Save the Messenger

In the old days messengers would be sent as someone’s representative. They would arrive in the name of the one who sent them. But there were rules governing the treatment of messengers.

Namely, you were not allowed to kill them on account of the message they delivered. If you had a problem with the message, you were to take that up with the one who sent the message, not the messenger.

Times have changed. Messages fly around the world at the speed of light. Online exchanges are filled with personal attacks. We don’t even know where some of the messages originated, so we lash out at the messengers.

Stop. Test the message. If the message is true (even if we don’t necessarily like it), it is better to accept it than to work against it. If the message of false, it is better expose it as a lie than allow it to spread.

If the message is true, be thankful there is a messenger of truth. If the message is false, shouldn’t we act to save the messenger from the lie as well?