It's Really This Easy

One thing that irritates me to no end is when people start spreading gossip and/or talking smack about a person or a church. I've noticed that, especially on Facebook, that once this starts, people, like cockroaches, start coming out of the woodwork and joining in on the bashing party and smear campaign. Just yesterday a woman started trashing a church, and in her bashing that church basically trashed every church for "not having a caring heart" if they did not do what she thought should be done. In this case, she said that the church she had been attending had "refused" to minister to the deaf when she requested it. Then she added that any church who did not have a deaf ministry did not have the heart of Christ. I confronted this and said that many, if not most, smaller churches did not have anyone in the church who could interpret to the deaf but would if they had the ability. She back-peddled then, saying she did not mean it that way, but again went on a rant about the church where she had attended. I finally decided to contact the pastor of this church and ask him if he had in fact "refused" to minister to the deaf.  The pastor was shocked beyond belief. I told me that most people did not know it, but he, in fact, was partially deaf and was dependent upon hearing aids. He further told me that he had never spoken to anyone about this and most certainly would not "refuse" such a ministry. Then he said that he currently had two people in his church taking a course in sign language and interpretation and that as soon as they were able, they were, in fact, launching this ministry in the church where he pastors. Funny what happens when you simply check out the story...

My point of this post is that rather than simply hearing accusations and running with them, it is really easy to do a little fact checking put a stop to malicious gossip and attacks. The sad truth is, most people are not interested in the truth... they just want to join in on the attack and further damage reputations and especially if it is the reputation of a minister of the gospel.