Small Town Gossip

With small towns come gossip, but the worst to me is church gossip. One thing I have never liked about living in a small town is the gossip. Most of the time if you got in trouble in my hometown your parents would know before you ever got home. My favorite story was when I was in high school, I got pulled over for speeding on my way to school and the cop gave me the option to either get a ticket or he could call my dad... If I would've had the money I would've definitely happily taken the ticket, but as it was I was as broke as Hulk Hogan. Plus I knew dad would find out anyway.. So I told him to make the call.

But back to church gossip, it amazes me that one person can open their mouth and like wildfire rumors run rampantly through town. With today's technology it's only a matter of minutes before what you say can be known across the country. When my wife and I released our news of pregnancy on Facebook it seemed as though 90% of the community knew in a matter of minutes... and then... Last week when we posted the link to The Moore The Merrier with the news we got from the doctor, within a day and a half we had just shy of 400 page views. The internet along with social networking sites can be used for amazing things... Even reuniting family members, but they can also be a very easy to use mass gossip headquarters for someone with evil on their mind. I guess what I don't understand though is why people feel as though it is ok to lie about a church and then spread it around town, and then on top of that, others just blindly take what they say as Gospel and continue the trend. I am a firm believer that you should always make sure that what someone is telling you is the truth. Whether it is your Sunday School Teacher, Your Preacher, or even Joe Blow down the street. I read a book one time (yea I know it's shocking right) but the author was challenging his readers throughout the book to not just believe what he was writing, but to go out and check it. Do the research to make sure what you are hearing is the truth!

Unfortunately I don't know how to stop church gossip. All I can say is check things out for yourself. With small towns I think this will always be a challenge, but maybe if we are more conscious of what we are saying to others it could help.