Unbiblical Spamming

[Nan]

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the correct forum, but here goes:
Do any of you have a nice way of telling the people who email you that knowing Jesus does NOT depend upon whether you:

1. "Forward this email to 10 of your friends".
2. "Say (whatever words they send you) and your phone will ring, your doorbell will sound, or you will receive something you have been praying for".
3. "You will have 'good luck' if you follow the instructions sent to you."
4." The more friends you forward this email to the more 'luck' you will receive."

and the most annoying of all:
5. "If you love Jesus you will forward this email to (whatever number of
people they pick). You don't love Jesus if you delete this or break the 'chain'."

Most of these emails are coming from people I know and love. I don't open emails from people or places I don't know. How do I get people to stop sending these time-consuming and ridiculous emails to me? I never forward them on to other people. I feel a Christian's time is better used in encouraging others with love and compassion backed up with prayer and Biblical application. I also enjoy getting humorous and inspiring emails, but I DO NOT believe in "luck". Anybody have suggestions on how to get this across without hurting someone's feelings?

 

[ladylovesJesus]

I have the same problem there nan, as I get lots of these emails from my friends saying the same things and I no longer forward them onto other friends. I get so many spam emails from those I do not know now too.

We need some wisdom as I do not like the ones who talk about luck or wishes.

Will have to pray over this one to see how we can tell them without hurting their feelings.

God bless :rainbow: :rose:

 

[Nan]

Thank you for responding so quickly, Lady. I agree this is a touchy subject. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, and only God can lead us in the right way to touch hearts but touch them gently.

 

[sunshine307]

Nan, I don't like these emails either and never reply to them or forward them. I just tell people I don't answer them and they would be best not to send them in case I stop opening any of the emails they send me and I miss something important. When it comes down to it, would you rather offend man or God (as these emails are not speaking the truth)?

 

[Dreamer]

Me too. This is not scriptural---this "bad luck" or "good luck" stuff. God is not magic, He is omnipotent. I never reply to these types of fowards, in fact, I encouraged one of my friends who sends these to join talk Jesus and learn about the real Jesus.

 

[LeGu]

Just thank them, but tell that you by principle never participate in chain letters of any kind.

 

[Chad]

I agree with you 100% Nan. I hate these emails, they are ridiculous, annoying and actually childish in a certain way. As others mentioned, "luck" is garbage. Luck is for losers. Jesus is for believers.

I get these emails everyday and delete them. I have no problem telling the senders to get me off their list. I can't do anything to prevent them of being hurt if they decide to feel that way. I have my right to stop receiving junk and lies, especially those combing Jesus and "luck" in some cheap promise.

 

[Adonai]

Yikes! Uh, hello!?
I haven't been here since forever and things have changed! Hope I'm doing this right.

Just want to say that I agree 100% with Nan, and feel this is a real problem too. What I did, was "spam" back to everybody that had been sending these to me, as well as to most of the group that I do forward things to, and just let them know that I considered these to be blasphemous and unbiblical, and that I was offended by them, and would they please stop.

Well, it slowed things down, but didn't really stop it. Some replied to me that they agreed, some quit sending me anything, and several still send them, but with a disclaimer that they don't believe (whatever it says) but they still wish me well.

I usually just delete them now, but occasionally I will clean it up (ie delete all the garbage about good luck, etc.) and send on the "meat" of the message because I thought it was interesting, edifying, or enjoyable.

Anyway, thanks for voicing one of my more annoying pet peeves.

 

[Chad]

Yikes! Uh, hello!?
I haven't been here since forever and things have changed! Hope I'm doing this right.

Just want to say that I agree 100% with Nan, and feel this is a real problem too. What I did, was "spam" back to everybody that had been sending these to me, as well as to most of the group that I do forward things to, and just let them know that I considered these to be blasphemous and unbiblical, and that I was offended by them, and would they please stop.

Well, it slowed things down, but didn't really stop it. Some replied to me that they agreed, some quit sending me anything, and several still send them, but with a disclaimer that they don't believe (whatever it says) but they still wish me well.

