What Messages Are We Sending (or Forwarding)

A very dear friend of mine received an email that had been forwarded around to a lot of people. She asked me my opinion on the matter and I felt that the issue was worth discussing here in some detail.

Misuse of Email

First things first

I ignore or delete 95% of the emails I get that have been forwarded more than once. If I do read them, I’ll usually laugh or say, “hmm that’s interesting…DELETED!” People who forward forwarded emails are showing that they have a low IQ regardless of their beliefs and viewpoints. I usually put a forward from someone I know on equal footing with SPAM. If someone keeps sending me forwards all the time I will filter out anything from them with a subject line containing Fw, Fwd, or the like. I don’t get too riled up about the content or the ideas because they are usually pretty stupid anyway.

I think of the “don’t buy gas from anyone next Wednesday — that'll show 'em” type protests against the gas companies who were “price gouging.” Often these are calls to boycott certain products or movies. I believe that in the free market system we vote everyday by the way we spend our money, and most the time I am against organized boycotts because they don't work and there are better ways of making statements. Again, I question the intelligence of people who come up with these ideas and even more so that of those who forward them around. If you get something worth forwarding on to your entire email list, at least take the time to copy the relevant content, add your own thoughts, and then send it out as something original — crediting the source of course.

The next point

Too many people take stuff at face value. I believe our mothers always said to us as we were growing up, “you can’t believe everything you see on tv.” And now we are having to learn that you can’t believe everything you see: in a photograph, in a newspaper, on the internet, on Wikipedia, or in an email. This just further shows how mindless so many people are.

I would like to interject here that the founders of our country understood how the masses could be stirred up and incited to become mob like. This is why they created the electoral college to elect the president and why originally the state legislatures elected the members of the US Senate (until the 17th Amendment). Our country was set up as a representative Republic, not a democracy, contrary to what far too many people believe.

What Happened in Texas?

I did a quick search and came up with these references:
Original Email
Local Story: posted on Sunday, November 17, 2002
Another Story : posted on 16 Dec 2002

"Let me explain, no, there is no time, let me sum up." =)
The story is 7 years old — making it even more ridiculous that people are still forwarding it around. In 2000 a US House resolution was passed that “encouraged” the display of the motto “In God We Trust” in public buildings. Some guy in Texas took it upon himself to put up some displays that he made carrying the motto. Apparently there is a law that no unofficial signs can be posted in public buildings — a reasonable law. So the post office took the signs down, but then after a fire storm of media attention they replaced them with official signs containing the motto.

Writing “In God We Trust” on the mail is just a knee-jerk reaction to a inaccurate story. The US Postal Service is representative of people’s frustration with government and is probably the branch of government with which we have the most frequent dealings, and so it becomes a target and a caricature more often than it probably deserves — but maybe not… However, the idea of trying to make a statement to the entire postal service by writing "In God We Trust" on all of your mail is not going to accomplish anything, and what it was trying to accomplish didn't even need to be accomplished! This is how silly these ideas can be.

The Political Process

Too many people come up with really unintelligent solutions to what they see as the big problems of the day, and their harebrained solutions usually involve getting other people to do things they themselves are unwilling to do — thus circulating misinformation around through emails is most people's idea of political activism. Our country has a political process. Far too many people are ignorant of the process, and the result is thousands upon thousands of ridiculous calls to action which would accomplish absolutely nothing.

Every day on blogs, posting comments, and talk shows you can read and hear all of these so called great ideas that in reality have not been given an ounce of thought, but they are probably doing their best. When we see things going wrong in the country we are justified in being upset, but too many people will just jump on a bandwagon with a bunch of other people who are also upset. Most don't even know where they're going — they just know they're upset and darn it they're doing something about it. We are all ignorant of different things in the world because one can only become a psudo-experts on so many topics, but I must say it is humorous to see ignorant people when they get upset. However, we must be respectful of the fact that people even care enough to get upset. I think this is why many people "stay out of politics;" they care more about not getting upset or upsetting others than they do about what is going on around them, but that's another topic for another day.

