Electronic Junk Mail

I’ve had a little blogging slump the last couple of days. Not much to say, and too much to do in real life. Things like taking care of the kids and cleaning the house trump blog time! :^) Anyway, it took opening my e-mail this morning to get me over the slump with a ready-made topic to write about today. Hope this topic doesn’t offend too many people, but you know what? My blog. I write to get some of this stuff off my chest. No one else has to like it, I guess. At least, that's what my husband keeps saying when I say, "Should I really post this?" He says, "Hey, it's your blog. Write it if you want to." So I am. I’m not feeling grouchy at all today, but the post may sound like it. I’m just going to type this, post it and walk away from my computer.

I am getting a little tired of endless e-mail forwards. 99.9% of these things are either hoaxes or downright wastes of time to read. At the risk of coming across as a real snot (in some people’s eyes), I’ve started checking the hoax type and sending back to the person who sent it to me with a link showing that it’s a hoax. I’m not doing it to be arrogant or bratty, I’m just tired, tired, tired of the junk that fills my inbox every day, and, dare I mention it, the laziness that leads to just forwarding rather than finding out if it is true before forwarding. Ouch. I have one friend who must forward every single junk thing she gets to everyone in her address book. She’s a Christian friend, but there is just outright blasphemy, heresy, nonsense and superstition in the garbage she forwards. Sometimes I think, “Come on (friend's name), you KNOW better than this!!!” Especially with the ones that have the little good luck prayers attached – if you have e-mail, you probably have seen them. I got one yesterday that basically equated the American soldier with Jesus. Ugh. Now, my husband is in the Army Reserve, been to Iraq – and some other places, so I understand and appreciate (more than some people) the kinds of sacrifices that the military and their families make every day. But they are not anywhere near what Jesus did for us, so no comments/e-mails/criticism that says you think I’m under-appreciating the military, please. But that’s another post, perhaps. This same friend, however, if I send a real e-mail like a “Hi, how are you?” kind of note, almost never responds. But she’ll flood the inbox with junk.

Anyway, the thing below hit my inbox this morning, thanks to another friend. All it took was a simple search of the Focus on the Family website to find that this is a hoax that’s been going around in some form or another for a while. I sent a friendly little note back with the link. I also mentioned (as nicely as I could) that some of those teachers listed are propagating heresy. I have a feeling I won’t be too popular at church because I said that. Had I been feeling really feisty and throwing all politeness to the wind I might have said (but didn’t), “And taking certain of those teachers off the air is bad, how, exactly?” But, that’s another post, as well. Just know that if you see the following in your inbox today or in the future, it’s a hoax:

“SUBJECT: No more James Dobson, Greg Laurie, TD Jakes, Eddie Long, Joyce Meyer, Creflo Dollar, Joel Olsteen????

Please, if you don't wish to participate, return this to the person who sent it to you so they can at least keep this going or forward it to some one you think will wish to participate.Dr. Dobson is going on CNBC to urge every Christian to get involved. I hope you will think about signing this and forwarding to all your family and friends. Dr. James Dobson, with Focus on the Family, pleads for our action.An organization has been granted a Federal Hearing on the same subject by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington , DC . Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, on the airwaves of America . They got 287,000 signatures to back their stand! If this attempt is successful, all Sunday worship services being broadcast on the radio or by television will be stopped.This group is also campaigning to remove all Christmas programs and Christmas carols from public schools!You as a Christian can help! We are praying for at least 1 million signatures. This would defeat their effort and show that there are many Christians alive, well and concerned about our country.As Christians, we must unite on this. Please don't take this lightly. We ignored one lady once and lost prayer in our schools and in offices across the nation.Please stand up for your religious freedom and let your voice be heard. Together we can make a difference in our country while creating an opportunity for the lost to know the Lord.Please press "forward,"CLEAN UP THE MESSAGE, and forward this to everyone you think should read this.Now, please sign your name at the bottom (you can only add your name after you have pressed "Forward" or (cut and paste the text).Don't delete any other names, just go to the next number and type your name. Please do not sign jointly, such as Mr. & Mrs., each person should sign his/her own name.Please defeat this organization and keep the right of our freedom of religion. When you get to 1000 please e-mail back to: ............”

Please, feel free NOT to forward anything to my e-mail. It will probably be deleted unread until I get annoyed enough to respond with the appropriate links. I think the thing that bothers me most is that so many of us will knee-jerk and get all mad when we see this kind of thing, and we’ll get all fired up and sign all these fake petitions, patting ourselves on the back self-righteously as we hit the send button, but we don’t get concerned at all about bad teaching. Several of those people listed up there are proponents of Word Faith and/or wrong teachings about the Trinity along with other things that are just erroneous and heretical teachings. We don’t get at all concerned that heresy is just flooding the “Christian” airwaves. Nope. That’s fine and dandy. But don’t you dare fictionally threaten to take it off the TV! Priorities, priorities. If this post seems cranky, well, so be it. I just think we get too concerned about all the wrong things, and not nearly concerned enough about the things that really matter. This is something I pray about often.

**Update*** Click here to see Focus on the Family's statements about the hoax e-mail.