Prostor.net is a Christian resource center. What is the sin of slander

Recently, various anti-church rumors, accusations and insults against the Orthodox Church, its clergy and laity have been spreading with unprecedented activity. As the situation with the sensational scandal around the orphanage in the Holy Bogolyubsky convent of the Vladimir diocese has shown, entire information campaigns are organized to discredit the Church, its initiatives and values. And in our everyday life - both among Orthodox believers and people far from the Church - slander is not something unusual. It can be unpleasant for us to find out that we have been slandered, discredited in the eyes of our neighbors, that our words and deeds have been reinterpreted and their meaning has been misunderstood. At the same time, we ourselves often boldly, without hesitation, express our conjectures aloud, spread gossip about a particular person or event, without thinking about the consequences ...

How to deal with the sin of slander, how to learn to treat slander and slander correctly, in a Christian way? Who and why spreads negative information about the Church? With these and other questions, we turned to the monk Augustine, already known to our readers, a resident of one of the monasteries of the Russian Orthodox Church.

- Father Augustine, what is slander? What are the characteristics of this sin? What do the Holy Fathers say about him?

Defamation is knowingly false accusations of uncommitted crimes or immoral acts. It is a sin against the truth of God, that is, a lie, and also a sin against love for one's neighbor. The slanderer deprives himself of the joy of loving another person. Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk says: “The slanderer harms the one whom he slanders, because with his tongue he stings him like a sword, and his glory, like a dog with his teeth, torments clothes.<...>He harms himself, for he sins grievously. He harms those who listen to him, because he gives them a reason for slander and condemnation, and so he leads them to the same lawless deed in which he himself is. And just as many people become infected and die from one infected person, so from one slanderer, the source of slander, many Christian souls become infected and die. (“A spiritual treasure, collected from the world”). The slanderer is the proper name of the devil. Saint Andrew of Caesarea writes: “The devil’s lies and his slander against people serve, as it was said, as the reason for his name” (“Interpretation on the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian”). The one who sins by slander becomes an imitator and disciple of the devil.

- What makes some people slander others? How is this sin connected with other mental illnesses - pride, condemnation, vindictiveness, malevolence, envy? ..

Sometimes slander comes from idle talk. “Void speech is a door to condemnation and slander, a carrier of false news and opinions, a sower of discord and strife,” - we read from the Monk Nikodim the Holy Mountaineer (“Invisible Warfare”).

Another reason for slander is malice. The Monk Nil the Myrrh-streaming says this: «<Злоба же>attracts a person to the following nine: 1 - condemnation, 2 - slander, 3 - slander, 4 - contempt (and at the same time exaltation, pride, etc.), 5 - greed, 6 - theft, 7 - lies and unfair denunciation (t e. slander), 8 - pretense of virtues or hypocrisy, 9 - insidious advice. - Sim exposed to those who condemn their neighbor " (“Posthumous broadcasts of the Monk Nil the Myrrh-streaming Athos”).

Also, slander comes from envy. In the writings of St. Ephraim the Syrian it is written: “A terrible poison is envy and rivalry: slander, hatred and murder will be born from them” ("A word about virtues and vices"). And the Monk Barsanuphius the Great instructs: “Does the enemy excite you to envy, do not slander - and you defeated the evil one, for the fruit of envy is slander” ("Guide to the Spiritual Life"). Waste speech, according to the teaching of the Holy Fathers, comes from vanity. Envy and malice come from pride.

- How to deal with the habit of spreading various rumors and expressing your conjectures and judgments about your neighbors?

Wise Jesus, the son of Sirach, gives such good advice: Ask your friend, maybe he didn't do it; and if he did, then let him not do it ahead. Ask a friend, maybe he didn't say that; and if he said, then let him not repeat it. Ask a friend, for there is often slander. Don't believe every word. Another sins with a word, but not from the heart; and who has not erred with his tongue? Question your neighbor before threatening him, and give place to the law of the Most High (Sir. 19:13-18).

