When is gossip a mortal sin?

[veryworried6277]

Is gossip a mortal sin when the matter you are gossiping about is serious? For example if someone makes a false rumour regarding someone having an affair, this would most likely be of grave matter, right? So if someone is talking about perhaps an incident that happened where someone was impolite, would this be mortal? Or maybe not a sin at all?

I ask this because me and my friend were shopping when an employee of the shop came across quite rudely when she wanted to check our bags (accussing my friend of stealing something). The next day we went back in and she came up to us and said ‘Yeah, i’m looking at you’. Now I told my other friends about these two situations. Do you think this may have been a mortal sin? I mean I did point out how rude she had been when I told my friends, but I wasn’t trying to make her look like a bad person. I saw it as more of a funny story to tell my friends, without exaggerating.

I must also note that I have been sufferring from scrupulosity, therefore I have been struggling with trusting my own conscience.

 

[veryworried6277]

I also might add that I made it a point not to tell my friends who the employee was. I have been looking this topic up and found that basically the more it ruins their reputation, the more likely that the sin would be worse. Is this true? If not can someone clear this up? Thanks in advance

 

[Oumashta]

There is a difference between having an ill-disposed will towards someone and relating a story that happened. Chances are, the people you tell will never ever know who that person was, and you were just telling a funny story about what happened during your day. There is no sin in this. It would be a sin if you kept on talking about it for days on end, non-stop, and start wishing that this employee would be eaten by sharks or die of cancer or something.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Is gossip a mortal sin when the matter you are gossiping about is serious? For example if someone makes a false rumour regarding someone having an affair, this would most likely be of grave matter, right? So if someone is talking about perhaps an incident that happened where someone was impolite, would this be mortal? Or maybe not a sin at all?

I ask this because me and my friend were shopping when an employee of the shop came across quite rudely when she wanted to check our bags (accussing my friend of stealing something). The next day we went back in and she came up to us and said ‘Yeah, i’m looking at you’. Now I told my other friends about these two situations. Do you think this may have been a mortal sin? I mean I did point out how rude she had been when I told my friends, but I wasn’t trying to make her look like a bad person. I saw it as more of a funny story to tell my friends, without exaggerating.

I must also note that I have been sufferring from scrupulosity, therefore I have been struggling with trusting my own conscience.

No, this is not a mortal sin. Discussing an incident that happened to you is not gossiping. An illustration of gossiping would be if you found out some personal information about a person and brought that to your friends and spread it. You were merely relating a situation to your friends. If we could not do that without sinning, we would not be able to talk to each other at all!

 

[veryworried6277]

No, this is not a mortal sin. Discussing an incident that happened to you is not gossiping. An illustration of gossiping would be if you found out some personal information about a person and brought that to your friends and spread it. You were merely relating a situation to your friends. If we could not do that without sinning, we would not be able to talk to each other at all!

Thanks, but I can’t help but to feel guilty for calling her rude. I basically said ’ the way she came across about it, she was pretty rude’.

 

[TheRealJuliane]

Thanks, but I can’t help but to feel guilty for calling her rude. I basically said ’ the way she came across about it, she was pretty rude’.

This is your scruples talking. The way you have told it, she was rude. That’s your observation. Did you understand what I wrote before? About spreading some kind of personal knowledge about someone?

Here’s another example: A friend of mine starts talking about her husband having looked at porn. I then go to another friend and tell her that our other friend’s husband looks at porn. Doesn’t even have to be a negative judgment on my part, IOW I don’t have to say, “Isn’t that horrible,” just spreading what I know is gossip.

 

[veryworried6277]

This is your scruples talking. The way you have told it, she was rude. That’s your observation. Did you understand what I wrote before? About spreading some kind of personal knowledge about someone?

Here’s another example: A friend of mine starts talking about her husband having looked at porn. I then go to another friend and tell her that our other friend’s husband looks at porn. Doesn’t even have to be a negative judgment on my part, IOW I don’t have to say, “Isn’t that horrible,” just spreading what I know is gossip.

Okay thanks very much. I fear as if I planted a negative seed in my friend’s minds. Maybe i’m just overlooking it. Thanks again