Why in the HELL are there so freaking many chain emails sent around about

[Thtwudbeme]

God????

What the FUCK is up with this ridiculous stupid shit???

"If you accept Jesus as your savior and salvation, you will pass this on."

ALWAYS...fucking ALWAYS sent in HUGE fucking font with dumbass third grade graphics floating around.

Mother of God, I am sick to fucking death of this,

And yes...I DO want to be a minister, yes I am in school, and if you care to goddamned discuss it, by all means, I would be glad to.

Stephanie

[ThoughtCriminal]

1. They think if they spam enough

they will get a better room in Heaven. Beach view, not the one near the kiddie pool.

[Thtwudbeme]

2. I can't put these ignorant people on "ignore" either.. .. I am related to

them, or friends with them....

And I keep my mouth tempered around them.

Jesus Christ on rollerblades...what's a decent Christian like me to do????

[Rabrrrrrr]

5. What to do? I "reply to all" and refute the bullshit in the email.

I get very few of the goddamned things any more.

I especially loved the ones I was able to "reply to all" saying stuff like "I can't believe a so-called Christian email is filled with so much hate" or "so much ignorance - isn't a Christian priority to use the brains God gave us?"

Stuff like that.

And add a snopes link to the ones that have stupid fake stories, and all is set.

Never pass up the opportunity to "reply to all" and offer a rebuttal.

I have no idea if my relatives and friends who sent me that shit were changed by my rebuttals, or they just decided that sending them to me wasn't appreciated and so took me off their list and still send the shit to others. But, at least I don't get the crap.

[Thtwudbeme]

7. Maybe I should do that.

I am having issue with "being nice."

[Rabrrrrrr]

8. I was always nice in my replies

I just offered the facts, and/or offered my own theological understanding of what a REAL Christian would believe/do, and let it stand.

Don't be nasty.

One thing to learn, if you are going to be a minister, is that you can say "No" and still be a nice person; or say "I don't agree at all with you" and still be a nice person.

Bieng nice doesn't mean being a milksop.

And milksop ministers eventually get eaten up and spit out.

[Thtwudbeme]

10. I am really going to have issues with that.

I need to start working on it, don't I? Better than just boiling over like I am tonight-

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. Just be honest with them.

Say "I'm sorry to say it, but I don't find that appropriate" or "I don't appreciate such things" or "Emails like this infuriate me because they teach hatred and xenophobia", or whatever your feelings were.

Make your case, make it quickly, and it's up to them to decide how they will respond. And that is for emails, or in person, in whatever situation.

And if they go ballistic over it, that's their problem, not yours. They have just as much right as you to respond with "Well, I don't agree with you, either" or "I see your point, and I apologize; I won't say/do such things again to you" or "You're right, I AM wrong! I should change" or respond with "You fucking cunt america-hating hippie asshole - fuck you!"

Their decision, and they have to live with whether they do it in a reasoned way, or like an asshole.

But if you never let them know, then they WON'T ever know.

[Rabrrrrrr]

3. Are you in seminary?

And I agree, it's maddening. And it's not even GOOD relilgious stuff, it's fucking bad theology and ignorant.

"We follow Jesus and don't believe in idolatry. Pass this on to ten people if you love Jesus and love America and you will be rewarded in 27 minutes; if you don't, bad luck will come to you!"

That kind of shit.

Or the ignorant shit that goes something like:

"Jesus had eyes. Shrub has eyes.
Jesus had arms. Shrub has arms.
Jesus was ridiculed by the Pharisees. Shrub is ridiculed by fetus-hating democrats.
Jesus spoke Aramaic. Shrub speaks English.

So you can see, Shrub is a man of God, and John Kerry isn't!"

[Thtwudbeme]

6. No, not yet...I am taking a year of Latin, and stuff now

by stuff, I mean Hebrew and Greek stuff.

I am an Episcopalian, and I am supposed to be memorizing my declensions of nouns right now.

But, I am just so damned angry over the hurricane, then this religious spam....

Plus some guy said something really bad stupid in my Buddhist/Sanskrit class today about the hurricane not being a big deal "in terms of world view..."

AUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH CHRISTIANS are driving me crazy!

[Rabrrrrrr]

9. Well, in terms of world view, he's right. It's an almost irrelevant event,

given the number of people worldwide who die every hour (ca. 15,000), the number of people worldwide not affected at all, the very limited geographical specificity of the storm, economically insignificant compared to the world economy, etc.

Thankfully, though, God doesn't care only about the world view - s/he also is very much concerned with the particular, each particular life.

Whew!

And of course, it's overall insignificance from a worldview perspective doesn't deny or reduce our mutual responsibility to our brothers and sisters there.

[Thtwudbeme]

12. No, actually he's wrong. Unless if you mean the hurricane

isn't going to ruin the world as we know it.

However, one of the things I learned as a paramedic, and dealing directly with victims of whatever, was not to belittle their problems, and compare their problems with others.