St. John Chrysostom advises not to immediately trust various rumors, but only after a thorough check: “Neither the Father had ignorance in the Old Testament, nor the Son in the New Testament. What does it mean: “When I come down, I will see, if by their cry to come they are done to Me, or else, let me understand”? The rumor, He says, has reached Me, but I want to be even more precise in fact, not because I don’t know, but because I want to teach people not to heed one word and, when someone says something against another, not to believe lightly, but first to carefully examine it yourself and really make sure, and only then to believe. Therefore, in another place of Scripture it is said: “Not for every word of faith” (Ibid., 16). Nothing distorts people's lives so much as hasty credulity to all sorts of speeches. Announcing this, and the prophet David said: “He who slanders his sincere secrets, this one will exile” (Ps. 100, 5) ” (“Against the Anmes,” word 9).

And St. Tikhon of Zadonsk offers the following rule: “When you hear slander against someone, then think about it, are you not sinning with such a sin? If you sin, repent of it, if not, thank God and pray not to fall into this temptation. .

The opposite virtue of slander is silence. “In order to get used to silence, I will show you one of the most direct and simple means: take up this work - and the work itself will both teach you how to do it and help you in this,” says St. Nikodim the Holy Mountaineer. - In order to maintain zeal for such work, think more often about the harmful consequences of indiscriminate talkativeness and the saving consequences of prudent silence. When you reach the point of tasting the saving fruits of silence, then no more lessons will be required for you in this regard. ("Invisible Swearing").

- What if, out of ignorance or passion, you have slandered your neighbor, but you repent of your deed?

If you slandered publicly, for example, through the media, then you need to publicly refute your slander and publicly apologize to the slandered person. If, however, he erected a slander in private, it is necessary to ask for forgiveness from the agreed and tell about his untruth to those people before whom he slandered. We must reproach ourselves, repent of this at confession and try not to do this again, pray that the Lord and the Mother of God strengthen, give strength to refrain from this sin in the future. Saint John Chrysostom writes: “If you have slandered anyone, if you have become an enemy to anyone, reconcile before the Judgment Seat. Finish everything here so that you can see that seat (of the Judge) without worries. As long as we are here, we have good hopes; but when we go there, it will no longer be in our power to repent and wash away our sins.” (“About Lazar”, word 2).

- How should a Christian behave when he hears a negative review about his neighbor?

The Holy Fathers advise avoiding such conversations under various plausible pretexts. Saint John Chrysostom calls: “So let us keep our mouths clean from oaths and protect our tongue, our lips, and our mind from all this, so that no evil thought is born in us and is not expressed by the tongue. Let us also close our ears tightly so as not to receive an empty hearing, as blessed Moses commanded: “Thou shalt not receive a vain ear” (Ex. 23:1), and as blessed David also said: .100, 5). Do you see, beloved, how much vigilance we need, how much labor for virtue, and how the smallest negligence destroys us completely? That is why the blessed David exclaimed in another place, denouncing the one who does this: “Sitting, you slandered your brother, and you put a stumbling block on your mother’s son” (Ps. 49, 20).

And Elder Paisios Svyatogorets of blessed memory offers this salutary advice: when someone begins to slander in your presence, answer: “Forgive me, I sin with the same sin and even worse than that brother.” Sometimes you can say so, at other times - refer to employment or malaise and leave.

- What if you were slandered? Is it necessary to make excuses and strive for the restoration of the truth, or is it better to endure slander in silence, laying everything on the Lord?

Silently endure slander, of course, is best. This path - patience, humility and love - was followed by our Lord Jesus Christ, and all the saints of God. And when there are spiritual forces to that, of course, one should imitate them. And if we sin - we condemn the one who slandered us, vilify in response, then we must repent of this, reproaching ourselves for cowardice and condescending into the depths of humility.

