Abstract for Gossip

Gossip is about a group of friends who usually end up gossiping when they get together.  The novel discusses gossip, its effects, its nature, how to stop it, and the Christian implications of gossiping.  Gossip is a no-no according to the Bible, but many Christians get involved in gossiping, without considering the consequences of doing this.  Today, gossip is a big money industry, and what was once a hush-hush occurrence, is now widely done by everyone, including Christians.

The novel is an American Realist novel that follows American Modernism.  The novel explores the church and personal lives of the five main characters.  The novel will show the effect of gossip on the group, what happens when one person shows the others the sin nature of gossiping, and the powerful force of the corrective nature of the Bible.

The story begins with some juicy gossip about the youth pastor at Highway of Glory Non-Denominational Church.  We see what the gossip is, and how it’s affecting the pastor, his fiancée, and future employer.  The story then discusses the ladies who are gossiping.  Tammy is introduced.  She is struggling with the guilt of gossiping with her friends.  They are sitting around gossiping, and Tammy is fighting hard to not gossip with them, but ultimately, she ends up gossiping.  She talks about not gossiping with the ladies, but her words fall on deaf ears.

The backgrounds of the ladies are discussed, beginning with Tammy.  We learn how she came to the church and began getting caught up with gossip.  Tammy sends all the ladies an email that gets the conflict started, causing each of the other ladies to have varying reactions.  Next, we meet Angela as she is asked about Pastor Page by a lady on her job.  She gets a phone call from Karen telling her about the email from Tammy, and it sends her on a journey, remembering how she met Tammy, and their first battle.  Helen is introduced when she gets a phone call from Angela telling her about the email.  Helen thinks about Tammy, their meeting, gossiping, and a bit of gossip that involves her cousin Peter.  She responds back to Tammy, letting her know that she doesn’t want to end their friendship.  We meet Mary next.  She is feeling ill and struggling with an illness only Tammy knows about.  She reads Tammy’s email, and the emails from the other ladies.  She talks to Tammy and Karen before she takes a nap because she’s so tired and overwhelmed by the news from Tammy.  The last friend we met is Karen.  She is lead down memory lane because of the email.  She thinks about how she met Tammy and the dynamics of the group.  She reminisces about something she told Tammy about her brother, and how compassion Tammy was to her during that moment.  Karen declares that she will save the group if it’s the last thing she does.

We come back around to Tammy as she drives home from work, thinking about the events of the day as we explore her home, Collier City.  During this time, we also see Helen as she drives home.  Both ladies have an experience while listening to a singer who they have gossiped about as his song plays on the radio.  Helen decides to drive over to Tammy’s house to discuss the email.  Tammy “preaches” a sermon to Helen about gossiping, which leads to her being convicted after she remembers an ordeal her sister went through.  The ladies pray, and this sends Helen on a mission to talk to the other ladies in the group.  She leaves Tammy’s house and goes to visit Mary.  Helen tells Mary what Tammy told her, trying to convince Mary to change her thinking about gossip.  Mary is reminded of an incident that happened to her mother.  Helen calls Tammy to come over for help with Mary.  After Tammy arrives, she and Mary have a confrontation that causes Mary to get upset and leaves the room.  As Mary is in her room, she is convicted, afterwards she prays and has a change of heart.  Mary rejoins the other two ladies and they come up with a plan to approach Karen about the situation.  The call doesn’t go as planned, causing Karen to come over to Mary’s house.  Karen arrives at Mary’s house.  Tammy preaches to Karen.  Mary gets overwhelmed and retreats to her room.  Helen can only stand by and watch the whole disaster.  Before long, Karen and Tammy are fighting with each other.  The debacle leaves the ladies fracture and confused.  As Karen leaves, she calls Angela to fill her in on the details of the evening.  Angela is mad and takes Karen’s side.

