Don’t Fall for Detraction
Especially on Social Media
Britney Spears’ new memoir came out a few weeks ago. It included revelations from her teen years, where in particular bad things were perpetrated upon her by a former boyfriend. A staple for these kinds of books, an old sin committed by another is revealed to the public.
This kind of tripe is common. I remember as a child when “Mommy Dearest” came out. This memoir detailed the long sufferings of movie great Joan Crawford’s adopted daughter. I never read the book, but I did later watch a part of the subsequent movie, as much as I could stand. Even then I suspected that the depicted events were greatly exaggerated, much to an unintended comic effect.
The response from the traditional and social media to such revelations against celebrities is always to pour sympathy upon the poor victims of the bad acts. Similarly, our angst is always focused on the villain of the story. For that matter, I can only estimate how many countless social media posts were made concerning Britney’s new book, with piles of denunciations of her old lover, I’m sure, across the various social media platforms.
When we read and respond to such things, it does not even occur to us that we really have no right to hear about such revelations in the first place. Our knowing about the past faults of some celebrity serves no objective good in the world. It provides no service to the betterment of society or encouraging charity towards others. Most of us don’t even take a moment to consider that we should not indulge ourselves in such revelations. Among other things, by doing so we encourage others to make similar events known to the public.
Why is this wrong? The 8th Commandment forbids us from bearing false witness against our neighbors. It also encompasses that fact that we have no right to know about others’ hidden, past bad acts, even if they are true. And, the teller of the forbidden truth, even when it’s the victim of the past bad act, may have committed another sin, namely “detraction.”
Detraction is in itself a grave sin. It is an offense against the truth. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, one commits it when “without an objectively valid reason (one) discloses another’s faults and failings to persons who did not know them.” It’s wrong because it “destroys the reputation and honor of one’s neighbor.”
Now, of course, the part about having an “objectively valid reason” is important. Detraction does not apply to the reporting of a crime, for example. That’s certainly an objectively valid reason to disclose the faults of another human being. In the same sense, if there’s an ongoing danger where it’s important to disclose to the public, such as a sexual predator moving into the neighborhood, it’s generally valid to reveal another’s past bad acts.
But other than that, we should not be revealing faults and failings of our fellow human beings to others. It’s so easy to fall into this wrong in our individual conversations, but this wrong is compounded when we do this on social media, where many others will be included in our “revelations” about another.
On the other hand, we should not be consuming the fruits of others’ detractions. So, the next time we have the urge to “virtue signal” our great offense at some celebrity’s reported past wrongs, we need to consider whether we are also participating with a case of detraction, a very grave sin indeed.