One of the greatest lies ever taught to us as children was coined in a cutesy rhyme that enabled generations of bullies: Sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. The first instance we have of this being put into print was by a poet named Alexander William Kinglake in 1830, and it was made famous over the next 40 years in articles and sermons and speeches. It seems that playground bullies have always been with us, and this verse was taught to children to help them to try to keep disagreements from becoming physical. Anyone who has ever been confronted by a bully knows that calm words rarely diffuse matters. The problem is that fighting doesn’t either.
The internet has allowed words to become even more weaponized, as we can see from the recent presidential debate. And while we have all had fun laughing about Mr. Trump’s assertion that Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, are eating people’s pets, those words have set off a firestorm of threats and bullying in that community. It has also exacerbated the hateful rhetoric that many Americans are using to demonize anyone they think doesn’t belong in this country, regardless of how many generations of native-born ancestors came before them, or what their tragic circumstances are. I had friends in high school whose parents were from Haiti, and some of those families still speak French at home. For bigots, being in the country for three generations, or because you fear for your children’s lives, isn’t enough to make those they hate into real Americans.
Words heal and words hurt. The author of the Book of James wrote about this 2000 years ago, pleading with followers of Jesus to control their words. “The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell…but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.” Proverbs 15, which was written centuries earlier, tells us, “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.” Using words to cause pain is nothing new, and it has always had dire consequences.
Those families and school staff who can’t go to school because of bomb threats have been directly injured by lies promoted by politicians who don’t know how to control themselves. And they aren’t the only ones – lies matter, regardless of one’s politics. They matter because when they are found out to be false, they still cause injury. Words that create unfounded fears based on racist tropes matter. Words that convince people that others are evil and worthy of death matter. None of us will ever be perfect in our speech, and we all say things we regret. But those who use words purposefully to bring destruction on others will have to answer for those crimes. Their words matter, and they should be made to take responsibility for them. Because words can hurt, and words can heal. And we get to choose which side we will be on.
Prayer – Holy God, our words are imperfect, and our thoughts are often far from Your needs. Help us to consider what we say and do, and how that and our thoughts will make a difference. Amen.