My response to one of those stupid chain emails..

[Minimus]

My bosses wife sent me the ACLU email and as usual I hit the REPLY ALL button and sent this response to 20+ religious right wingers:


Since my father was in the military for 25 years and I have a niece currently serving in the Navy, as well as a nephew who is right now on his second deployment in Iraq, I am an avid supporter of our troops.

I am also an avid supporter of the truth and have discovered that the majority of these chain e-mails are usually falsehoods. This one is no exception. So for those that believe the truth shall set you free, here it is:

The supposed reaction of the ACLU and the response from a Marine spokesman are total fabrications.

The current U.S. Marines Commandant of the Corps (CMC) is General Michael M. Hagee. There is no mention of this incident or this statement on his web site, nor is there any reference to a spokesperson for the CMC by the name "Colonel Jack Fessender."
Further, the ACLU has issued a statement in response to this chain letter in which they state "we have no knowledge of this event nor have we ever had a spokesperson by the name of Lucius Traveler."

Also as Christians determined to make sure your religion is protected, you should know that the ACLU represents individuals and they would only get involved if a soldier objected to being ordered to pray in a manner that was contrary to his or her personal beliefs.

PERSONAL BELIEFS Now I find that interesting. I don't know about the rest of you, but I would not want to be made to pray in a way that is against my personal beliefs.

Surely you realize that even within Christianity, there are many ways to pray. For example: Catholics kneel and genuflect, Pentecostals may speak in tongues, practice faith healing, and even handle snakes, Quakers may sit in silent contemplation. All are Christians yet they have very different approaches of expressing their personal beliefs. They all pray and rejoice Jesus Christ in the manner they choose. This choice is given to us through the freedom allowed by our great country as well as organizations like the ACLU that protect individual rights.

In my opinion chain e-mails, such as this one, serve no good purpose other than to continue to divide our country. No matter our personal beliefs, I think we all have the same basic desire for peace and for truth.

I know that I will continue to seek the truth when a chain e-mail comes my way before I hit the forward button.

p.s. At the end of the prayer it says "Of all the gifts you could give a US Soldier, Sailor, Airman, Marine & others deployed in harm's way, Prayer is the very best one.

Praying is good but I believe the best gift you can give our troops is proper protection. My sister bought my nephew's $1,500 body armor for his first deployment last year. Unfortunately many servicemen and women do not have the resources to buy their own armor and there are many, even now, that are in Iraq without proper protection.

After you finish praying, contact your state's Senate and Congress and ask what needs to be done to get proper protection to our troops. Supporting the troops does require more effort than just putting a yellow ribbon magnet on your car.

END

For Duer's not familiar with this particular e-mail it has a picture of soldiers bowing their heads and asks "What is wrong with this picture?"

The email says:

If you look closely at the picture above, you will note that all the Marines pictured are bowing their heads. That's because they're
praying. This incident took place at a recent ceremony honoring the birthday of the corps, and it has the ACLU up in arms. "These are federal employees," says Lucius Traveler, a spokesman for the ACLU, "on federal property and on federal time. For them to pray is clearly an establishment of religion, and we must nip this in the bud immediately."

When asked about the ACLU's charges, Colonel Jack Fessender, speaking for the Commandant of the Corps said (cleaned up a bit), "Screw the ACLU." GOD Bless Our Warriors, Send the ACLU to France.

Please send this to people you know so everyone will know how
stupid the ACLU is Getting in trying to remove GOD from everything and every place in America. May God Bless America, One Nation Under GOD!
What's wrong with the picture? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING GOD BLESS YOU FOR PASSING IT ON!
I am sorry but I am not breaking this one.....Let us pray Prayer chain for our Military...please don't break it.

[Warren DeMontague]

1. godhateschainmail.com n/t

[The Witch]

2. bravo, well done, great fact-finding.

rec'd.

[linazelle]

22. ditto. bookmarking this for future use. n/t

[lcordero2]

3. chain e-mails?

I don't get them too often. My first response is that this is the first and last time that I will be sent a chain letter for any reason. The friendship WILL effectively end should I be sent another one.

