In Yiddish folklore, there’s a story of a man who gossi-pped many untruths aga-inst the character of a rabbi. Later he confessed, “Rabbi, what should I do to make ame-nds?” The rabbi said, “Pick up two pillows, rip it open, throw up the cotton in the air and me-et me tomorrow.” After doing that he returned and the rabbi and said, “Now, go pick up eve-ry bit of cotton and return to me and then you will have ma-de amends for what you have done.”
The hurt caused by slander, gossip and character assassination has not only disturbed the peace of individuals, families, communities and our workpla-ces, but even pushed people to the brink of suicide in recent times. A more nefarious form of character assassination is anonymous letters and emails. Known as ‘poison-pen letters’, they are sent directly to the person, to others associated with the person or to people who have power but also a fragility of being influenced by them.
British graphologists and psychologists found most ano-nymous letter writers mild or pronounced paranoiacs, suffering from, with a weak streak linked with dishonesty.
Saint Paul understood such human frailty and expressed pain before revisiting the community of believers in Corinth, “For I am afraid that when I co-me I may find... that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slander-s, gossip, arrogance among yo-u” (2 Corinthians 12:20). Jesus told his disciples, “From within the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts like coveting envy, slander... and it is this that defiles a person” (Mark 7:21-23).
Well-known worship leader Tom Rainer did a survey via ‘Twitter’ to find how leaders dealt with anonymous letters. Some said they never read a unsigned letter, some quickly destroyed it after reading and ignored the contents or asked their secretary confidants to prevent them from even reaching them. Surprisingly, a sizeable number said they waited upon God to reveal the Truth and spent more time in prayer both for the anonymous writer and the victim as both were in need of solace from God. Less than ten per cent of responde-nts confessed they spent time and energy investigating and lost focus on the rest of the community. On which side of the letter are you? Both sides, you need healing.