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Gossip: The "Idol Chatter" of Control
God Nuggets, Issue 16

"Gossip separates the best of friends." - Proverbs 16:28

"Fire goes out for lack of fuel, and tensions disappear when gossip stops." - Proverbs 26:20 (The Living Bible)

Most gossip today is more vinegar than wine, less bridging gaps than widening them. Fascination with the number of Imelda Marcos's shoes or the amount of Michael Eisner's bonus or the size of Pamela Anderson's disimplants is not just the preserve of gross tabloids.

Vicious, malicious gossip is the postmodern equivalent of the persecution of witches. And Christians today can conduct as many witch-hunts as they did in the past. The amount of skullduggery in some churches and communities would make Salem proud.

Gossip is dictionary-defined as "idle chatter." In the best sense of the phrase, "idle chatter" is the same as "small talk." In the worst sense of the phrase, "idle chatter" is the same as "idol chatter." And the idol is oneself. The natural light of postmoderns is limelight.

Gossip has become a primary cultural device for forwarding one's self-interest. In this sense of "idol chatter," gossip is information that protects and promotes the goodness of oneself. Boiled down to the bones, the most fundamental of human desires is not for sex; it is for control. Not surprisingly, Hitler had an almost napoleonic obsession with detail. He was a total control freak. The advanced technologies of bioinformatics only increase our evil delusions that we're in control.

Gossip is the "idol chatter" of control.

from "Learn to Dance the Soul Salsa" by Leonard Sweet, PhD

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