Check it out

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In my previous post, I mentioned the bogus pass-along e-mail about Pepsi supposedly removing the phrase “Under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance. Like 99.9 percent of pass-along e-mails, this is bogus. It was inspired by something done by Dr. Pepper (not Pepsi) which, when you learn the facts, was relatively innocent.

Anyway, just this afternoon I received a copy of another such pass-along. I’d gotten this one before, too; it claims the ACLU objects to Marines praying. This one, too, is bogus; neither the Marine colonel nor the ACLU representative mentioned in the e-mail exists. (Although, I have to admit, the name “Lucius Traveler” is appropriately Dickensian for a villain.)

Passing stuff like this around does not protect our country or preserve the Christian faith. It makes us look like gullible idiots, and it squanders credibility that we may need when we respond to real threats to religious liberty. Do not pass along e-mails like this. Any time you get an e-mail like this one in the mail, check it out at the Urban Legends Reference Pages site, http://www.snopes.com.

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About John

John Carney is a journalist, a certified United Methodist lay speaker, a veteran of foreign and domestic short-term mission trips, and author of a self-published novel, Soapstone.
  • http://www.gryfalia.com Kristi

    I can’t tell you how many of these I get from people whom I consider to have more common sense than to believe this stuff. I send back a Snopes link but sure enough, a week later, I get a different one from the same person.

    Or, even better, a coworker passes around the latest scare e-mail to fifteen of her closest friends, THEN asks me to check to see if it’s true. Erm?

  • http://www.gryfalia.com Kristi

    I can't tell you how many of these I get from people whom I consider to have more common sense than to believe this stuff. I send back a Snopes link but sure enough, a week later, I get a different one from the same person.

    Or, even better, a coworker passes around the latest scare e-mail to fifteen of her closest friends, THEN asks me to check to see if it's true. Erm?