| forwarding e-mails | | Date Created: Nov 14, 2006, 07:01 AM |
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This weekend, someone I love very much forwarded an e-mail message she'd received. It was about the modesty of true heroes. It told of great valor during war-time as displayed in particular by two men who were famous to American baby-boomers as children's TV presenters.
The stories were touching, even inspirational.
They were also untrue.
A little research and I found out. The guy who was supposed to have distinguished himself at the WW2 Battle for Iwo Jima had, in fact, not made it into active combat service by that time. And the other, supposedly a special ops Navy 'Seal', had never even served in the military at all.
Touching, but fiction. It occurred to me that this is how non-believers like Richard Dawkins regard the gospel. Touching, inspirational, but lies. It occurred to me that I've sometimes been complicit in this -- I've got enough postmodern attitude that I can sometimes make it sound as though what's really most important is the power of story. Although I believe with all my heart & mind that the Story is true, I can play down the importance of that. But, it's crucial, of course. A powerful and touching story about a god isn't good enough.
I've also resolved not to forward such e-mails myself without checking the facts. If the world can accuse me of sending out touching but verifiable false, stories about Captain Kangaroo -- if I'm that kind of person -- why should they believe my stories about Jesus, who is much harder to verify historically?
Christians need to have the reputation of being people who check things out before repeating them, not the reputation of being gullible conduits. |
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