The Bigger Story Behind the Story

Religion is under attack in our country — and around the world. It always has been and always will be, but the assault is becoming increasingly brutal each day. In this environment anything that strikes at our religious nerves is going to get a lot of attention. Not everything is as bad as it is sometimes made out to be, but I think the worst thing we could do is become insensitive to those forces that are trying to secularize our society and thereby diminish the role of religion in our public discourse.

The US is a religious country. Its foundation is religious. The very God of heaven oversaw the founding of this nation for His purposes. Our nation will only continue to thrive and prosper if it continues to serve the God of this land who is Jesus Christ. When we cease to do that we will become vulnerable, and our nation may even be destroyed, depending on what happens to the righteous in the land. My thoughts are that a very powerful undercurrent is constantly eroding away our religious foundation, and it will cause everything we have built to come crumbling down unless we are actively building, strengthening, and reinforcing that foundation.

I found an interesting study about religion in America from 2001. Even though the data is eight years old it is still insightful. What stands out most to me is 80.2% of Americans claim a religious affiliation. Out of the remaining 19.8% it is safe to assume that a large percentage of them believe in God — this is a nation that believes in God. I think that with 76.5% of people self-identifying as Christians we can say that the United States is a Christian nation.

There are a small number of those who do not believe in God and/or are hostile toward religion in general and Christianity in particular. Again this is nothing new, but the important thing to recognize is that it is a very small number of people who are making all the noise. This country is very open and accepting of other religions and of the non-religious. I don’t think you could find another nation on the earth that has as much religious diversity and tolerance and acceptance as the US: Another interesting site: Adherents.com.

It seems to me that the intolerance and discrimination come from those who do not believe. To say, “I don’t believe in God or religion so I don’t have to adhere to religious principles and anything religious in American government is "establishing religion"" is to say something that cannot be — namely, that we must reorder society to accommodate certain individuals because they are different and this country is a melting pot and is about accepting others and their differences. The truth is that in a society built upon ordered liberty we must all be excepting of others — even those in the minority. Our nation wants to protect the minority from the majority, which is one of the primary reasons for the bill of rights. However, this argument about changing society to accomodate the few is used far too often to excuse ideas and beliefs that undermine who we are as a nation, a nation founded upon belief in God and adherence to certain traditions and codes of conduct. I can see why so many people are upset when our traditions are trampled upon and disrespected and when our religious liberties are infringed upon by those who do not believe.

Make a Stand but Take the Higher Road

When others start to push for laws and regulations that inhibit the free exercise of religion it is going to upset a lot of people — and rightfully so! It is safe to say that there is a trend toward more secularism in America. Though their numbers are small, more and more people are becoming less religious and often irreligious. The adversary is orchestrating this opposition. He is also well aware of the agitation felt by those who believe and he seeks to exploit it for his own purposes.

Some of the most challenging of Christ’s teachings are the commandments to love our enemies and to turn the other cheek. But this does not mean that we shouldn't or can't challenge those who confront us; and it does not mean we have to be pacifists, nor does it imply that we cannot speak out and even criticize others when they are wrong. The people of Ammon did not sit idly by while Korihor went around trying to undermine the faith of their people, but “took him, and bound him, and carried him before Ammon,” Alma 30:20

Back to Where We Started

The original email that began circulating did not contain the words “sit down and shut up.” That was added later by someone who has not learned the lesson about taking the higher road. As for everyone who forwarded the email with that statement, we are all subject to the passions of the flesh and those can be used against us, even when or especially when we stand up for what is right.

What I take away from all of this is that:

• I will continue to pay no attention to the foolish outcries of the uninformed
• I will continue to stand up for truth and righteousness in the face of fierce opposition
• I will continue to support wise leaders who can rally the strength of the people behind worthy and noble causes, and
• I will continue to trust that the purposes of the Almighty will be accomplished in spite of the wicked and in spite of our own foibles and errors
• And come on people, let's make better use of our time than forwarding around emails that do no good for anyone!