Pet Peeve: Forwarded Chain E-Mails

I hate chain e-mail.

You know what I'm talking about.  Those forwarded e-mails that you get in your inbox every now and again.  They range in their content from heartwarming stories or messages of inspiration, to mere collections of animal pictures, to serious warnings about how the government is going to take away all our rights. 

The vast majority of the time, when I receive a forwarded e-mail that
tells some sort of story or makes some kind of assertion, a quick trip
to www.truthorfiction.com will reveal that the story is either not true
or hopelessly outdated.  It amazes me how people will not check to see
if what they are passing on is accurate.  I can't even count the times
I have received the same e-mail about how Congress is going to pass a
bill that will take all religious programming off the air, even though
one version or another of that same e-mail has been circulating for at
least ten years and it is a known hoax.

The one thing that is common to almost all of these e-mails is that they usually use guilt or superstition to induce the person who received the e-mail to keep forwarding them.  The ones that use superstition to perpetuate themselves usually go something like this:  "Make a wish, send this to ten people within the next five minutes and your wish will come true.  If you don't do this, then you will have bad luck for five years!!"  Or the religious version: "Send this to ten people within the next five minutes and you will receive a blessing!" 

The ones that use guilt to perpetuate themselves usually go something like this:  "If you care about America, forward this to ten people.  If you couldn't care less about what happens to our country, then delete."  Or, "If you love Jesus and aren't ashamed of Him, forward this to ten people", of course implying that if you don't forward the e-mail then you don't love Jesus or are ashamed of Him.  There was one e-mail that basically equated not forwarding the e-mail to denying Jesus a la Matthew 10:33.

I am a Christian, and I do love Jesus.  But does my forwarding of an e-mail (a piece of junk e-mail at that) really show whether or not this is true?  Have I really denied Jesus if I refuse to forward junk e-mail that happens to contain a picture of Him, along with some bad poetry?  Why should I clutter up my neighbor's inbox with more guilt-inducing, superstitious, insipid junk mail?  There are better ways for me to demonstrate my faith, thank you very much.  It doesn't take much faith or courage to forward a piece of junk e-mail.

Maybe I will offend some people with this.  I am sure many people who send these things do not think of it this way and don't mean any harm.  But think about it – if I really have something uplifting to share with someone, why shouldn't I do this in my own words or in person, or at the very least without a message of guilt or superstition (be it secular or religious) at the end?  If I really have some important information to share with someone, why shouldn't I send them a link to a reputable website that contains verifiable, factual information about the matter rather than forwarding an e-mail containing information that, for all I know, someone could have just made up?

Just something to think about…