Things begin to change when Tammy talks to her pastor about everything that’s happened.  He gives her words of wisdom.  The ladies meet at the church on the next Sunday morning.  Mary, Tammy, and Helen are together.  Karen and Angela are together.  Karen sees Tammy and begins to confront her in the foyer of the church. A mother of the church pulls the ladies into a room and chastises them before they all go into the service.  The two groups sit separately in the church.  We see part of the service from Tammy’s viewpoint, and part of the service from Karen’s view.  It’s a battle for the ladies to pay attention to what’s going on in the service.  They have a guest speaker who preaches on tongue sins.  We see the sermon from Angela’s view point.  After the service, Angela tries to talk to Karen about her conviction after the sermon.  Karen doesn’t want to hear it and feels betrayed.  She leaves mad and threatens to get back at all the ladies of the group.  Angela finds the other ladies and they work things out.  As Karen is walking out, she sees Pastor Page, and tells him who’s been spreading the gossip about him.  Someone asks her about Mary, and she tells them a lie about her.

To end the collection, we come full circle.  We learn what happens to Pastor Page because of the gossip going around about him.  Lastly, we finally learn the truth.  We’re left with the question… Does the liar ever tell the truth?

Insight to Gossip

The Idle Talk Series (https://idletalk-ddb.blogspot.com/) is several collections of short stories.  It begins as a collection of short stories called Gossip.  I began writing the collection because of looking at an essay that I had written earlier in my writing life.  The essay discussed how speech affects people.  I was inspired to write short stories about the various types of negative speech that Christians are supposed to refrain from participating in, and this lead to a number of ideas for short story collections.  Gossip was the first one I begin working on.

Gossip is one of the biggest money making industries in America today.  There are a number of television shows, magazines, blogs, and websites that feature gossip about various celebrities and well-known people.  People delve into these entities without hesitation to find out about the lives of these people, without thinking about how the people being gossiped about will feel.  Also, no consideration is given to how the gossip effects the person being gossiped about.  People simply love to hear gossip, especially if its juicy, and not about them.

Christians are admonished by Solomon, Paul, James, and other Bible writers to abstain from negative talk and speech.  But, in this modern age of Christianity, Christians often forget these admonishments.  They “share information,” acting as if there is no harm being done to the person they are talking about or themselves.  They feign concern for the person being talked about, but in reality, they are talking about the person and spreading their personal business around.  By sharing this novel, I hope to show how dangerous, harmful, and malicious gossip can be to everyone.

Gossip has invaded the church, and it is a cancerous disease.  Instead of praying for our fellow Christian and holding the things told to us in confidence, we share them with anyone who will listen to us.  At one point and time, it was taboo for Christians to gossip, but now, it is a norm in the church world.  This narrative focuses specifically on gossip in novel form.  Through out the entire novel, gossip is spilt about almost everyone that the ladies can think to discuss.  Some of the gossip and people discussed will find itself in other collections in the Idle Talk Series.

This story is about gossip in the church.  The church has a different view of gossip that the secular world has.  Christians shouldn’t be involved in gossip, and this novel makes the case for that belief by showing how gossip can ruin the lives of Christians.  This novel will present the subject from a Black church perspective.  It will also present the information in narrative form instead of Bible study or research form.

Synopsis – Gossip

Sentence
A group of friends sit around and gossip about people until one of them is convicted about her actions.

Paragraph
The narrative covers a two-week period in the lives of the characters.  One of the friends, Tammy begins to realize the nature of the friendship that the five ladies share.  All they seem to do is gossip about other Christians.  They even gossip about each other.  The Lord tugs at Tammy’s heart about the error of her ways, and then she begins to minister to each individual lady about the harmful nature of gossip.  As she ministers to the ladies, they begin to change, but, when word gets to Karen, an alpha female of the group, she isn’t having any part of Tammy’s changes.  There is a huge confrontation between Tammy and Karen that leaves the group disturbed.  A guest minister visits the ladies’ church, and he preaches a sermon about gossip.  The ladies meet again, which leads to restoration between all the ladies, but Karen.

Edited a Chapter

I edited a chapter of Gossip today.  This chapter spills some tea about a future collection in the series.

