Christian Communication Ethics

Christian Communication Ethics
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Christian Communication Ethics
People cannot live without communicating. Christians understand each other through communication. In particular, communication plays a significant role in individuals’ daily lives. Without ethical communication, the world would be evil since people are likely to spread lies and propaganda for their selfish interests. Christians are firm supporters of ethical communication since they believe in honesty, truth, and respect. From their perspective, God created humans in His own image. In that light, Christians should emulate God’s character and His goodness and spread it to others. Christians have the responsibility to serve God. They should do it by using kind words, communicating ethically, being respectful and truthful, and listening actively to individuals’ needs. The paper focuses on what it means to be an ethical communicator from the perspective of Christians. Moreover, it compares and contrasts Christian communication ethics with deontology, a classical ethical theory.
Part One
Based on a Christian perspective, an ethical communicator should be truthful. Notably, truth is a significant quality of Christians since they are supposed to spread the word of God in all the corners of the world. The Bible emphasizes truth and condemns falsehood, deceptions, and lies. Even if people might lie, Christians believe that the truth will always come out in the end. Jesus Christ is not a liar and even for the short period that he descended and lived on earth, he remained truthful. Colossians 3:9 says, “Do not lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds” (New Living Translation, 2022, Colossians 3:9) Christians are always advised to remain truthful regardless of the situations they are facing. On that note, an ethical communicator must always tell the truth and should not lie. From a Christian perspective, lying is evil and causes harm. However, truth helps individuals to gauge themselves and take respective actions to save others. Without being truthful, the word of God is likely to be manipulated leading to confusion and misunderstanding.
In addition to being honest, an ethical communicator should be respectful based on a Christian perspective. Christians believe that people should respect each other. 1 Peter 2:17 says that “Respect everyone, and love your Christian brothers and sisters” (New Living Translation, 2022, 1 Peter 2:17). As such, respect is a crucial Christian virtue that should be involved in all communications. Christians are expected to respect everyone regardless of their religious, political, cultural, ethnic, and ethical differences. An ethical communicator who does not respect others cannot pass the intended message successfully. Individuals feel valued when they are addressed by a person who respects them. They feel free to ask questions and seek clarification when the need arises. Additionally, these people are likely to return the favor by respecting the ethical communicator, contributing to successful communication. One of the primary goals of Christians is to spread God’s love to others and invite them to accept Him in their lives. Christian ethical communicators are expected to convince even non-believers and respect enables them not to chastise or criticize others’ beliefs and morals. Instead, they should be gentle, considerate, and thoughtful in the manner they communicate. As a result, without respecting others, an individual cannot be an ethical communicator.
From a Christian perspective, being an ethical communicator means listening actively to others. William Strom, an expert in media and communication, asserts that interpersonal communication is significantly influenced by the speaker’s wisdom, work, self-control, and humility (Strom, 2021). Besides, humility, self-control, and wisdom are qualities of a good Christian. For example, an ethical communicator should have a mastery of the topic discussed. Since communication is a two-way process, the individual should listen carefully so that he or she can respond appropriately. Self-control and humility enable an ethical communicator to meet the different needs of listeners to ensure that the communicated message is well understood. Without listening actively to the audience, an ethical communicator might disregard crucial things that can lead to misinformation. For instance, a Christian ethical communicator should teach others how to do things as guided by the Bible. The message obtained from the Bible should not be manipulated in any way so that the actual meaning is not altered. As a result, an...