“With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be.” James 3: 9-11 (NIV)
We might think that words constituting a curse would be obvious, but we can also curse a person, in effect, by not having our facts straight.
An example. My novel, Summer of Champions, is set against the background of a real-life event, namely, an All-star team from my hometown winning the 10th Little League World Series in Williamsport. After the book came out, a sportswriter sought my help in gathering information for a New Mexico Magazine article he was writing about this team on the 50th anniversary of their successful season. I met him in my hometown and introduced him to a few of the guys who had been on the team.
Among the questions asked by the sportswriter was how many team members
were deceased. Years earlier, at their 25th reunion, it had been established that three had died. One, David Sherrod, had died of wounds received in Vietnam. The sportswriter mentioned in his article that three of the team members were deceased and gave their names.
Eighteen months after the magazine article was published, the following appeared in the Mailbag section of New Mexico Magazine: “My name is David H. Sherrod, third baseman for that team, and I am indeed not dead, killed in Vietnam, or any other form of possible demise.”
It is a mystery how every other player on the team could think for more than a quarter of a century that David had been killed. The sportswriter and I certainly felt bad about contributing to this curse, but we were glad that David is a forgiving person. “I hold no feelings of wrongdoing toward…the author of the article. I just wanted to set the record straight.”
Our facts need to be straight. Otherwise, our words may constitute a curse by going along with no more than rumors or stereotypes, both of which can deny persons the good God intends for them. -DJ
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