The "Petition" Email

So, this my friends is what actually gave me the idea for my blog.

I received an email a few days ago from my mother-in-law.

Read very carefully:
Pastor Removal from Television

Removal of Joel Osteen, Donald Hillard, Michael & Dee Dee Freeman, Joyce Meyer, Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah, Floyd Flake, Paul & Deborah Morton, William Watley, Zachary Tims, and other pastors from the airwaves. An organization has been granted a Federal Hearing on the same subject by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington , D.C. Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, on the airwaves of America . They got 287,000 signatures to back their stand! If this attempt is successful, all Sunday worship services being broadcast on the radio or by television will be stopped. This group is also campaigning to remove all Christmas programs and Christmas carols from public schools! You as a Christian can help!

The email goes on to ask all Christians to sign the attached petition to counter this organization's efforts. The petition in the email had 140 names already on it. Now, I thought to myself, they can't take these programs off the airwaves - that would deny Christians their freedom of speech. But, anyway, I never responded to the email or passed it along. I just didn't do anything about it at the time I read it and then just plain forgot. Well, then later that day I was copied on a response to this email:

This is yet another Urban Legend. Check these things out (snopes.com is a good site) before you pass them on. Paranoia is eating this country alive.

Now, when you read this at first it might not upset you, but I for one immediately thought to myself - how rude of this person! "Check these things out before you pass them on!" That just wasn't a nice thing to say to my mother-in-law. I wrestled for days with the desire to respond to this person's email and I really had a lot to say about it; in fact, it was "eating me alive." LOL! But how . . . well, this is how and here is my response:

Although the "removal of pastors petition", according to snopes.com, does appear to be fiction, the term "Urban Legend" does not apply. Urban Legends are fictional stories used, in most cases, to scare people. What we have in the original email is but a rumor.

Paranoia . . . now, well, I have to say that term doesn't truly apply here either, as this is more a case of misinformation. I have to say though that I don't believe paranoia is necessarily a negative term. I mean you might call me paranoid because I won't go certain places at night by myself, for instance. Me, I just call that being cautious. Now, I get the feeling that the respondent is insinuating that Christians, specifically, are paranoid. Well, again, I would not say that we are paranoid, but rather vigilant in fighting the Good Fight. And we need to be vigilant, my fellow Christians, because there is evil lurking around every corner and we have every reason to think that atheists and agnostics are trying to get anything religious out of our country (and elsewhere), because THEY ARE. I mean they have taken prayer out of public schools, teachers can not teach Creation in public schools, they don't want the Ten Commandments posted in public places, and so on and so on. Our country was founded on Christian principals people! We can NOT let Satan take that away.

So, in closing, I am really glad I received the original email about the "petition." Although, based on a rumor, just look at all the names of Believers who are willing to stand up for our Lord and Savior and not stand by while non-believers try to break us down. What this email did for me is give me encouragement that Christianity still prevails and I do not stand alone. I for one just want to say Hallelujah, Hallelujah, AMEN!!!