the basic message # E151
Ephesians 4:29
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.
When this passage was written, gossip was limited in its range of travel simply due to the logistics involved. In other words, gossip and rumors had to pass physically from one person to another. There was no TV, no radio, no telephone and most importantly, no Internet. I mistakenly thought all of my readers knew how I felt about email forwards, but apparently I’ve picked up a few new subscribers that don’t. It’s really very simple, while I love to hear from you, I have absolutely no desire to get another forward. Why? First of all, I receive the same thing over and over. Secondly, but more importantly, I find misinformation, gossip and outright lies to be commonplace in forwards. Christians have a responsibility to speak and propagate only solid, truthful information. “Only what is helpful for building others up”.
Proverbs 26:22
The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s most inmost parts.
Gossip is traditionally considered unsupported talk about another person or situation. Gossip is seldom checked-out before repeating, therefore it is often slanderous. After the recent terrorist attacks, a local businessman of middle-eastern descent was the victim of an email slander campaign. It started innocently enough- someone said that after the terrorist attack he was “rejoicing” about the events. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the lie stopped there, but some “good citizen” decided to relate the story to a friend via email, and then it began to be forwarded. You can guess the rest- it was a disaster. The man started receiving death-threats and talk of boycotting his restaurant began. I thank God that some “patriot” didn’t firebomb the man’s business before the lie was revealed. The people of the world can be irresponsible, but Christians should have no part of this stupidity.
Over the years I’ve been forwarded one particular hoax involving Madalyn Murray O’Hare of the Atheist movement. According to the email, Mrs. O’Hare had filed a petition with the FCC to ban the program, “Touched by an Angel”. I would suppose that this email forward has gone to literally tens of millions, if not billions of Internet users. Why no one ever bothers to check out this nonsense baffles me. The FCC has a website, and in a few minutes one can check out the validity of “important information”. The FCC site explains that the O’Hare hoax has been around for nearly 30 years, and that the FCC finally gave up trying to clear-up the misinformation. I think the forward function on email is far more detrimental than all of the pornography on the net.
I got a forward last week regarding the Campbell’s Soup company donating soup to the hungry simply by the user going to a website. I sent an email to Campbell’s asking if it is legitimate, but I haven’t heard back from them yet. It reminds me of the famous hoax a while back that promised people a free meal at Cracker Barrel Restaurant. As soon as I brought up the Cracker Barrel website there was a big disclaimer on the main screen stating that it was indeed a hoax. I realize forwarding email is a major entertainment for many people, but please don’t include me as a recipient. I welcome a message written by you, but not hearsay or gossip. Thank you.