really good gossip

If gossip were a fuel there'd be no energy shortage at all. What is it that makes a person so ready to share someone else's embarrassment, misfortune, grief and issues? Does it give them a sense of value to feel they own a bit of information that comes across as entertaining at best and destructive at worst?

I don't expect to open a newspaper and read that an elected official has done a good job at governing. It's not because that public servant isn't getting good things done. That sort of news just doesn't sell papers. (And certain newspapers have vendettas against certain elected officials.) It's not routine for the television news to report a great act of charity. Good news doesn't get ratings that translate into revenue. Gossip magazines and television shows that circle celebrities like vultures twenty four hours a day are willing to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars for that one photo of an A level star in a moment of apparent (or not) compromise. And the courts have basically freed them all from any standard of truth telling. But regardless, it is the hope of dollars that motivates the professional gossips. But what motivates a gossiping person who has nothing apparent to gain?

There was a time when I was a willing participant when it came to sharing the failures and faux pas of others with a group of willing and curious ears. The satisfaction and even the delight of having a bit of information on a so-and-so that others didn't have gave me a sense of esteem. Then knowing that the juicy little bit of tale toting that I'd just shared might be retold (with me getting the credit of course) made me feel even more important. It should've made me ashamed.

The destructive force of gossip had to be reason enough for Paul to list it as a top level offense. And even if such a man of God didn't mention it, knowing the harm and hurt that it causes is reason enough for a person with compassion or a desire to be like Christ to never let it be their practice.

There aren't very many days that go by that I don't hear some sort of unnecessary chatter about someone I know. Honestly, most of the time much of the information I hear is about me. Which is fine. I'd much rather they bring their blather about me to me than to continue the tale-chain. Maybe it's because I've been the subject of so much unforgiving and painful talk that I've decided not to participate in the easy evil any longer. It serves only the purposes of the person whose lips are moving. It says a lot about their heart too.

Gossip has destroyed a lot of reputations. Mostly the ones of those doing the talking.