I got an email recently from a friend titled "Freedom of Religion." The email went like this:
Removal of Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, and other pastors. 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! We are praying for at least 1 million signatures. This would defeat their effort and show that there are many Christians alive, well and concerned about our country. As Christians, we must unite on this. Please don't take this lightly. We ignored one lady once and lost prayer in our schools and in offices across the nation. Please stand up for your religious freedom and let your voice be heard. Together we can make a difference in our country while creating an opportunity for the lost to know the lord.
There are then instructions for forwarding the email with a request to send it to "Lisa Norman" at electric_yello@hotmail.com when the signatures reach 1000. There were 159 signatures by the time it got to me.
I didn't sign it nor forward it as I wanted to do some research and possibly use it for this blog first. I did have some thoughts about the email. First, I did question its validity as I couldn't see it being legal to illegalize broadcasting religion. Besides questioning the email's validity, I did think it completely wrong for the FCC to consider such a notion. Then I thought maybe it would be OK to not allow Christmas programs in public schools. Or, if this was a true consideration, perhaps a better approach would be to have multicultural programs.
So, on to the research. I found http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/Religious.html. The FCC actually had a page dedicated to debunking this rumor! If anyone should be banned here, it should be the people generating these emails. This email is libel, which is not protected by the first amendment.
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4 comments:
I have a distinct tendency to roll my eyes and gag slightly when I see forwards such as that in my inbox. I believe they do more harm then good and are exactly as you say, libel. I am saddened that supposed "Christians" would resort to blatant lies in an attempt to draw attention to their plight.
I loathe emails like this that cause people to get all in a panic over things that are usually not true. Whenever someone sends me an email like this, I immediatetly go to www.snopes.com and verify whether or not the story is true. I then email the person back with the answer. I know most times the sender is rather annoyed with my response but I want people to have the correct information. If you are scaring people unnecessarily then I want to let them know--even if it is unintentional.
With emails like this, the majority of the people will take what is claims to heart without ever doing any kind of further research and that is terrifying to me!!! We have to do research. We can't just accept all we read on the Internet as truth.
I think maybe the title of this e-mail was off-base. Freedom of religion means that the government will not favor one religion over the other. Accordingly, a public school, funded by government money, cannot mandate Christian prayer or Christian holidays. This doesn't mean that Christmas songs can't be part of a holiday program, or that students can't pray independently to Jesus, Allah, or whomever they wish. Maybe a better subject line would have been "Christian Theocracy."
You do have to wonder what motivates people to post this kind of message. Are they just misinformed or ???
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