I usually just delete them now, but occasionally I will clean it up (ie delete all the garbage about good luck, etc.) and send on the "meat" of the message because I thought it was interesting, edifying, or enjoyable.

Anyway, thanks for voicing one of my more annoying pet peeves.

That's really strange. Why bother sending them if they don't believe in what the email message says?

:shock:

 

[SpiritLedEd]

Nan, I agree. These messages are annoying and unscriptural. Also something that concerns me is that these messages never originate with the persons who forward them to me. And I suspect that many times the person who forwards it to me doesn't know the originator, which makes me wonder what kind of computer viruses might be hiding in these messages, ready to assail the hard drives of people who open them.

SLE

 

[Janette]

Simple steps to splatting spam

This is really not a "light" issue. People think it's "OK" because the "actual message" in the email is pious. They don't understand that, by definition, something that demands you disobey the Lord God cannot be pious. And that is exactly what these letters demand that you do.

We do not worship luck. We are not commanded by fate. We are Christians. Luck is a concept for atheists, fate (as a personified force) is a pagan idea.

---

If you're conflicted about sharing something nifty vs. passing on spam, get a blog. There are blogs all over the Internet and most if not all of them are free. Send your friends a nice notification that you have a blog for the purpose of sharing nifty things. Add the things you wish to share (or at least a URL for them). Problem solved.

So...

1) Receive spam.

2) Deliberately break the chain.

3) Make note of the first bit of "good luck" you got anyway, or note that you still love Jesus or that you did not receive any specific bad luck, etc.

4) Use the email header to find the addresses to send an email back up the chain (I'm ... persistant ... enough to go up a chain of 200 people) that makes note of the following:

"Your letter prophecied that I would <insert whatever the chain letter said here>. However, this did not happen (or this other thing happened instead). Therefore the prophecy in this letter (and probably all like it) is false.

"Then the LORD said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. (Jerimiah 14:14, emphasis mine)"

"I know you think you forwarded the message in this letter in good faith, but please stop, lest the devil use you to forward more lies. Even a lie that describes a pious thing is still a lie."

5) If you receive more spam from this person another day, block them. In the face of Scripture they are being willfully disobedient to God and disrespectful to you. We are told in such cases to kick the dust from our sandals....

 

[ladylovesJesus]

The other thing which really annoys me is when friends who are Christians send me emails especially the forwarded ones which have lots of names on them. I asked them nicely to put my name in BCC so that my email address is hidden and does not go out. Only 1 person was good enough to respect my request. It is not a hard thing to use the BCC instead of CC.

I even started to send out emails to friends to protect them from having their names shown, by putting my address in the To: box so that the email goes to me and my friends are all included together in BCC.

I send out daily devotions to them and thought this would be the best way to do this for their benefit too.

God bless :rainbow: :rose:

 

[Stylez4Christ]

Luck and wishes and magical stuff sound a bit like a witchcrft even I say I wish on things but that on the email don't sound right at all:embarasse

 

[trulyblezzed]

Hello Sister

I suggest that you just be blunt with it. I'm a true believer that it's not what you say, it's how you say it. When one of the girls in my Bible study send something to me like that, I send something to them back saying "thank you for your sweet message, but God's love is a lot stronger than an email so He's not going to disown me or you for not sending this message on. Also, you're not gaining anything by sending this message because the bible says that God blesses those who are obedient and we need to do a lot more than just send emails "

So I say you just be blunt with it and explain WHY it's pointless to send the emails Also, it's our responsibility as Christians to tell others when they are doing something that goes against God

 

[SpiritLedEd]

I received a message from one of the urban legends sites suggesting that we not click "unsubscribe" to be deleted from spammers' lists. It said that when you click "unsubscribe", you are probably showing your address to other spammers that they are connected with.

The best thing to do is click "Report as Spam" or "Delete".

SLE

 

[ladylovesJesus]

Very true as when you click on unsubsribe it proves that your email address is active. I was told that awhile back. Now I just delete the spam folder on yahoo after viewing what the titles are and who has sent them. If I do not know the person it is deleted without me opening it.

I had an email today about Jesus walking the earth and they wanted me to pass it on.

God bless :rainbow: :rose: