Oh, Those Forwards

You have them. Well-meaning people in your life who think that you need to read "the forward." Usually embedded several levels deep in an email, they range from the funny (or supposed to be) to the patriotic. They are often sentimental, occasionally misguided, and - when it comes to Christian things - seem to be more often than not untrue. Sometimes they are several years old, and simply making the latest round by means of someone who recently got email.

There is an assumption that pastors need to read these things. I've hinted to our people that I don't, but occasionally I'll get them anyway. In many cases they are a mixture of Bible and pro-America politics. I am a conservative Republican, but I consider this blend of patriotism and faith to be a hugely misguided distraction to biblical Christianity.

At any rate, after being the recipient of yet another forward of this nature, I did what I usually do - I check the internet hoax sites and forward the correction to the person who sent me the story. I do this for several reasons. First, in many cases well-meaning people are perpetuating a story that is false. Second, I would like to encourage them to not believe everything that is sent to them, and finally, I want to teach them how to research this stuff for themselves.

In dealing with the latest forward this morning, I encountered this article which ought to be printed as a bulletin insert in our church publications. I hope you can make use of it. http://www.crivoice.org/urbanlegend.html. The parts the interested me were more of his comments about forwarding email without thinking. I haven't documented the accuracy of his rebuttal to the original post.

I had intended to post another chapter of DA Carson's book about prayer, but this week was a bit compressed. I had my first visit to my Irish friend Colon O'Scoppy on Friday, so between the "prep" day and "the day" itself, my week was shortened. I actually had my sermon done two days early. More from Carson's book next week.