms are clearly anti-Scriptural and
anti-Christian… anyone as long as it’s not Mr.
Trump.
I’ve asked a number of them to provide the name of a viable candidate
whose platform is acceptable to me (i.e. Conservative.) From what James says
above, I think that’s the only right and Christian way to approach the
question. Tell me who you think I should vote for, whose platform is acceptable
– not who I should vote against, because then you’re not slanderously voicing
hatred.
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