So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

James 3:5-8

The Prodigy are an English group that you may not recognize at all and if you do it’s probably for their 1997 hit in America Firestarter. “I am a firestarter, twisted firestarter” is repeated several times. Don’t go looking for it if you don’t already know it but it sure does exemplify what James is describing. The tongue is a small member that can do big things, although the only things mentioned are destructive. Years of work can be undone in a matter of moments whether we are talking about a literal fire, such as at Notre Dame Cathedral a few years ago, or metaphorically speaking to a person’s witness when we fail to guard our words carefully.

James recognized the potentially destructive force nearly 2,000 years ago. Since then we have invented the printing press, radio, television… then along came social media. Users are emboldened to write things on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram they would never say to a person’s face. Even if we use real names and a share a profile picture, there is a certain level of anonymity and a disconnect created. When we get fired up and hammer down on the keyboard during an online discussion or even a tersely worded email, it can be easy to forget that a real person is going to be reading – and affected by – those words.

There may not be more hate or more gossip today than previous decades but it is certainly easier to spread around. A status or comment can be copied and pasted or these days shared with a single click. Fires have always been easy to start but they grow and spread today farther and faster than ever before. So what we need to do is be even more careful than ever before when choosing our words.