The Compulsion to Defame
It is pitifull when it is the President of the United States.
He once again defames the Pope… declaring that Catholics are now are in danger?
Every time someone defames another, something much deeper than reputation is damaged.
Defamation poisons.
It destroys trust, hardens hearts, and trains communities to see one another through eyes of suspicion instead of humanity.
Families fracture, friendships erode, churches lose their moral witness, and societies become addicted to contempt.
When we defame, we reward anger and outrage over truth, and gives permission for deeper cruelty to masquerade as conviction.
Over time…
A culture shaped by slander becomes incapable of honesty, and dialogue with each other. People no longer seek understand each other — only to defeat and tear down one another, bent on humiliation and destruction.
It is the height of insecurity.
It is pitifull when it is the President of the United States, on the public airwaves, accusing the Bishop of Rome — the first American Pope — and now threatening that the Pope is endangering Catholics? The action is blasphemous.
When leaders defame others, they do more than gain an upper hand — they poison trust and teach those they lead that power is built through humiliation, rather than truth. A culture shaped by defamation eventually loses its ‘moral’ center, because people begin to fear truth and listening to one anothe. No longer do they value honesty, dignity, or justice.
Words do not merely communicate and seek to describe a situation; they often serve to create a distortion of reality. When we use words to continually defame distort, or demean, we slowly tear apart the very fabric that allows people to live together with dignity, trust, and grace.
With Trump, we live under the rule of “to defame is to vindicate.’ But for the rest of us, ours is the call to value one another and now must make the choice to live in the opposite spirit.
Ours is to offer believe in one another and live intentionally to believe in, and encourage one another.