[yorkiemommie1]

11. that's what i did

someone sent me a chain email urging me to vote for * ' as if my life depended on it' and i responded that i was voting against * BECAUSE my life depended on it.

that didn't stop ; she sent another one. and then I blasted her.

she followed up w/ some joke email and i never responded. funny, she has two young grandsons and a daughter who could enlist but she is a bushbot anyway.

[IN-dem]

4. Great post...nominated it. nt

[Pool Hall Ace]

5. Good job! There are too many gullible people who take these

crappy e-mails as gospel. :applause:

[tocqueville]

6. the best way to deal with that crap is to use anti-spam software

it puts all the senders to an international spam blacklist. Which means that if they want to transfer the message they'll get 20 "responses" of non-existent (cloaked IPs). They won't even notice in most cases, but the crap is efficiently silenced.

[qnr]

7. Lucius Traveler? Now if I were gullible, I'd be thinking "Lucifer" and

"Fellow Traveler."


Edit: Hmmmm... Technically, I *am* thinking those, so I suppose I'm gullible.

[mzteris]

8. Most eloquently put

Minimus.......

Hopefully at least some of the people who received your response will reflect and rethink their knee-jerk opinions.

[Agnomen]

9. nominated

I admire your eloquence.

[mcscajun]

10. Extremely well done! Bravo!

Somebody had to break the chain, and you did it beautifully.

:applause:

And this was perfect, and long overdue, I'm sure, for many in the chain:

"After you finish praying, contact your state's Senate and Congress and ask what needs to be done to get proper protection to our troops. Supporting the troops does require more effort than just putting a yellow ribbon magnet on your car."

Hit 'em where they live! Yee-ha!

[Liberal In Texas]

12. "Traveler" is an old code word for Communist. Lucius, I suppose, is to

make one think Lucifer.

Nice response, you have more patience than I have with this tripe.

[pitohui]

13. wow

i have just read the best response ever to a chain email

well done

Praying is good but I believe the best gift you can give our troops is proper protection. My sister bought my nephew's $1,500 body armor for his first deployment last year.

you & your sister are true heroes & supporters

[OnionPatch]

14. Just had to post

to comment on what an absolutely perfect response that was! That was really eloquent.

[Scoots]

15. Self deleted, it's a bit off topic

[Vinnie From Indy]

16. well done!

n/t

[alfredo]

17. Reply all, debunking the e-mail (with links) I then ask them

to think about why the religious right and Republican party continually send out such false propaganda to their followers. I then ask them why are they trying to engender hatred for their fellow Americans. A favorite question: Do they think you are stupid enough to fall for such obvious lies?


I then tell them to fact check before forward such things. Spreading falsehoods make one look like a fool.

[DelawareValleyDem]

18. Send the snopes link too

http://www.snopes.com/politics/religion/cemetery.asp

[seabeyond]

19. did you get any emails back? interested n/t

[Minimus]

20. I will find out Monday when I go to the office and will let you know.

I have pissed people off in the past by doing the REPLY ALL. I get e-mails saying "who are you and why am on your e-mail list?" or "please remove me from your e-mail list immediately". Some people just do not have a clue.

My goal is to get people to stop forwarding me idiotic chain mail. I have also used the "I'm trying to save you from looking like an idiot if you forward this crap" method.

My RW sister finally quit sending me the crap after I kept sending my REPLY ALL to her friends, coworkers and in-laws, etc. I always added a personal note to my sister and ended it with "Love You Sis." :evilgrin:

Now if I can just get her to quit sending me those chain e-mails that say "If you do not forward this to 15 people something bad will happen to you!" :eyes:

[seabeyond]

21. i get the pathectic god i need god i am so desperate for god

emails. my brother sends me all his JESUS...... jesus is suffering, you are sinner. pray, baby pray hard....... and jesus will feel loved; type posts. they are so sad.

i keep reading thru and thinking, so sad, these people are so desperate, when i look at my life my family and friends the beauty and love all around, christ conscious, i think, what are you so desperate and afraid about.

to email em all back,. say dont be so desperate. i have to just let it go.