The Leaf – Conservatory Winnipeg Canada

When James wrote, “What a vast amount of timber can be set ablaze by the tiniest spark! And the tongue is a fire . . . It is an evil thing, restless and charged with deadly venom. We use it to praise our Lord and Father; then we use it to invoke curses on our fellows, though they are made in God’s likeness.” James 3:5 REV, he was probably thinking of a recent  fire he was trying to put out, set ablaze  by a deceitful tongue.  He was conscious of the grief and pain the story had brought. 

James understood the destruction, malicious and slanderous words can do to a community. I suspect he would be deeply troubled, by our world of social media,  that operates without checks on truth, rational thought, and oftentimes, common sense. A world, where a rumor can start, and be included in a presidential debate, broadcast across the nation, to 63 million people. Truth is elusive, when facts no longer matter. 

How  easy to latch onto a story, that  condemns people we do not know, or who do not look like us.

I was living in a small rural town, when a religious community bought a farm a few miles NE of us.  Members of that community dressed in 1880’s style clothing. They ran  their own K-8th grade school. Their church was the center of their lives.   Self sufficiency was practiced, where only items the community could not make or produce were purchased. Before long, rumors started that the women, who dressed so differently from us, we’re stealing loaves of white bread from a grocery store in the neighboring town. The logic that women, who had fresh homemade bread to eat every single day, would want to steal a loaf of mushy white Wonder Bread, escaped the tale bearers.

Two years ago, stories circulated on social media, of public schools stocking cat litter. The stories said it was for children who identified as cats, because they refused to use restrooms.

Last week former President Trump, told the nation that Haitian refugees, we’re eating pets. He said in Springfield Ohio, immigrants were eating the cats and dogs of residents. Even after both the mayor, and police said the rumor was not true, Trump’s running mate, J.D. Vance repeated it.

Meanwhile, it has created chaos in the community. There have been bomb threats, closed schools, colleges moving to remote learning and frightened immigrants. Events in Springfield had to be canceled. Bomb sniffing dogs were brought in to secure buildings. The Governor sent state troopers to guard the children, so it would be safe for them to return to school.

The tongue is indeed deceitful. But it is most deceitful, when it spreads stories that diminish relationships, hurts others, inflames anger, and leads people toward hate instead of  tolerance and love.

“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.” James 3:17-18 NRSV