April 14, 1999

Not all e-mail is gospel truth
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___Did you get the e-mail warning about the "It Takes Guts to Say 'Jesus'" virus? How about the Easter Cookies recipe? Or maybe the story about the scientist who claims NASA has scientific proof that the Earth stood still as explained in the Old Testament?
___If you're a Christian with e-mail and you know other Christians with e-mail, you've more than likely received at least one of these messages or others like them. They're just a sampling of the religious-themed "spams"--unsolicited "junk" mail--that are flying across the Internet every day.
___And that's not even taking into account the relative or friend who broadcasts unsolicited e-mail devotionals every few days or the church friend who likes to e-mail weepy stories about children, angels or pets.
___Some people thrive on sending and receiving such inspirational content, but others chafe at the unwanted intrusions.
___"How do you tell someone you don't want this scriptural information coming to your desk? Then they'll think, 'What kind of pagan are you?'" said Sam Hull, a computer systems manager for a Texas ministry and a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary.
___Because of his role, Hull frequently receives unsolicited inspirational thoughts, virus warnings and tear-jerking stories via e-mail. But because he's a serious-minded retired Marine, he has no qualms about asking his well-intentioned correspondents to drop him off their mailing lists.
___"I'm not shy about telling people that if they want to go to a website and subscribe to daily devotionals, that's fine," he said. "If I want to get a particular source, I'll subscribe myself."
___Or put less tactfully, leave me alone and stop clogging up my mailbox.
___Hull's weariness with these e-mails is shared by Roberta Echols, an elementary school teacher in Chattanooga, Tenn.
___"We get tons of religious, weepy, devotional-type e-mails. Often, I don't have the brain left at the end of the day, when we check our e-mails, to process the tenderness of the article," she said.
___Greg Warner, a Baptist journalist in Jacksonville, Fla., said he also gets flooded daily with what he calls "Jesus junk," usually forwarded to him by "well-meaning friends."
___"I long for the good old days when the difficulty of addressing a letter and licking a stamp discouraged most of these do-gooders," he said.
___While the Internet version of dial-a-prayer annoys some, it apparently inspires others, Hull noted. "Some people do seem to be uplifted by it. So just because it doesn't do anything for me, does that mean I should keep others from sending it?"
___Despite the difference in perceived value of religious e-mail, those who traffic in such content should understand that "one person's inspiration is another person's wince," Hull advised. "But when people forward it in e-mail, they can't see you wince."
___Some religious-themed e-mails are harmless, even if annoying.
___For example, the week before Easter, Christians all over the nation were sending and receiving a recipe for "Easter Cookies" that prescribed a litany of ingredients and Scripture readings to be mixed together as an object lesson for children. Every ingredient had some relevance to the passion of Christ, concluding with placing the unbaked cookies in the dark oven overnight, symbolizing Jesus' descent into the tomb.
___This e-mail recipe, which gave no source in its trek across the Internet, brought no harm. But it did disappoint at least one family.
___"We tried the Easter cookies and were slightly disappointed," Echols said. "They weren't hollow when you broke them open. Thus, no empty tomb. The rest of the analogies were OK."
___Other religious-themed e-mails aren't quite so harmless, though, according to several experts in communications, theology and computer systems.
___Virus warnings, for example.
___Virus hoaxes are all over the Internet, and they share some common characteristics experienced e-mailers can learn to detect, according to Charles Hymes, senior human factors engineer with Hewlett-Packard Co. in Cupertino, Calif.
___A recent virus hoax took on a decidedly religious theme. An e-mail with an urgent warning on how to avoid this purported virus was sent from person to person across the Internet.
___"If you receive an e-mail titled 'It Takes Guts to Say "Jesus"' DO NOT open it," the warning began. "It will erase everything on your hard drive. Forward this letter to as many people as you can. This is a new, very malicious virus, and not many people know about it. This information was announced yesterday morning from IBM. Please share it with everyone that might access the Internet. Once again, pass this along to EVERYONE in your address book so this may be stopped."
___According to Stiller Research, makers of the anti-virus program Integrity Master, this currently is one of the most common virus hoaxes floating around the Internet. But its content is far from new.
___"Only the beginning of this hoax contains some new text," Stiller explains on its website devoted to uncovering e-mail hoaxes (www.stiller.com). "But even this new text fits into the old hoax pattern started by the 'Good Times' e-mail virus hoax, where you are warned to avoid a virus by shunning e-mail with some particular title. It also contains the sure-fire hoax indicator of asking you to forward this message to others."
___"There is absolutely no way for an e-mail message to infect your computer with a virus just by reading it," Hymes explains on his website devoted to debunking hoaxes (www.nonprofit.net/hoax/).
___The only real danger lies in launching an executable program received via e-mail or from any source, he says.
___Christians also are susceptible to e-mail hoaxes of other kinds, according to Hymes and others. Usually, these involve alarming or heart-touching stories that give an air of authenticity but lack any identification of source or documentation.
___"Some of the more interesting hoaxes are related to 'The government is going to end freedom of religion' paranoia," Hymes said. "Like most paranoia hoaxes, they rely on the fact that most people don't check the facts."
___The spreading of paranoia-induced messages isn't a new phenomenon in Christian circles, but the Internet has advanced the speed at which such messages can be sent and has eliminated filters that stopped such messages in the past, said Marv Knox, editor of the Baptist Standard.
___"Before Madalyn Murray O'Hair disappeared, editors of religious newspapers received the 'O'Hair's going to fill-in-the-blank' rumor every few months," he illustrated. "We had an O'Hair folder as thick as the Austin phone book. And every so often, we'd have to write an article debunking the rumor.
___"For three decades, well-meaning Christians wasted more time and alarmed more nice people, all in the name of freedom."
___"The wacky rumors haven't changed all that much," he conceded. "But the pace at which they circulate has zoomed. A good old-fashioned O'Hair rumor passed photocopier-to-photocopier and took weeks to travel across a state. Now, everybody with a modem can receive the 'It Takes Guts' rumor in a nanosecond."
___And circulation of the rumors now bypasses filters, he added."These days, one crusading computer can put the wrong word out on Wednesday, and by Thursday night, thousands of good-hearted folks are wringing their hands."
___In the modern world of the Internet, the credibility assigned to various sources of information has changed, explained Amanda Sturgill, lecturer in journalism at Baylor University and a researcher in new media.
___"People may take information from a less-reliable source but think it's more reliable because it is forwarded by someone they know," she said.
___It's tempting to believe anything that's forwarded to you by someone you trust, Sturgill said, but what's more important is to consider the original source of the information.
___That sentiment is shared by Hull, the computer systems manager. However, he believes Christians by nature may be susceptible to passing along bogus information without considering the original source.
___"The natural good intentions of believers makes them more likely to forward things than others in the secular world," he said. "Believers have a trusting nature, and we're just more susceptible. We don't necessarily have the skepticism that would be healthy."
___He's most concerned about the damage done to the Christ-ian witness when believers become channels of far-fetched misinformation via e-mail messages. "It has reduced our credibility a great deal," he said.
___Despite the dangers of hoaxes and unwanted devotionals, there is a good side to Internet's influence on Christian ministry, Hull added. E-mail, he said, is an ideal way to keep in touch with missionaries and get timely prayer requests.
___"The trick," he said, "is trying to focus on the things that are substantial."

See related stories

How to spot an e-mail hoax

Preachers: Check story sources

---

Frontpage / Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!