Resisting the urge to glurge
One of my favorite bloggers reminds readers to check facts before passing along information:
Passing on unverified, untrue stories is enough of an issue when it's e-mail. It's a much more serious problem, however, when these kinds of stories find their way into the pulpit. It reminds me of the phrase "preacher's tale," a term used derisively to describe stories that are long on emotional punch but short on veracity. Preachers, let's make sure we check facts on a story before putting it forth with the proclamation of the Word.
This weekend, someone I love very much forwarded an e-mail message she'd recieved. It was about the modesty of true heroes. It told of great valour during war-time as displayed in particular by two men who were famous to American baby-boomers as children's TV presenters.
The stories were touching, even inspirational.
They were also untrue.
Passing on unverified, untrue stories is enough of an issue when it's e-mail. It's a much more serious problem, however, when these kinds of stories find their way into the pulpit. It reminds me of the phrase "preacher's tale," a term used derisively to describe stories that are long on emotional punch but short on veracity. Preachers, let's make sure we check facts on a story before putting it forth with the proclamation of the Word.
posted by Milton Stanley at 1:35 PM
4 Comments:
I hope others have better results than I do in fighting the spreading of false forwards through email! It seems my Christian friends aren't all that concerned about that kind of truth and they even continue sending the same forwards as they continually circle the internet, even after they have been shown to be false! It makes me sad.
I like this Spurgeon quote:
If you want truth to go round the world you must hire an express train to pull it; but if you want a lie to go round the world, it will fly: it is as light as a feather, and a breath will carry it. It is well said in the old proverb, "A lie will go round the world while truth is pulling its boots on."
Too true. It makes me sad, too.
When I get those emails forwarded to me, I usually check them out on the urban legends sites and often find they are not true and that several people have already researched them. When I find this, I reply back to everyone in the email forwarding chain that has left their email address in the list, letting them know how I checked out the veracity of the email and urging them to do the same before sending things on again.
I don't get a lot of those forwarded emails from those folks again. I don't know if they stopped forwarding them or just took my name off the list!
I would hope they learned to do better. Either way, though, is an improvement.
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