Doeg

I don’t even like the sound of the name! Doeg! ….Dough—egg! There isn’t even a good way to pronounce the name to to make it sound better. Do-eg. Doig! I have also noticed it isn’t a popular name chosen by parents today. It just isn’t a cool name!

I’ve made it into an acronym: Disseminator Of Evil Gossip

It has been said that the one thing faster than the speed of light is “gossip.” Examples are many: When a dangerous and sensitive piece of information is published almost immediately in the New York press, Abigail Baker, the Police Commissioner’s assistant in the Blue Bloods television series, remarks sarcastically and in amazement: “Pretty soon we’ll get the news even before it happens!”

When something happened at a church I pastored, the matter spread through our church and our neighboring church by nightfall, including the neighboring church’s pastor who was then traveling on the coast. Perhaps it even reached the Orient! I wish to make no specific charge in that case, but I am sharing it as an example of how amazing the dynamics of communications are! With e-mail, twitter, and cell phones the issue is even amplified more today.

Not a day goes by in my position as pastor that I do not deal with the tragic results of careless communication or gossip. Sometimes I’ve had to try and pick up my own scattered feathers. What a mess! But that is a relatively small thing compared to the cumulative damage, pain, and complication that comes into people’s lives because of the active circulation of reports by some about the particular or questionable behavior of others.

There is a pseudo-righteous need in the hearts of some to be what I call: “Sin Reporters.” Or even in Doeg’s case, just “Reporters,” in general. They may run to the pastor and say, “Pastor, I think you should know what “so and so” is doing.” Or they may call or e-mail their friends and share certain juicy tidbits with them. Or there is Facebook, or texting, or twitter. Friends, I for one personally really don’t want or need to know many of these things. With the world the way it is I will find out soon enough. There is too much reporting already. I don’t keep record of the sins of the congregation or track the misteps or errors of the leaders in my congregation. I don’t see that as my responsibility. For starters I don’t own enough notebooks; second, my computer doesn’t have enough memory; and third, I have plenty of my own sins to catalogue! And yes, I have noticed there is a lot of sin in the world and in the church! Newsflash! Hello?! But I don’t think I should carry the responsibility for knowing all of it!

Before you send me more Ellen White quotes that impose the unique duty of pastors or others to point out sin [some have beat you to it, but I think they need to have some quotes of a different nature sent back to them], I think I already have a working knowledge of when this is appropriate and how it is to be done. Don’t misapply the counsel as some do. In short we must point out sin, yes, but I’m not sure we have been given permission to go around pointing out and personally identifying individual sins and sinners. There is a great difference. Ultimately I think this rare duty (the favorite word of some) needs a direct mandate from the Lord and might only be required when certain professing Christian leaders are boldly and indisputably violating one of God’s Ten Commandments. Even then it must always be approached with supreme caution. Plus we should use God’s clear and defined church standards, and not rely on the opinion of some favorite pastor, elder, or church member on what is a sin or certain level of sin thereof.

The subtle and deceptive thing about negative information sharing is that most often the disseminator doesn’t really intend to inflict as much damage as actually results in the end. When Doeg, ( 1 Samuel 21:7) in the interest of advancing his own political standing tells King Saul that David had gone to visit Pastor Ahimelech at the Nob Church to inquire of the Lord (an almost innocent and commendable report in a way); 85 innocent priests along with an entire city of women and children had their lives brutally and unjustly taken from them. Doeg was actually a church member who had been attending that church, but what devastation he occasioned by his self-interested report! Disseminators of evil gossip cause similar-like devastation today. I am sure of it. This is sometimes termed “character assassination.” A cogent and appropriate term, indeed!

I find no biblical injunction that we are called to report the sins of others in attaching it to a certain person, or even to actively relate the affairs of others. But there is plenty said against it. Gossip is classed right along with the grossest of sins. Jesus says clearly and simply, “judge not!” (Matthew 7:1). I can find no such permission in the golden rule, or anywhere else. Jesus denounced sin, but rarely the sinner (Read the story of the woman even caught in adultery in John 8, or the story of Simon the Pharisee, or Judas, etc., etc). What lessons we can receive from Jesus on how to deal with the erring!

We are challenged to never let a corrupt communication escape our lips. In some cases it would bring incredible relief if simply no communication at all escaped some lips! As my now deceased brother, Barry, would often say: “Just keep your trap shut!” Good advice, then and now; and well said on top of it!

Sometimes even positive information about someone else may not be in our purview or privilege to share and thus spoil the surprise or whatever. For instance, I will sometimes have a young couple, each beaming from ear to ear come up to me to tell me they are newly engaged. What disappointment is in their eyes when they gather I already have been told. Their news, their own property, got effectively stolen from them! How sad! It ruins the surprise. Let all guard carefully the door of their lips. Our focus and study should not be the sins or private affairs of others, or the latest “scoop,” but the redeeming power and person of Jesus. Nowhere are we called to emulate the likes of Doeg.

Wouldn’t it be better to be a “Barnabas,” whose name means: “son of encouragement?” Every time Barnabas is reported in the Scripture, that is precisely what he was doing, “giving goodly words” or quietly helping, rescuing, or building up someone else. There is no law against that! Eg-zactly!

Please, don’t be a Doeg. Such a slimy name, don’t you think?! Doeg!— Do-eg is the male version, Doe-eg is the female variant!

Just be a “Barnabas” or “Barnaba” instead!

(O.K., now I will keep my trap shut!)

Pastor Steve