Dumb right-wing forward I received and some responses to it

last_texas_dem

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Fri Aug-10-07 12:06 AM
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Dumb right-wing forward I received and some responses to it

I'm on this "Yahoo group" with a number of members of my extended family and, even though we all made an agreement shortly after September 11th, 2001, when things got pretty heated, to stop sending religious or political messages/forwards, certain "conservative" family members just can't seem to stop themselves from breaking the rules a couple of times a year. When called on it, they usually say something along the lines of, "I just didn't think this was anything controversial, or that anyone could be offended by it" or some similar bullshit. Here is the most recent one I received, although I'm pretty sure it's a couple of years old:

>>>>>Why should I deny God, when the only thing that I have received from Him is goodness?"

Subject: An eloquent comment. from CBS Sun morn

The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.

My confession:

I am a Jew, and every single one of my ancestors was Jewish. And it does not bother me even a little bit when people call those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees Christmas trees. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel discriminated against. That's what they are: Christmas trees.

It doesn't bother me a bit when people say, "Merry Christmas" to me. I don't think they are slighting me or getting ready to put me in a ghetto. In fact, I kind of like it. It shows that we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all that there is a manger scene on display at a key intersection near my beach house in Malibu . If people want a creche, it's just as fine with me as is the Menorah a few hundred yards away.

I don't like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don't think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can't find it in the Constitution and I don't like it being shoved down my throat.

Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship Nick and Jessica and we aren't allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that's a sign that I'm getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where Nick and Jessica came from and where the America we knew went to.

In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it's not funny, it's intended to get you thinking.

Billy Graham's daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her "How could God let something like this happen?" (regarding Katrina) Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response.
She said, "I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we've been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?"

In light of recent events...terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O'Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn't want prayer in our schools, and we said OK .
Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school. The Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn't spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock's son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he's talking about. And we said OK.

Now we're asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don't know right from wrong, and why it doesn't bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with "WE REAP WHAT WE SOW."

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world's going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send 'jokes' through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?>>>>>>>>

Where to begin? Because I've already debated politics with these people enough in the past and have about realized it's a waste of breath, I decided to just respond to the factual merits of the forward, as there are plenty of inaccuracies. For one, half of it wasn't even written by Ben Stein. Additionally, Anne Graham's comments weren't about Katrina and Spock's son committing suicide is a lie. My sister already responded to the "prayer in school" bullshit, so I didn't feel like delving too deeply into it. Anyway, here is my response. I didn't rant nearly the way I'd like to or call out many of the ridiculous claims in the forward, but I decided to just focus on the obvious inaccuracies and hopefully avoid a major political/religious argument:

>>>>>>>>>Hello, I'm not trying to stir up anything regarding this forward either, but I wanted to point out a number of inaccuracies in it.

First, only about half of this e-mail features remarks by Ben Stein delivered on a CBS program. The portion about "Nick and Jessica" and Christmas observances was written by Stein. I am not sure who wrote the rest of the screed but it was not Ben Stein; the second half of the e-mail hardly sounds anything like the first half, so this makes sense.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/benstein2.asp

Anne Graham's comments were actually about September 11th, not Hurricane Katrina- not that that makes them any less of a deplorable thing to say.

http://www.prayerfoundation.org/billy_grahams_daughter.htm

Prayer and the reading of the Bible are permitted in public schools, as my sister made clear in her
response.

The son of Dr. Benjamin Spock never committed suicide,

http://www.snopes.com/medical/doctor/drspock.asp

and I'm not sure why, if that claim had been true, it would have been relevant anyway.>>>>>>>>>>>

Anyway, I just wanted to post this to see if anyone else had gotten this stupid forward, and to make people aware of some of the most blatant inaccuracies regarding it.

Oh yeah, while looking for information about it, I found an awesome response to the second half of it (the part that wasn't written by Ben Stein, but probably some anonymous FReeper) some guy had written in his blog:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=12879817&blogID=69273228&Mytoken=40D18EF4-D9C4-4635-BC2A28DA639E21B618575810

Hopefully he won't mind me posting it here.