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Read Select Chapters of Gossip

Here's some chapters from Gossip.

https://gossip-ddb.blogspot.com/2007/01/table-of-contents.html

More Work on Gossip Today

Wrote another chapter of Gossip today.  I'm spilling all kinds of tea in this chapter.  Some of it involves an affair, a pastor's wife, and a cousin.

You'll have to buy the book when it comes out to learn more.

From Today's Work

Angela Hines

A lady walked up to Angela in the hallway at her job.  Angela smiled at her.  The lady smiled back.

After a few seconds the lady said, “Don’t you go to Highway of Glory?”

“Yes, I do.  Why do you ask?”

The lady smiled nervously.  “Well, I go to Pathway of Righteousness, and I just heard the rumor about Pastor Norfleet Page.  We were looking at him to become our new pastor.  The news has me shaken.”

Angela made a face.  She wasn’t sure what to do or say at this point.  She didn’t exactly know if the rumor was true.  She wanted to tell the lady to tell the people at her church to let Pastor Page move on, but what if the rumor wasn’t true?

The lady said, “Do you know anything about the rumor?”

She heard Tammy’s voice quote Exodus 23:1… “Do not tell a lie about someone else. Do not join with the sinful to say something that will hurt someone.”

“Where did that come from?”

She looked at the lady.  “What have you heard?”

“Honestly, I don’t want to repeat it.  It’s so horrible.”

She shook her head.  “I don’t know what you’ve heard, so I can’t really say anything.  If you want to tell me what you know, then I can speak on it.”

“Lord, have mercy.  Do you know if he’s done anything inappropriate with any of the youth he works with at the church?”

Angela stared into space as she heard Tammy’s voice again… “Do not tell a lie about someone else. Do not join with the sinful to say something that will hurt someone.”

She looked at the woman.  “To the best of my knowledge… I don’t think he would do anything like that.  I’m sure it’s just a rumor.”

The lady smiled.  “Thanks, I was worried.  It’s a horrible thing to be going around about someone.  I certainly hope it’s not true.  Lord knows why anyone who spread a vicious rumor like that.  It can ruin someone’s life.  Lord, have mercy on Pastor Page.”

The lady continued praying for Pastor Page as she walked away from Angela.

***

Angela Hines walked through the hallway after the encounter with the lady.  She was going to the copier to make some copies.  She walked pass the geeky computer guy.  He smiled at her.  She rolled her eyes at him.  He had asked her out before but there was no way that she was going out with him.  She was only 5-feet 3-inches, but the computer guy was shorter than her.  She had no interest in dating a guy that short.  He was a pale white color.  She was dark chocolate brown.  They would look a hot mess in public.  She giggled as she thought about the looks she would get if she walked into her church, Highway of Glory Non-Denominational Church, with that pasty geek.

She headed back to her desk after she made her copies.  She ended up taking longer than she had expected because her friend, Karen Valwood, was in the copy room.  They ended up talking about what had happened the other day with their friends, Helen, Mary, and Tammy.  She wasn’t sure if she should call Tammy her friend after she had told everyone’s business.  She turned dark purple thinking about Tammy.

She moved the mouse around so that her screensaver would disappear.  She noticed that she had several email messages.  She hated reading emails, so she paid no attention to them.  She looked at the program on her computer screen and began typing the numbers into the program.  She was doing well when the phone rang.  It was Karen.

Karen asked, “Did you see the email from Tammy?  This girl is a trip.”

She made a face.  She didn’t feel like being bothered with that girl.

She responded, “Naw, you know I can’t stand checking emails.  Besides, I ain’t even in the mood to deal with her trifling behind!  She is going to make me slap her!”

Karen chuckled at how mad she was getting before she said, “You need to calm down before you pop something.  Why do you let her get to you like that?”

She huffed, “I don’t know why she is tripping anyway.  What did she say in the email anyway?”

Karen sighed and said, “You should read it for yourself.”

She grunted, “Whatever.  When I get around to it.  Bye.”

Karen mumbled a response and then they both hung up the phone.

