I had another question about gossip. I was at dinner with my family, and we were talking about some funny times during our last vacation trip. These stories only stay within our family. We don’t tell them to anyone else.<\/p>\n
One story involved a stranger, whom I mentioned something without thinking. He was sitting across from me in a boat and I happened to look down and saw that his toes were contorted. I mentioned that they creeped me out a bit which gave everyone at the table a laugh.<\/p>\n
Does any of this seem to be a mortal sin? Now I know that gossiping requires certain things, but I wasn’t sure if any of that criteria was met. I think I was concerned because this is an easy sin to fall into.<\/p>\n
Thank you,<\/p>\n\t
The intent of gossip is to cause strife by telling others information about a person to damage that person’s reputation. The information told could be true or false. It is not being told to a person who might be in charge or who has the authority to fix a problem. The gossip almost always avoids such people because they aren’t interested in helping the person.<\/p>\n
In your example, you mentioned that someone had a handicap that disturbed you. In my view, this is a tale that makes you look unsympathetic — in other words, the brunt of the joke is on yourself and not the stranger. That isn’t gossip.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I had another question about gossip. I was at dinner with my family, and we were talking about some funny times during our last vacation trip. These stories only stay within our family. We don’t tell them to anyone else. One story involved a stranger, whom I mentioned something without thinking. He was sitting…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1573],"class_list":["post-42035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-gossip"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51956,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-giving-a-warning-about-a-false-teacher-be-gossip\/","url_meta":{"origin":42035,"position":0},"title":"Can giving a warning about a false teacher be gossip?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I was reading\u00a0an article written by someone on your website about the subject of gossip. Gossip was condemned by the person who wrote the article. But, what about if you're exposing a false teacher, whether they're well known by others or not? I believe that we should raise awareness\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33604,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-a-gossip\/","url_meta":{"origin":42035,"position":1},"title":"What Is a Gossip?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Floyd Chappelear Sentry Magazine, March 2000 Too many people think that \"gossip\" is the communication of information. Not so. The household of Chloe told the apostle Paul about some unflattering things that pertained to the saints at Corinth (I Corinthians 1:11). Paul was given a unique opportunity to lambast\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36146,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-venting-and-gossiping\/","url_meta":{"origin":42035,"position":2},"title":"What is the difference between venting and gossiping?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I have a\u00a0friend that shares with me about other coworkers that have either said something that she did not like or hurt her feelings, in the past and currently, and I was wondering what exactly is the difference between just venting and gossiping.\u00a0 She sometimes\u00a0begins\u00a0by saying\u00a0\"I am just venting,\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":91021,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-do-you-deal-with-an-elders-wifes-gossiping\/","url_meta":{"origin":42035,"position":3},"title":"How do you deal with an elder’s wife’s gossiping?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 4, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do the wives of the elders have any authority over the other women of the congregation? Are there qualifications for the wife of an elder? How should it be handled when the wife of an elder repeats hurtful information about a member of the church she learns from her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21276,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-a-publicly-known-sin-need-to-be-confessed\/","url_meta":{"origin":42035,"position":4},"title":"Doesn’t a publicly known sin need to be confessed?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello! I have a question about an article that I have recently found. I am a Christian and grew up in the church always believing you \"need to let the congregation know you have repented of your public sins\" by going forward. In the article \"Does sin require a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50399,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/slander-gossip-and-venting\/","url_meta":{"origin":42035,"position":5},"title":"Slander, Gossip, and Venting","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 23, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Alan Feaster","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}