‘And as always when someone has given a lead, there were gratuitous followers. (If someone invented a story and wrote to the press that they had seen a green lion in the sky at 5.30 the previous evening, at least six people would have seen it retrospectively.)’
Josephine Tey ‘Miss Pym Disposes’.
In sociology and psychology, mass hysteria (also known as collective hysteria, group hysteria, or collective obsessional behavior) is a phenomenon that transmits collective illusions of threats, whether real or imaginary, through a population in society as a result of rumors and fear (memory acknowledgment). (Wikipedia 10/12/2017)
“For this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: … this is what you must do:
Tell the truth to each other. Render verdicts in your courts that are just and that lead to peace.
Don’t scheme against each other.
Stop your love of telling lies that you swear are the truth.
I hate all these things, says the LORD.” Zechariah 8:14-17 (NLT)
In this the second part of ‘Whispers and Lies – an inappropriate response’ all of these elements were on display, from ordinary parishioners through to the staff and clergy of the time of Figtree Anglican Church through to certain members of the clerical hierarchy, committees and the then Director of Professional Standards of Sydney diocese of the Anglican Church.
The story continues.
Whispers and Lies Part 2 revised March 2019