Give people a chance to explain themselves

Give people a chance to defend themselves before talking about them. Don’t speak about a person until you have spoken to that person. You shouldn’t say something about someone that you wouldn’t say if they knew about it. Do your best to give people the benefit of the doubt and to confront them about rumors before spreading them.¹ In most cases, reflection on the matter will reveal that the issue is none of your business, even if true. Something should have to be very important to occupy your attention.² If it doesn’t matter enough to go through the trouble of verifying, don’t bother spreading it. If it is worth verifying, ask before assuming. Don’t just suppose that you know the whole story or that their motives are what yours would need to be for you to do what they are allegedly doing. In all cases, be prepared to be told to mind your own business, which is a perfectly valid response given how often busybodies are corrected in the scriptures.³