However, this is worth doing in the case when slander affects only you personally. If it can harm other people, then it is necessary, for the sake of others, to resist it, find out and publicly tell about the true state of things.

- How should a Christian relate to negative information gleaned from the Internet and other media, but not verified by himself? For example, what is the right way to behave if you find out somewhere that this or that priest is a young old man with schismatic views, but did not personally communicate with him and do not have reliable evidence about him?

Here it is necessary to look at what direction the publication distributes this information. If, for example, an ecumenical newspaper blasphemes some priest or monk, then this blasphemy, most likely, should be taken in the opposite sense - as a good testimony about a person. Our Lord Jesus Christ said: Blessed are you when they reproach you and persecute you and slander you in every way unrighteously for me. Rejoice and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven: so they persecuted the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:11-12). And about the sons of this world He said: Woe to you when all people speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets (Luke 6:26). If ecumenists, globalists or other enemies of the Church have slandered someone, then the Christian, having figured it out himself, must explain this situation to his perplexed neighbors.

- What if you meet with a categorical negative judgment about this or that Orthodox book, newspaper or any website, but you yourself have not read the condemned publication? Of course, before forming your opinion, it is best to familiarize yourself with the publication, but it happens that a person is afraid to read it, not having the confidence that he will be able to correctly evaluate the materials published there ...

First of all, you should make it a rule, figuratively speaking, to drink water from a clean source. The first step is to evaluate the source of the information. This can be done by answering a few questions: is this publication Orthodox or not? Have its editors and authors been noticed preaching heretical, schismatic or sectarian ideas? What is their attitude to the most important problems of our time - ecumenism and globalization? Is this edition patriotic or cosmopolitan? If the authors are Orthodox patriots, apologists for the teachings of the Orthodox Church and patristic tradition, if they have a negative attitude towards heresies, sects, schisms, the process of building a new world order, then they have more confidence than everyone else. If they make mistakes, then their mistakes, as a rule, are not malicious, but are made due to human weakness. Such sources usually publish truthful information that can be trusted. And in the case when there is a desire to understand more thoroughly any specific issue, you need to discuss it with your spiritual leader, praying for admonition to the Lord God, His Most Pure Mother and the saints.

- In your opinion, is there a planned campaign to discredit the Orthodox Church through the media today and what are its reasons?

Now a campaign has really been unleashed to discredit Orthodoxy in general, and the Russian Church in particular. However, this is not new. In the early 1990s, Z. Brzezinski, a Russophobe and a hater of Orthodoxy, openly stated that after the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian Orthodox Church became enemy No. 1 for the United States. And the West is steadily and systematically exerting pressure on our Church in order to destroy it. This is expressed, firstly, in attempts to mix truth with lies, right faith with various heresies in the framework of the so-called ecumenical dialogue. Secondly, there is public persecution of zealots of Orthodoxy who oppose ecumenism. The persecution of Elder Peter (Kucher), the inhabitants of Optina Hermitage through the scandal with the "expulsion" of the Negro, the campaign against the Moldavian Society of the Blessed Matrona are information wars of the past. Now a new round is underway - a series of blasphemous actions in Orthodox churches and their biased and scandalous coverage in the media.

I recently spoke with a respected priest on this subject, and he expressed the following point of view. The reason for the current slander against the Patriarch, in his opinion, lies in the fact that during the first wave of attacks on the Church, when the yellow anti-church publications exaggerated tales about a mug of salt allegedly eaten by an orphan girl in Bogolyubovo, and a pilgrim who was almost beaten in Optina Hermitage -Negro, they obviously lied in order to discredit our Orthodox shrines, the church leadership did not behave wisely. It allowed this slander to be spread not only to external enemies of the Church, but also did nothing to stop the slanderers within it - Protodeacon Andrei Kuraev, Abbot Sergius (Rybko), who slandered their fellow priests, the lay sectarian Dvorkin, who generally deserved excommunication from the Church for the humiliation of pastors. .. Today, when all these accusations have already been refuted, nonetheless, no one has apologized, no one has been punished, and no one has even received a reprimand from the authorities. And of course, now the same media outlets, which have tested their strength in past actions, have gone further - the Patriarch has become the object of their attacks.

