Gossip has lost most of its taboo in too many Christian circles. It’s there, it’s accepted, it’s hardly noticed most of the time—despite not small amount of condemnation of gossips and slanderers in Scripture. Aside from your good ol’ talk-behind-their-backs gossip, we’ve got a few more options available to use today (I suppose none of these is new, just perhaps the mediums are). First is that which positions itself as well-meaning gossip. These come in the form of concerned alerts: For example, I know a few people that have had affairs—not because I r knew anyone involved at the time, or because they told me later—but in both cases the info was just passed on to me because, well, I guess this info just can’t sit inside. (This is destructive for all parties, especially the listener, because it affects how they (I?) view that person with the information I wasn’t supposed to have.) Or there is the all-too-common prayer request, summarized in a comical way by Jonathan Acuff

I have a prayer request I need to share. You know Tim and Nancy? They are having some marital problems right now and need some prayer. Turns out Nancy put a filter on their computer because Tim has been staying up late on the computer. Well after a week of secretly monitoring all his online activity she found pornography on it. So she told Tim and her told her to stay out of his business. And you know their daughter isn’t going to graduate high school. She drinks so much and runs with that goth crowd. She’s a mess, but bless her heart. I think they’re going to go to counseling but money is tight because of Nancy’s shopping habit. Their credit debt is just out of control. I’m really concerned and as a close friend I just want to lift them up in prayer.

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