She hit her knee on the bottom the keyboard tray of her desk.  She mumbled an ouch and rubbed her knee.  Why was she letting Tammy get to her?  Tammy wasn’t really her friend anyway.  She was a friend of Helen.  Helen had let their pastor, Bishop Anthony Powers, push Tammy off on her and Helen had pushed Tammy off on them.  She didn’t even like Tammy.  Tammy always acted as if she was better than everyone else was.  She didn’t have a reason to act like that either.  She didn’t wear the latest style of clothing and her shoes were always two years old.  She couldn’t stand Tammy.  No matter what the email said, she was going to give Tammy a piece of her mind.

***

Suddenly, Tammy began invading Angela’s thoughts.  As hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop the thoughts.

Tammy said, “Why are you taking about Karen like that?  Aren’t you supposed to be friends with her?  That’s not right.”

“Look, I thought you needed to know so you wouldn’t be caught off guard.  I mean, if you don’t want to know, the I’ll shut up.”

Tammy shook her head.  “What if she talks about you like that?  How would you feel?”

“Get off my back.  Don’t start preaching.  I ain’t in the mood.  Plus, Karen knows better than to put her mouth on my name.  She ain’t crazy.”

Tammy rolled her eyes.  Angela rolled her eyes, then her neck.

How was it possible that Tammy was causing this much trouble?  When they first met, tammy seemed nice.  they got along well, but now, she was wishing she had never met Tammy.

***

Mother Diverta Coleman walked up to Angela.  “Hey, baby.  I got someone I want you to meet.  Her name is Tammy Andrews.  She’s new to the church, and I think y’all have something in common.  She’s interested in working with the communications ministry, too.  Perhaps you can introduce her to some of the people in the ministry.”

Angela looked at Tammy and smiled.  “Hello, nice to meet you.”

Tammy extended her hand towards Angela.  “Hello, nice to meet you, too.”

“Alright ladies, I’ll leave y’all be.  Y’all can handle it from here I hope.  Blessings and peace in God’s grace.”

The two younger ladies laughed.

Tammy said, “Does she always say that?”

“Girl, yes.  I’m not exactly sure what it means, either, but she always says it.  One of these days I’m going to ask her what it means.”

Tammy laughed.  “Okay. She’s nice.  She said that Ministry Terrance Trout was over the Communications Ministry.”

“Yes, although he probably shouldn’t be.  He doesn’t know what he’s doing.  I’m about sick of him, too.”

Tammy made a face.  “Okay.  So, if I shouldn’t talk to him, who should I talk to then?”

“Girl, I’m sorry.  Ministry drama.  Anyway, I’d talk to Sister Pearline DeVaughn.  She’s a better resource.”

And that was that…  That’s how she met Tammy.  They didn’t start hanging out together until months later.  Tammy was always seeming to test her at every chance she got.

***

“Angela, we can do more than sit around and talk about people.  I mean, we can go to the movies, go bowling, go to the mall.  There’s more to life than eating and talking about people.”

Angela looked the tall light-skinned woman up and down.  “How long have you been here? A hot minute.  You can’t come in here and tell us what to do.  Girl, get you some business.”

“Honestly, there’s no need to be hateful about this.  It was a suggestion.  And last time I counted, there were 3 other women here.  Let’s ask them for their opinion.”

She made a face and pointed her finger at Tammy.  “Don’t nobody care about their opinion.  I run this.  So, what I say goes.”

Mary said, “Wait a minute Angela, that ain’t right.  How you just gon…”

She looked at Mary, then wagged her finger at her. “This ain’t got nothing to do with you.  Back up off me and get you some business of you own.  I’m not talking to you.”

Mary rolled her eyes and backed off.

Tammy looked at Mary, then at Angela.  “See, that was uncalled for.  We’re all grown women, and if we want to do more than just sit around and gossip, we can do that.  All this drama is uncalled for.”

Mary intervened.  “Why don’t we talk about something else?  This is getting out of hand.”

She rolled her neck.  “You need to change the subject.  It’s about to be some furniture moving up in here.”

