Friday, January 13, 2006

PLEASE SIGN AND FORWARD

Still very busy but needed to pass this on. I received an email from a college student with the subject:

PLEASE SIGN SCHOOL PETITION AND FORWARD

I was interested to see what kind of petition I was supposed to sign and discovered the following text:

PETITION TO REINSTATE PRAYER IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Agree or Delete: Instructions to sign are at the bottom.
PETITION FOR PRES. BUSH

Following that was a list of 1839 names from all over the country.

As a firm believer that real prayer was not and cannot be removed from public schools, and consequently cannot be “reinstated,” I was not moved to add my name to the list and then forward it to a few thousand of my closest friends. But I was struck by the following dire warning that showed up at the end of the list of names.

If you don't forward the petition and just stop it, we will lose all these names. If you do not want to sign it, please forward it to everyone you know. Thank you!!!
To add your name, click on "forward". You will be able to add your name at the bottom of the list and then forward it to your friends.
THE 2,000TH PERSON SEND IT ON TO THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL ADDRESS  President@white.gov

“If you do not want to sign it, please forward it to everyone you know. Thank you.” I give them points for being polite and points for shear audacity, but just how stupid do they think I am? That, by the way, is a rhetorical answer which does not require a response.

What a temptation, all I have to do is not forward this message and all 1839 names of well-meaning but woefully misguided people will be lost. But upon further examination I saw that the sender had included six other names. It would be just my luck that one of them will sign and forward it.  It was interesting to see who was on the list.

One is from a baptist college
One is from a catholic college
One is probably a nurse, might be wrong but nurse_2b06@____  seems like a sure thing
One works for the OK state tax commission
One works for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Indian Health Service
And one is only identified as smilelady70

All of them and me is an interesting group. I wonder if there is a way we could get together to discuss this issue.  Alas, I don’t see how it can be done without mining the list for addresses which I consider to be the unforgiveable sin.

2 comments:

Stephen Thomas said...

I am actually responding to a post that you wrote some months ago, but figured you wouldn't see this unless I posted it here. I found your blog after seeing a comment you made at Wade Burleson's blog. I skimmed through your articles, and I noticed you blogged about the fundies and makin' babies ("Spin those babies, SBC"). I have recently written something about the same thing (http://leovinus.blogspot.com/). It burns me up. Btw, I'm a Texan Baptist. I used to call myself a Moderate, but now I call myself nothing because both sides irritate me. However, I am anti-fundie enough that your comment at the other blog caught my eye. Wee-ha.

sepherim said...

Stephen,
Although I don't share your respect for Mohler, I appreciate your comments on what, hopefully, is the worst of his pronouncements. I am still struggling with his "war is peace" claims. I find him to be opinionated, sloppy in his exegesis, and at times almost deliberately deceitful. As a graduate of another SBC seminary, I used to have a great deal of respect for Southern and its graduates, but with him as president and Russell Moore as dean I can no longer take seriously anything that comes out of Louisville except basketball.

Re. Cinderella. I often wondered why the wizardry of Disney was acceptable to the previous generation but the wizardry of Harry Potter is not. Now I see that our parents were all hoodwinked by Walt and his boys who hid the deeper meaning from them. At least in the Lion King they were upfront about sex.

Re. Your discussion with Steve Lemke, I find his reasoning to be just as convoluted now as it was in graduate seminars. Fortunately, most of the best of that era of graduates are at Baptist colleges and universities and not under the direct thumb of the SBC.

Re. Moderation, I always thought it was a good thing, but never saw it as a goal to aspire toward. Since one's identification on the liberal/conservative scale is totally dependent on whether the person you are engaging is to the left or right of you, I try to avoid those kinds of labels. I will proudly admit that I am, and God willing, always will be one of the liberals that the fundies are so afraid of. But many of my friends from other faith groups still consider me to be their token conservative.