Every word a person speaks is recorded in heaven. There are people who have never physically beaten anyone, or murdered anyone. Yet they have committed horrible abuses with their words. If you call someone stupid, or tell someone that he or she is useless or no good, you are committing an act of vicious brutality upon that person's basic humanity. If you gossip, you are committing character assassination.
Character assassination is an act of murder.
As is proved by Matthew 5.22c, God looks upon the brutality of hateful words as a heinous sin . At the judgment, an unbeliever will be held accountable for every careless, hurtful word that he or she has ever uttered. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned . With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness.