An Experiment with Silence
Have your group try this experiment with silence sometime before
your next meeting. If you do all of chapter three in one session,
this exercise should be at the end of chapter three. Otherwise,
assign it here, before you proceed to the last verses of Chapter
3. Then, before starting the next session, meet in small groups
and read aloud James 3:1-12.
Discussion Questions:
- Does this text have new meaning after the experiment with silence?
- What did you learn about the power of speech after this exercise?
- How did it feel to be unable to speak? Were there situations
where you learned more by being quiet? WHere you were left out?
From Pamela Sparr, Study Guide in Elsa Tamez,
The Scandalous Message of James: Faith Without Works is Dead
(New York: Crossroad Publishing, 2002).
“An experiment with Silence gives people the opportunity
to think more about what James says about the tongue and speech
and what it means to be powerless or without voice. Give everyone
a sticky name tag (with the backing still on) that says: 'I have
taken a vow of silence. Please don’t expect me to speak.'
Ask people to take a vow of silence that will be observed some time
before the [next] session. Silent time may be structured in a number
of ways, for example, for a particular time segment, such as three
two-hour segments to be determined individually; or full participation
during a certain meal time. Ask people to notice: how they felt;
how people interacted with them; what opportunities they missed;
what opportunities emerged as a result of being silent; what was
hard; what they learned. Invite them to jot down notes for use in
a discussion during the [next] session” (Sparr 129).
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