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Religious Urban Legends
The email inboxes of most people are regularly stuffed with a variety of "chain mail" emails sent by well-meaning friends. The emails may hysterically warn about some unusual threat to health or safety, encourage people to send letters to a dying child, promise that some company or some famous person will send money to all those who forward an email to lots of other people, or insist that readers sign some email petition protesting some alleged Government action that is to go into effect soon--such as allowing telemarketers to call cell phone numbers at the expense of the cell phone owner. The common factor in all of these emails is that they are often full of inaccurate or garbled facts at best, and totally false--and perhaps even maliciously so--at worst.
After a certain amount of time on the Web, many newcomers to the online world seem to mature out of the temptation to indiscriminately pass along such Urban Legends. Unfortunately, many more never do catch on to the fact that they are spreading false information, and they continue to do so year after year.
More unfortunately still, it is often sincere religious people who are particularly gullible when it comes to passing on what might be termed "Religious Urban Legends." These include inspirational stories that hype the astoundingly miraculous, allegations that Government is planning to curtail religious freedom in America at any moment if email readers don't sign some petition and pass it on to large numbers of people, and tales of amazing incidents such as Russian well drillers dropping a microphone down a deep well shaft and hearing "screams of tormented people"--purportedly in Hell.
Christians seem particularly prone to passing on sensational stories which seem to confirm the Bible or aspects of their Faith. What they do not realize is that, when the stories are refuted by the cold, hard facts, they have done a disservice to the cause of the Gospel by making the Christian Faith seem foolish. Here are two such Urban Legends that have made the rounds of the Internet over and over in recent years.
Have NASA scientists "confirmed" the Bible stories of Joshua's Long Day and Hezekiah's Sundial?
Harry Potter Books and Satanism
Have the Harry Potter books spawned a huge rise in Satan worship among children? Has the author of the series maligned Jesus Christ in an interview? Are there legitimate Christian concerns regarding the suitability of the Harry Potter books for children?
If you are tempted to pass on such stories, stop and take a deep breath first ... and then don't hit the "forward" button on your email program. Instead, visit one of the websites described below, and do a little research to find out whether the "almost too good to be true" material you were about to pass on really is the Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth ... or a Religious Urban Legend.
An excellent series of articles on the Focus on the Family website addresses the problem of Christians being gullible about Religious Urban Legends.
The Christian Broadcasting Hoax That Just Won't Die
Is It Really 50 Percent? (about divorce statistics)
Personal from the Webauthor
I have been on the Internet since 1996, and very actively participating on a number of email forums for most of that time. Throughout the intervening years I have received many hundreds, perhaps thousands--I lost track of the numbers long ago--of such chainmail emails, on topics both secular and religious. They ranged from hysterical computer virus warnings to hysterical warnings about threats to my religious liberty. Very early on, I came to understand how stories could take on a life of their own once they hit the Internet, and that many of them were indeed Urban Legends. I discovered how to check out such stories before choosing to pass them on. And the result has been that I can count on the fingers of one hand how many of all of those hundreds upon hundreds of emails actually turned out to be legitimate! It has been years since I've passed one on. This is not to say that, some time, one that you receive may not be legitimate. But I highly recommend taking the few moments necessary to investigate the reliability of a story before passing it on.
There are two keys to doing such investigation. The very first thing I do when I receive such a chainmail is to use the Google Search Engine to search for copies of the material on the Web.
To do this, I merely pick a distinctive long phrase or sentence out of the email, perhaps with a person's name in it, and enter that into the Google Search Box. I put the words between quotation marks so that the search will only yield those places where that exact wording is found. This inevitably brings up a large number of spots on the Web where the material is posted. By glancing down the list of locations, it will very quickly become obvious if the email is a common Urban Legend. The top return on such a search is often to an Urban Legend research site such as the Snopes.com Urban Legend Reference Pages.
If it still isn't clear whether the material is an Urban Legend, perhaps because the story is fairly new, I would then choose to go directly to the Snopes site, or, if the topic is related to religion or inspiration, to one of the sites listed in the Weblinks below.
Weblinks
http://www.truthminers.com/truth/
The website of Christians United for the Truth.
This is an extensive site, updated regularly, which gives information on many specific legends and hoaxes, and also provides sensible advice and commentary about the problem of the gullibility of Christians who pass along these legends and hoaxes without any effort to check on their validity.
Introductory comments from the site:
Did you know that much of the email we receive on a daily basis is based upon lies, rumors, myths, and urban legends? 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
tales of vast conspiracies
Many well-meaning people forward these type of messages on a daily basis without a second thought. So, what's wrong with that? Plenty.
This site is 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?
Some people might still say, "oh, but this is just a small thing." Most of these "small" lies can actually hurt real people, real companies, or real organizations. Whatever happened to bearing false witness? Many of those calling themselves by the name of Christ are doing this on a daily basis while they are online.
Christians are not only the main sources for spreading internet lies, but they are frequently the target of them. One 25 year old hoax is specifically aimed at making Christians look stupid and uninformed. It has worked for 25 years and shows no signs of stopping. No wonder others think that we are gullible fools who will believe anything we are told without bothering to question it (including our faith in God!). We must learn to be 100% truthful and learn how to discern the truth from lies.
From the "About Us" section of the TruthOrFiction website:
TruthOrFiction.com is a web site where Internet users can quickly and easily get information about eRumors, warnings, offers, requests for help, myths, hoaxes, virus warnings, and humorous or inspirational stories that are circulated by email.
TruthOrFiction.com is designed to be of value to the ordinary user of the Internet who wants to make sure that an email story contains information, not misinformation.
Our focus tends to be on stories that are the most widely-circulated on the Internet.Every story on TruthOrFiction.com has either been personally researched by the TruthOrFiction.com staff or, in some cases, is known to be a classic rumor or urban legend that has stood the test of time. As much as possible, the sources of our information are included in the stories.
This site has a very comprehensive menu of categories that makes finding information on specific topics easy. Field Guide readers may find the category of "Religious-Spiritual" of particular interest.
http://truthorfiction.com/index-religious.htm
Unless otherwise noted, all original material on this Field Guide website
is © 2001-2006 by Pam Dewey.Careful effort has been made to give credit as clearly as possible to any specific material quoted or ideas extensively adapted from any one resource. Corrections and clarifications regarding citations for any source material are welcome, and will be promptly added to any sections which are found to be inadequately documented as to source.
Pam Dewey
Pam Dewey
Pam Dewey
