I just got a hoax email which according to snopes is popular each each spring. It is the one about the Florida judge who told an atheist plaintiff who challenged religious holidays such as Easter and Passover, that atheists already have their own holiday: April 1.
See: snopes.com: Atheist Holiday

2/3rds of these hoax E-mails come from my conservative Christian friends, most of those from women.

What bothers me is that they don't convince people that the biologists, climate scientists or President Obama are going to hell and George Bush will become a Saint (Most of these are political,) but the message is that you have to be gullible to be a Christian.

They just reinforce Archie Bunker's definition of faith, which he stole from Mark Twain,
"Faith is believing something no one in their right mind would believe."

Admittedly it is human nature to believe things you want to believe. A lot of intelligent people invested with Bernie Madoff despite his too good to be true claims about profits.
And, the atheist holiday story, could be considered a funny joke, not to be taken seriously. However many of the other hoax e-mails I get could be classed as political or cultural mud slinging.
Is this the example of love we should be demonstrating as Christians?

I know Rush Limnbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, ... make a lot of money doing this, but Christ was not impressed with people who make a lot of money; Should we be?

Links:
People should verify these e-mails at snopes.com: Urban Legends Reference Pages before forwarding them.


Last updated 4 Apr 2011