Tammy just shook her head.

***

Angela was tired of Tammy in her head.  She got up and walked outside of her building.  She went to the back entrance of the building, since no one was usually back there.  But, much to her dismay, the lady she had talked to in the hallway earlier was out there with another lady.  They both had bibles in their hands ad they looked deep in conversation.  She walked in the other direction, hoping to avoid them.

No such luck.  “Angela, come over here for a second.”

She blew a breath and pretended she didn’t hear the woman.”

The woman spoke louder.  “Angela, can you come over here for a second?”

She turned around and looked at the two ladies.  Of all the people I see out here… This Bible thumping woman… I ain’t in the mood for no Bible study.  I got things to do.”

She walked towards the women.  “Hello, ladies.  I need to run to my car right quick.  I don’t have a lot of time.  what can I do for you?”

“Karlyn told me that she spoke to you earlier today about Pastor Page.  I was happy to hear that it wasn’t true.  That’s a true blessing.  Praise God.”

Karlyn said, “Praise the Lord.”

“We need a new pastor.  I really liked Pastor Page.  He’s very genuine and you can feel the love he had for God’s people.  it’s a shame that people want to talk about people.  it’s just not right.  I need whoever’s spreading this vicious rumor to read Psalm 34:13. Karlyn, get that in your Bible for me and read it.  We need to hear that right now.”

Angela looked at the door of the building.  “What’s the quickest way to sneak back in the building.”

Karlyn said, “Keep your tongue from sin and your lips from speaking lies.”

“Yes, Lord.  I hear you.  We need to watch our tongues and stop lying.  And that’s what this mess is lies.  The Lord will judge every lying tongue.”

Angela rubbed her eyes.  “Amen.  That’s a good word for today.  Ladies, I need to go.  It’s been nice talking to you.  I gotta go.”

“Sweet darling sister.  Don’t run off so quickly.  I feel lead to pray for our dear brother Pastor Page.  Since, he’s a part of your family, you should be the one to pray for him.  Let’s join hands.”

Angela shook her head.  “Seriously, I ain’t got time for this.  Woman, please.”

She smiled at the woman.  “I think you should pray, since you were lead to do so.”

“That’s good, but we can all say a prayer.  One can chase a thousand… two ten thousand… Lord, if we put three on them… It’s gonna be powerful.  Yes, Lord.”

Karlyn said, “Amen,”

She blew a breath.  “We don’t have time for three prayers right now.  You can just pray.  I believe God is working through you right because you are on it.  I mean.  I feel the power you are flowing in right now.  All we need is an organ, and we can have some church right here.”

She hoped that would convince the woman to go on and pray or else she’d have to walk off.  She hadn’t come out here for all this.  She was trying to get one holy roller out of her head, only to run into the mother of all holy rollers.  She just wanted to leave.

“Well, blessed be the Lamb of God.  I’m going to gone and pray with such encouragement as that.  Let’s join hands.”

“God, please let this be a short prayer.

“Father, we come to Thee today with troubled hearts and heavy minds.  One of our dear brothers is in trouble.  Some evil person has decided to besmirch this man of God’s man.  Father, we pray for Pastor Norwood Page…”

“The man’s name is Norfleet, not Norwood.  You should at least know the man’s name.

“…Go to Pastor Page and let him know you are with him, and that You know all.  Work this situation out according to Your will.  I know You know what we want at Pathway, but if that’s not Your will, we understand.  Father, please clear up this mess.  and the lady who has said these things, Father work on her.  Clear her mind of this negativity, and place Your love, truth, and Your Word in her heart.  Let her tell the truth.  Father, we call the devil a liar.  He’s the father of them, and we call on the blood of Jesus to move in this matter for Your glory and Your honor.  Lord, make this situation a testimony.  Oh, Father… We believe You and Your Word… Isaiah 54:17 says, ‘No tool that is made to fight against you will do well. And you will prove wrong every tongue that says you are guilty. This is the gift given to the servants of the Lord. I take away their guilt and make them right,” says the Lord.’  God, make Pastor Page right.  In the mighty name of Jesus, the Christ we pray.  Amen!”