Imagine such a situation, Father Nikolai told me, that some Cossack sinned - he drank too much, went into the house of a gypsy, fought with him, began to pester a gypsy, barely managed to kick him out. The next morning, the gypsy ran to the ataman with a complaint about the unrestrained Cossack (and perhaps with slander against him, if this case did not really happen), but what did the ataman answer him? - "Go away! This is my Cossack, and I will deal with him myself. If you are guilty, I will punish you to the fullest extent, but don’t stick your nose here, it’s none of your business!” Here is the act of a real chieftain! - said my interlocutor. And I can't help but agree with him. Therefore, it remains to be hoped that our "atamans" - the hierarchy - will see their mistake and draw the right conclusions from all these anti-church attacks.

- How can Orthodox believers and should resist the slander and blasphemy spread through the media?

If the slanderer is a believer, then one should be guided by the commandment of our Lord Jesus Christ: But if your brother sins against you, go and reprove him between you and him alone; if he listens to you, then you have gained your brother; but if he does not listen, take one or two more with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the mouth of two or three witnesses; if he does not listen to them, tell the church; and if he does not listen to the church, then let him be to you, like a pagan and a publican (Matthew 18:15-17).

In addition, in February 2011, the Council of Bishops adopted a document “On the Attitude of the Russian Orthodox Church to Intentional Public Blasphemy and slander against the Church”, containing practical recommendations that can be used by every Christian. To counteract public blasphemy, the following measures are proposed:

To attempt enter into negotiations with the relevant media, journalist, political, public or religious figure in order to reconcile and conduct an honest and open discussion; if understanding and reconciliation cannot be reached, it is necessary to stop cooperation with them and recommend that members of the Church not use these media;

- publication of materials explaining the illegality and social danger of a blasphemous or other blasphemous statement that humiliated human dignity and offended the religious feelings of believers;

- assistance to the laity in actively responding to blasphemous actions using information tools and other actions permitted by law, such as reasoned criticism, boycott, picketing;
- the blessing of the laity and their organizations for peaceful civil opposition to blasphemy as a form of humiliation of the human dignity of believers and an insult to their religious feelings;

- filing a complaint against the author of blasphemous or other blasphemous material that humiliated the human dignity of believers and offended religious feelings, to self-regulatory journalistic organizations, to arbitration organizations;

- appeal in the manner prescribed by law to state authorities to resolve the conflict, as well as to suppress and punish actions aimed at desecrating religious symbols and insulting the feelings of believers, if they are illegal;

- giving canonical bans to those guilty of sinful deeds, if they are Orthodox Christians.

The document also says: “Opposition to cases of blasphemy and slander in the public sphere can be carried out by clergy and laity of the Russian Orthodox Church, both with the blessing of the hierarchy, and on their own initiative, while they must be guided by sacred canons and officially adopted church documents.”

Interviewed Victor ZARECHNY

In the narrow sense of the word, slander is a false statement that discredits the reputation of another person. In judicial practice, slander and libel are distinguished: slander is spread mainly orally, while libel is spread in writing. In a broader sense, a person may turn out to be a slanderer, even if he speaks the truth about another person, wanting to ruin his reputation. Slander is a direct violation of such commandments of Christ as: “Therefore, in everything you want people to do to you, do also to them…” (Matt. 7:12) and “Love your neighbor as himself” (Matt. 22:39).

If we tell someone about a person from our or another church in such a way that our story defames him, this is slander. And although we try to justify ourselves by saying that we are worried about his spiritual condition, God knows our heart better. In Proverbs. 10:18 says, “Whoever hides hatred has a lying mouth; and whoever spreads slander is stupid.”

