Dumbed Down By Dumb E-Mails

Well-meaning friends often send me email that contains outright lies about people. Not long ago I received something of great import about Hillary Clinton. What has that woman done now, I wondered?  I had to scroll down a full 15 seconds to get to the message itself and saw at least 100 other email addresses that had been the recipient of the latest juicy gossip about Hillary.  I can only assume that they passed it on to others.  A Christian friend had passed it on to me, so it must be true, right? 

EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!! 

Large bold letters decreed: "New York Senator Hillary Clinton refused to meet with a contingent of Gold Star mothers." 

How dare she!

I had seen this one before, probably 20 times, so I knew it was older than my prom dress.  I let out a sigh of bewilderment and considered my options.   

According to the urban legends website snopes.com, the Clinton email has been circulating on the net in one form or another for over five years.  It was not true then, it is not true today.  I decided to do the unthinkable.  I hit "reply all" and wrote a note to the folks who had also received the bogus email to set them straight.  I also included a link to snopes.com for future reference.  Only one person wrote back to thank me, the others, I assume, had steam coming out of their ears.

How dare she!

Urban legend websites abound on the Internet.  Truthminers.com is another good one that's "Aimed specifically at Christians - those who proclaim that Christ Jesus is their Lord, Boss & Master.  Jesus said that He is 'The Way, The Truth, and The Life.'  (John 14:6).  Shouldn't knowing THE TRUTH make us 100% truthful people?" According to Truthminers, a lot of the email people receive is "based upon lies, rumors, myths, and urban legends."   We also learn that, "The following types of messages usually contain lies: inspirational stories presented as true stories, virus warnings, pleas to help sick or dying children by forwarding email, messages that say that you can get money or gift certificates for forwarding email, email petitions, cautionary tales of kidnappings or abductions, health scares or caution about using particular products and tales of vast conspiracies." 

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