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This occurred to me today as I listened to a coworker read (aloud, for some reason) an email he had just received that was similar to this:
Quote:
As I was listening to a news program last night, I watched in horror as Barack Obama made the statement with pride...'we are no longer a Christian nation; we are now a Nation of Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, . .'
As with so many other statements I've heard him (and his wife) make, I never thought I'd see the day that I'd hear something like that from a presidential candidate in this nation. To think our forefathers fought and died for the right for our nation to be a Christian Nation--and to have this man say with pride that we are no longer that. How far this nation has come from what our founding fathers intended it to be.
I hope that each of you will do what I'm doing now--send your concerns, written simply and sincerely, to the Christians on your email list. With God's help, and He is still in control of this nation and all else, we can show this man and the world in November that we are, indeed, still a Christian nation!
Here is what the president actually said:
Quote:
Whatever we once were, we are no longer just a Christian nation; we are also a Jewish nation, a Muslim nation, a Buddhist nation, a Hindu nation, and a nation of nonbelievers.
The two are very similar, but the first omits the very important word "just". The president has used similar lines several times, including his inauguration speech. And in one speech, he flubbed it a little but still included the word "just". The email my coworker was reading was even worse, only showing these quotes:
Quote:
We are no longer a Christian nation
and...
Quote:
We are a Muslim nation
The first lengthy quote I mentioned is only a mild misrepresentation compared to this. At least in that quote it appears that the president is simply trying to include other faiths as well, even though a word has been intentionally deleted. But the last two "quotes" are just outright distortions. When I heard him read them, I thought they sounded familiar, but with things missing. So I looked it up and found exactly what was missing, and what was missing was vital to the purpose of the sentences. I've found this is a common theme of chain emails, and yet it seems many people read them and immediately take them for truth, without once questioning the validity of the claims. There was another email going around about how dangerous the Smart Car is. It shows this picture:
After literally ten seconds of research, it is quickly obvious that this is not a Smart Car (not to mention the wheel looks nothing like any of the Smart wheels I've seen).
A Ford Escape isn't even that small, and regardless, any car in that situation is going to look like a crushed can. But the point is, no one I know even bothered to research this to see if it was what it claimed to be. They just automatically believed what was fed to them. Every time I receive a chain email, or one of my coworkers does and reads it out loud, I immediately do a little research to check its validity. And what do you know, the claims are almost always either entirely false or completely distorted.
And of course there's the young Albert Einstein email that's gone around, which we've seen numerous times on this very board.
What I'm getting at is really just a question: Why do so many assume everything they are told is true (at least, when it fits their personal agenda)? I could kind of understand if one is being told something by a trusted and highly respected parent or friend, but a random chain email that's obviously attempting to push a certain agenda? That usually sets off warning bells for me no matter what the agenda.
This occurred to me today as I listened to a coworker read (aloud, for some reason) an email he had just received that was similar to this:
Here is what the president actually said:
The two are very similar, but the first omits the very important word "just". The president has used similar lines several times, including his inauguration speech. And in one speech, he flubbed it a little but still included the word "just". The email my coworker was reading was even worse, only showing these quotes:
and...
The first lengthy quote I mentioned is only a mild misrepresentation compared to this. At least in that quote it appears that the president is simply trying to include other faiths as well, even though a word has been intentionally deleted. But the last two "quotes" are just outright distortions. When I heard him read them, I thought they sounded familiar, but with things missing. So I looked it up and found exactly what was missing, and what was missing was vital to the purpose of the sentences. I've found this is a common theme of chain emails, and yet it seems many people read them and immediately take them for truth, without once questioning the validity of the claims. There was another email going around about how dangerous the Smart Car is. It shows this picture:
After literally ten seconds of research, it is quickly obvious that this is not a Smart Car (not to mention the wheel looks nothing like any of the Smart wheels I've seen).
A Ford Escape isn't even that small, and regardless, any car in that situation is going to look like a crushed can. But the point is, no one I know even bothered to research this to see if it was what it claimed to be. They just automatically believed what was fed to them. Every time I receive a chain email, or one of my coworkers does and reads it out loud, I immediately do a little research to check its validity. And what do you know, the claims are almost always either entirely false or completely distorted.
And of course there's the young Albert Einstein email that's gone around, which we've seen numerous times on this very board.
What I'm getting at is really just a question: Why do so many assume everything they are told is true (at least, when it fits their personal agenda)? I could kind of understand if one is being told something by a trusted and highly respected parent or friend, but a random chain email that's obviously attempting to push a certain agenda? That usually sets off warning bells for me no matter what the agenda.
I suppose it's because they want so badly to believe it that they suppress any questions in their mind that might be to the contrary. Besides, many people, P.T. Barnum most famously, have made millions off of that peculiarity!
There was a woman I used to work with, devout Christian, nice person, who used to send those types of emails and they always had that ending that warned you that if you didn't forward the emails to ten people something bad might happen but if you did forward them you'd get all kinds of blessings...annoyed at her endless religious emails, I finally confronted her about that and said "if you are a Christian, why are you subscribing to that kind of superstitious behavior?" She didn't stop sending the emails, lol, she just added her own disclaimer, "while I really don't believe in the superstition about forwarding these emails..."
Of course,this country was never a Christian nation, was never founded to be one (it was in fact founded on secular principles by Deists and freethinkers), it is not one now, and for humanity's sake I hope it never is. The last thing the world needs is a Christian version of Iran with superpower status.
As a Christian, I am deeply offended by all the chain letters that exploit religion to get passed along, and by so many Christians falling for them hook line and sinker. It isn't just Christians who send chain letters, but right now, they have among the very worst reputations for this activity on the net. People will believe and pass on anything if "God" "Jesus" "constitution" "cancer" "children" and "women" are mentioned, no matter how totally skewed and bogus! Argh! CBCF Christians Breaking Chain Forwards - yes, we really do exist. (http://ChristiansBreakingChainFwds.ning.com - broken link)
I, personally, have never had a problem with chain e-mails because I never open them up in the first place. Then again, I don't consider myself a "computer person," and I've never allowed computers to have the upper hand in my life.
How dare some people other than Christians be thought of as equal and deserving of the same respect and rights in this country as them. The nerve of some presidents.
Speaking of presidents, this country was never founded on the Christian religion according to George Washington. Eh....what the hell did he know about this country.
Quote:
As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.
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