Karlyn said, “Amen.”

Angela said, “Amen.”

“Hallelujah.  God is going to move.  Yes, He is.  Do you believe it, Karlyn?”

Karlyn said, “I believe.”

“Do you believe it Angela?”

She smiled.  “Yes ma’am.”

“Girl, you need to get happy about this.  Mark 11:24 says, ‘Because of this, I say to you, whatever you ask for when you pray, have faith that you will receive it. Then you will get it.’  We’ve prayed.  It’s done.  God’s gonna work it out.  Hallelujah.  Praise Him with me Angela.”

She smiled.  “Praise the Lord.  I gotta go.”

She started walking off.  “Praise the Lord.”

She ran to the door quickly.

***

Angela sat at her computer.  Her head was spinning.  She laughed as she thought about the prayer.  She wasn’t expecting to see those two outside.  She thought some more.  The more she thought, the better she felt about the prayer.

James 5:13 ran through her mind… “Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray.”

She laughed.  She decided to get back to work.  She had wasted enough time thinking about and dealing with church folk.  She was sick of them and wanted a break from them.  But, she couldn’t get one just yet.  She had to read the email from Tammy that Karen had mentioned.

“I’ve gone the long way around Laura’s house to get to this email.  What kind of trouble is this crazy heifer causing now?  I ain’t got time for this!”

She maximized her email program.  She scrolled down through the emails.  She couldn’t believe that she had sixty-two unanswered emails.  She finally found the email from Tammy.  It was in the middle of the list.  She clicked on the email and printed it out.

Angela grabbed her keys from inside her purse.  She stood up and walked outside to go to her car to read the email.  She wanted to read it while she walked, but she resisted the urge to do that because she might have act a fool and she didn’t want to act a fool in front of her co-workers.

She sat in her car.  She read the email.

***

Dear Angela,

I’m writing this letter to do several things.  First, to apologize for telling all of y’all’s business the other day.  I shouldn’t have done that.

Second, I no longer want to be a part of this group.  Of the past few weeks, hanging out with y’all is not fun.  All we do is talk about people.  I’m tired of talking about people.  It was fun at first, but now it is just down right wrong.  I’m at fault, too.  I should’ve never told y’all the things I told you.  It felt good to be the one that knew everyone’s business, but now, I don’t even want to know my own business much less anyone else’s business.  I took a long look at myself in the mirror and I didn’t like what I saw.  This will probably cause me all kinds of trouble, but I’m willing to take that chance because I want my soul to be saved.

I wish only the best for y’all.  I mean no harm by this letter.  I will not cause y’all any harm.  It is my hope that y’all will cause me no harm.  I’ve asked God to forgive me.  I’m asking each of you to forgive me.

Be Blessed,

Tammy

***

She almost laughed after she had read the email twice.  This was some bull.  Tammy had lost her mind.  She read the letter again just to make sure that she was reading what she was reading.  It said the same thing that it had said the first two times she read it.

She wasn’t sure how she wanted to respond to Tammy.  Did she want to respond back by email?  Did she want to respond in person?  Did she want to respond on the phone?  She was sure that she didn’t want to respond by email.  She hated writing emails more than she hated reading emails.  Who invented email anyway?  She shook the thought of hurting the person who had created email from her head.  She had to focus on Tammy and what she was going to say to her.  She was trying to figure out if she wanted to do it in person or on the phone.  It should probably be by phone because if she did it in person, Tammy would end up hurt or dead.

She folded the email up and stuck it in the pocket of her purple pants.  She composed herself and went back into the office.  She couldn’t get Tammy off her mind, though.  Tammy had no idea what kind of trouble was coming her way.

Gossip on the Agenda Today

Work on Gossip today.  Introducing the characters.  Later we'll find out if gossip will ruin the friendship.

Edited Another Chapter of Gossip...

I edited more of Gossip today.

Edited Gossip Today

I edited some of Gossip today.