Which Is Worse: Spreading Gossip or Listening to Gossip?

Gossip: Definition

Gossip is talking unnecessarily about the personal business or private affairs of others, including one's own family and friends. Most of the time, gossip is a rumor that could ruin someone's reputation. The intent of gossip is to make someone look bad.

People are hurt by gossip, but that doesn't stop others from indulging in it. A study reveals that about 80 percent of some people's conversations involve gossip. Most telephone calls among friends include some gossip about others that they know.

Spreading gossip is like opening a pillow full of feathers on a windy day at the top of a tall mountain. The feathers will blow away. Once words are out of your mouth, they are like feathers on a windy day.

You will never be able to find all of them and put them back into the pillow. You will be unable to retrieve all the words you have said about someone. As soon as negative words are spoken, they become like feathers in the wind.

Reasons People Gossip

Some gossipers get a thrill when they reveal secrets they have been told. It makes some people feel important when they divulge other people's confidential information.

Many people actually love reporting misfortunes and bad news about others. Social media has made it possible for people to gossip more than they used to. They can post anonymously online while hiding behind their computer screen and keyboard.

Gossip doesn't benefit anyone. If you are the one who gossips, take the temptation away. Refrain from talking to people who gossip so you won't be tempted to do the same. When they ask you why you don't call as often as you used to, be honest and tell them that you are fasting from gossiping.

Gossip Is a Sin

Many of the world's major religions forbid gossip and consider it to be a sin. It might be called by other names, such as evil tongue, backbiting, or tattling. However, any talk that deliberately demeans someone is sinful.

Gossip is negative talk that affects both the person who engages in it and the person who listens to it. Sometimes gossip can be dangerous and harmful. When people gossip about others, they create a gap between themselves and God. They block their own blessings. How can God bless a person who tries to bring others down?

Which Is Worse: Gossiping or Listening To It?

You might think the person who speaks and spreads gossip is worse than the person who listens to it. You might be surprised to know that the person who listens to gossip is worse than the person who tells it.

Spreading gossip and listening to it are both forbidden by the scriptures.

Listening to gossip does the most harm because it would be stopped if no one heard it.

It is no accident that the expression is "spreading gossip." Gossip spreads much like wildfire. Once it starts, people will listen, tell someone else, and that person will tell another. It spreads and spreads fast. However, if no one listens, the gossip will stop.

Gossip essentially negatively affects three people:

1. The person who speaks it
2. The person who listens to it
3. The person about whom it is told

What You Can Do to Stop Gossip

Don't let others pull you into their gossip. You can stop people from gossiping to you by refusing to listen to them. If you don't listen, then the gossip will not continue to spread.

Don't destroy people's reputations by spreading gossip with your mouth and listening to it with your ears.

Don't engage in gossip when people share intimate or confidential news with you.

Stop gossip in its tracks by doing two things:

1. Don't gossip.

2. Don't listen to gossip.