Remarkably, wonderfully, graciously Jesus obeyed and died as the substitute for liars, backbiters, slanderers, and gossips but we, who name Christ’s name, who’ve been baptized into that name and into his church, who have been taught the truth, must now be committed to the truth and not to lies in our face-to-face communications and in our internet communications.
One of the television shows I remember watching as a boy, briefly when it was first run (1963–67) and then again in re-runs, wasThe Fugitive. It was the story of a man who was falsely convicted of murder and who sets out to prove his innocence by finding the man who actually committed the murder. All the authorities were convinced that Richard Kimble was a guilty man. Nothing he said created doubt in their mind. As they were transporting him to prison the train on which he was being carried derailed. Kimball escaped and the chase was on: the authorities pursued Kimball as he sought the one-armed man who murdered Kimball’s wife.
It is a frightening thought that one might know the truth but not to be able to convince others of it. Kimble struggled not only to find his wife’s killer and the truth but to find or not to lose himself to cynicism and hopelessness. As he travels he meets, makes friends with, and helps others as they help him but the authorities were never far behind and the one-armed man seems always to slip away. With the development and growth of social media we too can become Richard Kimbles, fugitives hounded by others. Today, informal trials are regularly conducted in social media. Someone writes a thoughtless comment on Facebook or Twitter, that comment gets re-tweeted or forwarded to others, and things can spiral out of control quickly. Not long ago, as she boarded her plane, a woman tweeted thoughtlessly about her trip to Africa. By the time she arrived, quite unbeknownst to her, a storm of protest and controversy had developed and she had been fired from her job. A careless comment that once would have been uttered in private and probably forgotten resulted in a significant change in her life and unwanted notoriety. She was charged, tried, and convicted largely in absentia by a virtual mob who probably spent all of 10 seconds considering her case—summary judgment and execution.
It is not unheard of for rumors to spread virally on the internet. An entire site, snopes.com does nothing but investigate rumors to try to ascertain whether they are true. Some rumors seem to have obtained a sort of eternal life on Facebook and other social media platforms where, for a time, they fade from view and then re-appear with a new date and some slightly different details and the same essential falsehood. Credulity + idle hands = mischief.
If you have never been the subject of internet gossip or on the wrong end of the internet mob, you are fortunate but it could happen to anyone. I recently read a story purporting to be that of the “Obamacare Girl.” Without her permission her image was used and it cost her dearly. She was apparently minding her own business when suddenly she found herself at the center of a great controversy, attacked by strangers, and the butt of jokes by late-night comedians. How often have you read, “I heard that she….”? It does not matter what follows the subject of the verb. It is gossip and that is forbidden by the ninth commandment: “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.”
As the confessional (i.e., those that actually believe what the historic confessions of the church and do not regard them as mere historical relics) Reformed and Presbyterian churches understand the ninth commandment there are positive duties (things we must do) and prohibitions (things we may not do). The positive command is to love our neighbor by telling the truth about him. The prohibition is that we must love our neighbor by not lying about him. That seems straightforward enough but judging by what one sees on the internet it is honored more often in the breach than by obedience.