If we are sincere Christians, then we have repented of our sins and, led by the Spirit, diligently follow Jesus Christ, finding in Him the satisfaction of all our needs. Therefore, we no longer need to slander anyone in order to thus present ourselves in a better light or to amuse our selfishness.

Bible slanderers

Ten spies. Of the twelve Israelites looking out for Canaan, only Joshua and Caleb believed that God would help them conquer the land despite the giants. The remaining ten people looked at this situation in a fleshly way, and not with the eyes of faith. In Numbers 13:33 says that ten spies "... spread a bad rumor about the earth ..."; in Num. 14:36, 37 says that these people "...died smitten before the Lord" for spreading evil glory over the earth (the original Hebrew uses a word that is also translated as "slander"). Indeed, slander is a great evil, regardless of whether it is directed against people or against the gifts of God.

Enemies of Christ. We are just people and therefore sometimes we don’t understand something or confuse something. However, deliberately distorting the truth for some reason of one's own is a completely different matter. The Jews, in their desire to get rid of Christ, did just that. One day after He drove the sellers out of the temple, He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:19). When Christ was being judged, some people, deliberately distorting his words, testified that He had said: “... I will destroy this temple made with hands, and in three days I will raise up another not made with hands” (Mark 14:58). These slanderers were tempted by the enemy of God - the devil, whose name comes from the Greek "diabolos" - "slanderer".

Unbelieving Jews. After the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the disciples “began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance” (Acts 2:4). Most of the listeners were in turmoil "... for every one heard them speaking in his own language... and others, mocking, said, They have drunk of sweet wine" (Acts 2:4, 6, 13). Thus the unbelieving Jews slandered the early followers of Christ; the same manner of behavior is traced throughout the Book of Acts.

Enemies of the Apostle Paul. To Rome. 3:8 says that some people slandered Paul, claiming that he taught to do evil so that good would come out. All these fabrications were false, because. elsewhere the apostle wrote: “What shall we say then? Shall we remain in sin that grace may be multiplied? No way, We died to sin: how can we live in it? (Rom. 6:1, 2).

Paul did indeed write: “…But when sin abounded, grace abounded more” (Rom. 5:20). Some people seem to have interpreted this to mean that the more we sin, the more God forgives us. It was slander, because. people distorted Paul's sayings so much that they completely lost their meaning. Such a distortion of the truth is so dangerous that it can lead to the death of those responsible for it.

Because we are followers of Christ, being in the world but not of the world, there will always be people who will slander us. Let us be careful not to become slanderers ourselves, for the Scripture clearly commands: “Do not speak evil of anyone, be not quarrelsome, but quiet, and show all meekness towards all people” (Titus 3:2).

Characteristic features of slander

Slanderers seek to put themselves in the best light by humiliating other people. And this is a very serious sin. We are all sinners by nature. Having become believers, saved by the grace of God, we must strive to rescue people from the bondage of sin so that they know the truth and be saved. If instead we slander them, we are counteracting the work of God.

People who slander others in an attempt to make themselves look better behave like naughty children. Let us remember the following saying: "If you put out another person's candle, yours will not burn brighter."

Slander testifies to an acute spiritual need. A slanderer cannot rejoice in the Lord. Remember again that slander is often based on lies. If so, then it comes from the father of lies who rebelled against God. Do we want to listen to the voice of the evil one?

Also consider that if a person is lying, they often have to dodge to cover up the first lie. When a person constantly lies to maintain his image, then over time it (lie) becomes like a snowball. This is not how we should build up one another in the most holy faith (see Jude 1:20)!

Slander is not befitting to the children of God. Sometimes it seems that, unlike believers, non-believers understand this better. When a believer slanders someone (knowingly or unconsciously), worldly people often think, "His talk is not befitting a Christian." But for some unbelievers, there is nothing more pleasant than to encourage church members to slander one another. When talking with one brother, they try to persuade him to say something against another brother. And then they try to get something out of that other one against the first brother. We must not encourage such things to happen in our midst.

