Bogus Word Being Spread in Church

Go figure, right? But, no, I'm not talking about misinterpretations of scripture. I'm not talking about mixing up parable with reality. I'm talking about a church spreading the word of a bogus spam e-mail. Are there more churches doing this? I cannot verify that. All I know is the church I used to attend spread word of a bogus e-mail. I didn't find this out until today when I was speaking to my mother about the Carlin e-mail that was a hoax. She asked if I informed the person who sent the e-mail that it was indeed false. At that point, I said no, but she convinced me to write, so that he doesn't send it to anyone else (hopefully).

It brought back memories of an e-mail he sent in early March, so I then started talking about that and my mom brought up how the pastor at her church read that e-mail at a sermon. I was flabbergasted.

I posted a blog about this e-mail on March 3rd, entitled "Politics Can Blind People As Well." But, I will make life easier on all of you and quote the e-mail.

"About the time our original 13 states adopted their new constitution, in the year 1787, Alexander Tyler (a Scottish history professor at The University of Edinburgh) had this to say about "The Fall of The Athenian Republic" some 2,000 years prior.'

A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.'

The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the most recent Presidential election:

Population of counties won by:
Gore=127 million
Bush=143 million

Square miles of land won by:
Gore=580,000
Bush=2,242,700

States won by:
Gore=19
Bush=29

Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by:
Gore=13.2
Bush=2.1

Professor Olson adds:
'In aggregate, the map of the territory Bush won was mostly the land owned by the tax-paying citizens of this great country. Gore's territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off government welfare...'

Olson believes the U.S. is now somewhere between the 'complacency' and 'apathy' phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy; with some 40 percent of the nation's population already having reached the 'governmental dependency' phase.

Pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake and that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom."

This all sounded a bit fishy to me, so I did some research and when searching for online urban legends, this one was listed.

"The quote by "Alexander Tyler" is nonsense. His name was actually "Lord Woodhouselee, Alexander Fraser Tytler." There is also no record of "The Fall of the Athenian Republic."

Professor Joseph Olson is not the source of the statistics noted. He has confirmed this on several occasions. Listen to this. This is what Dave Hamrick, editor of Fayette Citizen, had to say concerning this e-mail:

"I really enjoyed one recent message that was circulated extremely widely, at least among conservatives. It gave several interesting 'facts' supposedly compiled by statisticians and political scientists about the counties across the nation that voted for George Bush and the ones that voted for Al Gore in the recent election.

Supposedly, the people in the counties for Bush had more education, more income, ad infinitum, than the counties for Gore.

I didn't have time to check them all out, but I was curious about one item in particular... the contention that the murder rate in the Gore counties was about a billion times higher than in the Bush counties.

This was attributed to a Professor Joseph Olson at the Hamline University School of Law. I never heard of such a university, but went online and found it. And Prof. Olson does exist.

'Now I'm getting somewhere,' I thought.

But in response to my e-mail, Olson said the 'research' was attributed to him erroneously. He said it came from a Sheriff Jay Printz in Montana. I e-mailed Sheriff Printz, and guess what? He didn't do the research either, and didn't remember who had e-mailed it to him.

In other words, he got the same legend e-mailed to him and passed it on to Olson without checking it out, and when Olson passed it on, someone thought it sounded better if a law professor had done the research, and so it grew.

Who knows where it originally came from, but it's just not true."

Isn't that funny? So, what are the murder rates? According to the U.S. Department of Justice, nationally, it was 5.5 per 100,000. The actual rate, as opposed to what that e-mail wanted to suggest, is this, per 100,000:

Gore: 6.5
Bush: 4.1

Quite the difference, I must say. Going from a gap of 11.1 to a gap of 2.4, a difference of 8.7. So, if any of you receive this e-mail or hear others talking about it, feel free to chuckle or to speak up and send them to the link I will list directly below. I sent this link to the person who e-mailed me that nonsense letter. I'm interested to hear his response, if there is one.

So, yes, that bogus e-mail is part of a sermon at the church I used to attend. I'm so proud. People will reach for anything they can get their hands on, valid or not, when times are down. Times really are down for Bush lovers, as his approval rating is now anywhere from 29% to 34%. Call me crazy, but I'm going to mail the pastor proof of the bogus e-mail. I asked my mother do it, but she said, "I don't want to hurt his feelings. He'd be really embarrassed by it." Better to know the truth and be embarrassed for a couple minutes than to never know the truth and be embarrassed for a lifetime, in believing and spreading false words. Just watch, Bush followers will start forwarding e-mails to people, with "scientific evidence" suggesting that Democrats brain structure is different than that of Republicans, and different in a manner that is extremely dangerous to our culture. Or, perhaps a study will come out saying that Democrats are more prone to drinking O'douls beer and Republicans are more apt to drinking Guinness, which makes them more macho and better decision makers. Or how about a study that suggest more Democrats play video games than Republicans, and that this proves their minds have rotted and are in now shape to lead the country. I can only imagine what the next hoax e-mail will be like. I almost look forward to them at times, because it's like reading the Sunday Comics. The only sad part is, unlike the Sunday Comics, people actually buy into these junk chain letter e-mails and spread the word. I'd rather them spread funny Sunday Comics to me. That way, people will just read and laugh, not saying to themselves, "Oh my gosh! That's fact! That's proof right there! I have to spread the word! I have to preach about this in church next week!" Ri-freaking-diculous.

Link:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/quotes/tyler.asp