Gossip is Still Gossip

Even if it's about the Maxwells

Did you know that Ghislaine Maxwell's sister is in charge of the company that puts out Amber Alerts?? Well, that's what a viral Instagram post claims anyway. I've been on a bit of a social media break, and even at that, I saw it reposted multiple times. So I put on my research cap.

Two things can be true at once. Ghislaine Maxwell has been convicted of deeply evil things. This does not automatically assume a correlation that her family members are evil too. Could they be? Sure. But can you imagine being immediately judged by your most unsavory relative?

These sorts of assumptions are just the kind of inflammatory statements social media thrives on. No proof, no explanation, just a statement that thousands of people saw. Who even is Ghislane Maxwell's sister? I'd be willing to bet most of the folks who saw it, maybe even the person who wrote it, really don't know. So why don't we take a look.

This post is referring to Isabell Maxwell, one of the nine Maxwell siblings. As it turns out, she seems to be a questionable actor at best, with even more questionable connections. Her third husband was reportedly friends with Jeffrey Epstein, and even held a science conference on Epstein's Island. She has been involved with various tech companies throughout her career, and stood by her sister through her trial. She is a member of the World Economic Forum. As a matter of fact, the whole family seems to be involved in...less than above board activities. None of the above speaks well for her. BUT also none of the above puts her in charge of Amber Alerts.

Amber Alerts are named for Amber Hagerman (pictured above,) an 8 year old Texas girl who was abducted in 1996, and unfortunately not found alive. This crime has never been solved. After that incident, citizens began asking, if we can have national weather alerts, why not missing child alerts? This movement grew by states slowly, and in April of 2003, President George W. Bush signed the PROTECT Act into law, which provided the emergency preparedness and response tools necessary to create a national AMBER Alert program.

It is not an easy button process to meet the guidelines and requirements for an Amber alert to be sent out. According to the government website, although government and law enforcement officials decide which calls go out, they do work with private tech companies to get the message out. This includes a company called Comtech. Isabel Maxwell, on the other hand, was on the board at Commtouch. It appears that this claim has come from a confusion of the two names. She appears to have no connection whatsoever to Amber Alerts.

So if she's a bad actor anyway, why does it matter? Maybe you think this is an over the top correction. Not many folks will see it, so perhaps it's a waste of time. It's certainly not sensational enough to go viral. But the way I see it, if truth matters, it matters all the time, exciting or not. It matters because gossip is a sin, even if the person the story is about IS a bad actor.

As Matthew reminds us, "But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken (Matt 12:36)

Social media allows for the easy sharing of copious amounts of information. This had me asking myself the question...will I be held to account for careless words spoken there too? Somehow I don't think "it was only an Instagram story Lord," is going to fly on judgement day.

2023 has had plenty of things that were NOT on my bingo card, so I’ll just add another. The crooked Maxwell family taught me something about gossip, how about that ;)