In Ps. 49:20 says, "You sit and speak against your brother, you slander against your mother's son." How much better it would be to do the opposite, starting not with such a string of condemnations, but with words of approval from our brothers!

Slander is often based on false assumptions. Indicative in this respect are the accusations of some Jews against the Apostle Paul when he was in Jerusalem. They “…disturbed all the people and laid hands on them, shouting: Men of Israel, help! this man is teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law and this place; besides, he brought Greeks into the temple and desecrated this holy place. For before that they had seen Trophimus the Ephesian with him in the city, and thought that Paul had brought him into the temple” (Acts 21:27-29). Because of this slander, unrest soon broke out in the city.

These people suggested something that never happened at all. We can also fall into the same trap if we listen to gossip about a certain person. Often we listen carefully to them, and then retell them to someone else, without making sure: is it true? As a result, we may become complicit in slander generated by false and unkind assumptions.

Often the cause of slander is unforgiveness. When I was twenty years old, I once worked on the roof of a barn with other men. One of them began to talk about a story more than twenty years ago, i.e. happened before I was born. He quite emotionally described how he was offended by another person. Finally, relaxing a bit, he said, "Well, actually, I forgave him a long time ago."

But if you forgave him long ago, why are you still slandering him? He continued to feed his flesh with what he said he had long since forgiven. Isn't it possible to forgive and forget in such a case? It is hard for the flesh to do this, but we must forgive others so that God will forgive us. Slander and unforgiveness is a sin, and God has no exceptions to the rules if we do this.

Slander is the ruin of God's people. In Gal. 5:15 says, "But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another," i.e. it is clear what can happen to slanderers. It is sad if a church is attacked by the enemy, but much worse if it is destroyed by internal strife!

In my youth, there were always very knowledgeable people who critically analyzed the mistakes of the church in the last hundred years. However, they did not help me in any way and hardly helped others. We must be prepared for the fact that we will have to face some difficult circumstances in the life of the church, and in particular - because of the mistakes and sins of others. But you need to learn how to treat such cases correctly, forgiving the mistakes made in the past. Sometimes we have to refer to a mistake made in the past in order to understand a given situation, but this must be done carefully. In any case, nothing can justify unforgiveness, resentment or slander directed against a stumbled person.

The sin of slander is not as obvious as theft, murder, or many other sins. It comes from a sinful spirit, which we must uproot from our hearts. If there is a slanderer among us, then "... you who are spiritual, correct such a one in the spirit of meekness, watching each one of yourselves, lest you be tempted" (Gal. 6:1). We will not give food for slander if we constantly thank the Lord for His forgiveness and rejoice in His peace in our souls.

Punishment for libel

Tsar Constantine Copronymus, the iconoclast, having lost hope of shaking the faith of the Monk Stephen with caresses and gifts, decided in the face of the Holy Church to disgrace his name, laying on an innocent old man a sin that even young, but well-bred people abhor. The young nun Anna labored in that city. The king's servants bribed her maid to bear false witness against the innocent.

The shameless woman did everything that the persecutors wanted. Anna was taken out of the temple and presented to the court. During the interrogations, Copronymus himself was there and demanded only one thing: that she confess to the crime, after which he promised her royal favors. But when neither the caresses, nor the lies of her slave, nor the torment could shake her firmness, the tormentor was forced to leave St. Stephen alone.

Meanwhile, Copronymus considered it necessary to reward the slanderer, so that others in similar cases would more willingly fulfill his will. She was given in marriage to a wealthy official, and after a while she gave birth to twins. But the Lord punished her for perjury! One night, when she was sleeping with her children, they suddenly dug into her breast with great force and began to drink milk not like babies, but like young lions. The mother could not get rid of them. Thus, tormenting her, they killed her and perished with her...

Sanctification or Punishment The Apostle Paul exhorts the church in his epistle: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Therefore, satisfying sinful desires,