It is ourselves who are poisoned when we seek
to poison the reputations of others
If we are fault-finders of those who are good, it speaks not well of us. If we search out their faults, and brandish them to the world, and speak evil of those who are good, it is we who are in the wrong.
And, I wonder if this truth isn't at play in what we are seeing south of the border, in Mexico, as thousands of migrants trek this way. Are we wrongfully judging them? Are we taking good people and wrongfully speaking evil of them? Gossip, they say, is a terrible thing. But does it suddenly become okay when it is not the neighbor next door we are backstabbing, but just a people we are reading about in the newspapers?
Should not our public ethics be as great as our private?
I would think we are no more justified in bearing false witness against these migrants who are on the public stage than we are in falsely accusing our neighbors two blocks from our home. Harm is done by a lie that spreads, whether it damages the reputation of a neighbor or whether it sullies the good name of those coming this way in a wave of humanity from Central America.
Harm is done.
Seven thousand people? There may be some of them who are not at good as the others. But, this people -- come as they may in fleeing poverty and crime -- do we take them as our enemies? This people -- many of them joining in prayer circles in the mornings and some clutching to their Bibles -- do we see in them an enemy?
It is a weakness our own souls, then, that is unveiled when we falsely accuse immigrants. If we choose enemies of those who are good, we are the enemies of our own souls. For our distrust of those who are good will bring shreds of anger into our hearts, and lead us to falsely judge, and we will canker our souls. It is ourselves who are poisoned when we seek to poison the reputations of others. This remains a truth whether we are in the public arena or in our homes.
(Edited 10/25/18)
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