This is not 9/11, it's not the tsunami, and it's not hurricanes Betsy, Camille, Hugo, Andrew or the one in Galveston. It's a unique event...and that is what burned me up so badly.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. No, it means in terms of overall worldview, Katrina is a statistical blip

with little effect on the entire world. Yeah, lots of people died, and will die, but probably only add 0.1% to overall world daily death rate. Yeah, the economic destruction is awful, but it's a VERY small portion of the country's GDP. Geographically, it's an entirely trivial and totally ingorable amount of square miles of destruction.

From the point of view of all people being precious, then yeah, it's awful and horrible and entirely significant.

But looked at purely mathematically, and from the perspective of 6 billion people worldwide, it's completely trivial.

[Rabrrrrrr]

11. Have you finished college, then?

Any thoughts of which seminary you might go to? General? Union?

Are there any other Episcopal seminaries?

[Thtwudbeme]

14. Actually, Union is Presby

but, funny you should mention that, because it's on my list.

So is Duke, and Wake.

Or I could just go to grad school at Chapel Hill, and become an overeducated liberal snob in the Ivory Tower! ;)

Hey.....that sounds good right now!

Steph

[Rabrrrrrr]

15. No, Union is independant. Auburn, which has its offices IN Union,

is presby. And NYTS, which is also inside Union's walls, is something else I can't remember.

Chapel Hill and Duke! Forgot about those - have some friends who did those schools.

Wake I've never heard of.

But Union is independant. Makes it a great and incredible seminary.

[Thtwudbeme]

16. You've never heard of Wake Forest!

:)

Yeah, you have...you are just kidding!

Baptist

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. No, I haven't!

But I'm not Episcopalian.

And I'm sometimes confronted with the fact that there are major world famous colleges and schools that, for some reason, I've never heard of.

[Thtwudbeme]

20. But, but....you follow the ACC right??

Surely.....surely....

(OK, I grew up in NC...not computing here...not computing....)

[Rabrrrrrr]

22. What's an ACC?

Anglican Catholic Communion?

:shrug:

[Thtwudbeme]

26. Atlantic Coast Conference

God bless you, you are a worse geek than I am! ;)

It's the college basketball stuff!

Stephanie

[Rabrrrrrr]

28. Ewwww. Shudder.

No, of course I don't follow that.

:puke:

uuugh. I feel violated.

couldn't give a rat's fucking ass about college sports, especially not basketball, and especially not in the south. Mostly, I just wish college sports would do what we've forced gays to do for so long - just do your thing, but don't do it in public, not on TV, not on the radio, not in the newspapers.

[Thtwudbeme]

34. Hey now! I have been faking it for Chapel Hill for the better part

of 41 years now!

How did you get exempt?

[Rabrrrrrr]

39. I am exempt from all sports brouhaha, because I don't fucking care

And people know I don't fucking care. That I am, in fact, mostly offended at the way that we worship sports, and ignore science and the arts.

[Zomby Woof]

4. Thank jebus nobody sends me those

They know what fate would await them if they even tried.

[nini]

27. I get them all the time - wanna see?

*snort*

[Misunderestimator]

19. It's ok...

:hug:

[Thtwudbeme]

21. auuuuggghhhh puke puke puke stop it!

;)

Yeah, I read it correctly...

Where IS Mopaul?

[Misunderestimator]

23. Hey...

Are you guys going to be in DC for the protest? (And did I already ask you that?) :)

[Thtwudbeme]

25. Yep we have reservations for a hotel near the zoo

So I could protect the baby panda from YOU as a matter of fact!

[Misunderestimator]

30. YAY! This is so great!

I haven't looked forward to anything this much in ages. Can't wait to meet you. :loveya:

(And there IS no protecting that baby panda from me. :))

[RevCheesehead]

24. I delete them - usually without reading them.

"Chain letter" is exactly right.

For repeat offenders, I politely ask them to stop. I see this shit ALL the time.

[Lars39]

29. They are the reason my fundy inlaws do not have my email addy

[nini]

31. But don't you know Jesus reads our emails to see how we respond?

:D

[Misunderestimator]

32. Don't you mean Skinner?

:rofl:

[Thtwudbeme]

33. No, she means Jesus...see when you start applying to Seminary

you have to give God your passwords to all your email accounts, and it's Jesus' job to moniter them.

He knows, believe me.

It's so depressing!

[Misunderestimator]

35. Aw, jeez.... now I'm depressed...

Is that what Jeebus does? :cry:

[Thtwudbeme]

36. Well not yours!

You have to be actively studying, or already ordained!

You are fine.

Jesus doesn't read your emails! (AND neither did I ;) )

Steph

[Misunderestimator]

37. Oh thank god!

Or um... his son... or whatever... :D

(And on the other thing... :spray: and :rofl:)

[nini]

38. LOL

:D

[bridgit]

40. it's a suckers game & they're trolling for 'marks'...