Well, my oldest friend and I met the first day of high school and we still recall the reason.  The fella sitting between us smelled like a three-day-old diaper and we could not keep from cracking up throughout algebra class.

So, a good casuist would probe your conscience in the confessional to make sure you were not - in your hypothetical example - mistaking an "environmental incident" ( air pollution due to BO ), something any reasonable soul would find immediately offensive, with a premeditated act to deliberately ruin ol' Stinky's social status ( which, most likely, he'd already done to himself without a word from anyone - especially anyone unfortunate enough to have been downwind ).

As for "joe blow", he's a complete twit.  In my old parish we had a nickname for guys like him - "target practice".  The only responsible way to deal with jerks like that is to learn martial arts and clean his clock.  Half the time, it's exactly what bullies need to teach them what horse's patoots they are and they end up being friends with the guy that stood up to them.

Based on the link you posted I do not think your example falls in the category of scandal.  Joe might be guilty of gossip though as Stinky would have no other way of knowing the truth about what you said since it is only being related by Joe.  

Or maybe Joe is just a manipulative brat.  Stay away from Joe.


Marsha

 

Im saying if Joe intentionally said that so and so smells bad just in order to get me to say it...so that he can go tell that person that I said he/she smells bad. Basically to get in me in trouble. Everything Joe Blow did in this instance was intentional and done for a reason (to get me in trouble). This of course is a minor example whereas it can be much more severe. I still think something like this would be scandal. Whereas if Joe Blow was not trying to set me up, but rather was just an idiotic gossip about things out of stupidness...it might not fall into the category of scandal.

Scandal means to cause someone else to sin (literally to trap, or to trip someone up).
Now it seems that the sin is Joe's, not yours, and so it is not scandal.
Do you think that saying someone smells is a sin if it is true?
It may be hurtful for the person, but it should also make the smelly one aware and so take measures to correct the fault of smelling badly. Which would be a good thing all around.

One way I have found to avoid this ever happening is not to discuss negative aspects of people who are not there to respond or defend themselves.  I have fallen prey to this game of set up multiple times in my life and it was due to a deep fault of my own: namely being too eager to jump into conversation to discuss other people's faults.

Sometimes silence, changing the subject or needing to leave right away is the best way to handle these potential problems.

This is not to say that the original set up artist isn't at fault ... but if you refuse to play the game .. .they're not going to get very far with their bad behavior either. And who knows, being thwarted might just give them a few moments of consideration about what they are actually trying to do.  

Quote from: InfiniteFaith

Do you think this falls into the category of scandal?

The short answer is No

Was Joe intending to make you sin? No, he was setting you up to embarrass you. Keep away from the likes of the hypothetical Joe.
It is certainly not a good examp[le of what we might call scandal.

Im not gonna go too far in this thread but I want to further argue that a case like this would be scandal.

Based on the following sentence from New Advent...something is scandal when someone solicits another person to commit a sin...

(2) Active scandal is direct when he who commits it has the intention of inducing another to sin; such is the sin of one who solicits another to the crime of adultery, theft etc. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13506d.htm

In the case of Joe blow, he was soliciting me to say something bad about another person (OK I admit this seems like a weak example but could be more serious). And by saying something negative about another person, I committed a sin (Malice).

This would only fall into the category of scandal if Joe Blow were intentionally trying to get me to say something bad about another person (or group of people). If this was not done intentionally then it would still be a sin but would not be scandal.