I stood up to my church group and I FEEL GOOD!

[eissa]

I've mentioned this here before -- I am on my church's listserv. It's mainly for announcements, upcoming functions, etc. I genuinely like many of these people and have never had a problem with them. Well now that the election is getting into gear we've started seeing more and more political e-mails from members. And they have all been of the "Obama is the anti-Christ/Hillary is a lesbian devil" variety. I replied just once (to the famous Obama is a secret muslim e-mail) with just a link to snopes debunking it. Well, today I was just in an extra bitchy mood, so when one of those "you can't be a democrat and a christian" e-mails arrived, I fired off a reply that while still respectful, made it clear that I found these e-mails offensive and if they continued would no longer want to be part of the list. To my (pleasant) surprise, others jumped in saying the same thing! It seemed like there were quite a few of us who felt the same way but thought we were alone. The OP apologized and it looks like we not only stopped this nonsense from circulating (at least on our network) but hopefully opened up a few eyes as well. Man, that felt good! :bounce:

[Jack Sprat]

1. Good for you. More of us need to do the same.

I sacrificed a friendship in response to one of those general types of emails some time ago. I never regretted it. Keep in mind that everyone on the chain email could be a victim of email abuse, just like you. It feels good to turn them around. Reply to all when you do it, so that others can draw courage by your actions.

[Morereason]

15. Yep, came from a fundy background and know what they are capeable of I have little tolerance

anymore for the cult that worships the "Republican Jesus".

I realized some time ago that if we went into full "Neo-con Nazi" mode many of my Politically "Christian" acquaintences would be capable of lableing and killing others in the name of "Dogma and "Jesus". So I politely, but firmly, reject such ideas straight to the person's face whenever I encounter them.

I still believe in the Savior of the Bible, but not the fundamentalist cults that use His name. It has little to do with the Jesus discussed in the Bible.

[BadgerKid]

2. Well done.

I get such emails sometimes on the family and friends email list and have pointed them to Snopes, but you;ve gone the extra mile. Good for you!

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Good for you! n/t

[MadMaddie]

4. And that is how we stop it...we have let them get away with

so much because we were taught to be polite and respectful. I did the same thing on my dog walk, I called out the Republicans on the myths they believe and I may have possibly made them go research something for once.

Good for you.

[elleng]

18. You've got it!

One of Dems worst 'sins' is being too polite! (at least, in wrong places!) CALL them on it!

[SharonAnn]

30. I got our Letter to the Editor policy changed here

I complained by email and by phone call several times about the * "Astro-turf" letters that would appear in the newspaper, extolling the virtues of *. I found, by "googling" key phrases, that these were showing up in newspapers all over the US.

They told me they didn't have time to research every email and they hadn't had any complaints. So, I wrote a letter to the publisher and the editor telling them that if I could take 5 minutes and use Google to research these, so could they. After all, they're being "paid" to edit.

And I got a bunch of Democrats here to call and email to complain.

So, they published a new policy within a couple of weeks that said that if a person misrepresented a submission as their own original work and it was created from another letter or form, a response would be published in their paper explaining that the letter was fraudulent and that person would not have any further Letters to the Editor accepted.

It was amazing! The deluge stopped! And we haven't seen it for four years. Now that we're in Election Season again, we're going to have to keep a watch out for these resurfacing.

[MadMaddie]

34. Nice!!

It is amazing how lazy many of the papers and journalist have become.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. Good for you.

I've seen a very good response to the "Obama is the anti-Christ" ones here on DU, BTW. You politely point out that Mohammed was born 500 years after the Book of Revelations was written. You then let them know that even if Revelations was indeed being prophetic that a Muslim leader would be the anti-Christ, that by voting against him they are thwarting the will of God. Be sure to hit Reply All.

:evilgrin:

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. I had the same experience with anti immigration emails I was receiving

I deleted the first few without even reading them, then started reading them and got more and more irritated by the content and finally replied all and expressed my irritation. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that several other people in that email group didn't like them either.

[margotb822]

7. It's more than standing up to

your Church group. It's standing up against bigoted, ignorant ideas. It's standing up to lies and standing up for the truth. I think this definitely goes beyond just the church, but to a whole series of ideas. Good job!

[Hekate]

8. Good for you! I did that with an acquaintance--tried to be polite but said I didn't want to be told

to "sit down and shut up" which was the punch-line of her missive conflating Christianity and America. Then I asked to be removed from her list. I actually got two replies from people who really appreciated that I spoke up.

Hekate

[flamin lib]

9. One of the other delegates at our convention said that she was

timid about her political leanings because EVERYBODY was a Republican. I told her I wasn't interested in what they were, I know what I am, and if we all keep quiet they will continue to think EVERYBODY is a Republican. I'm not keeping quiet anymore. I'm not a bleeding heart liberal, I'm a FLAMING, ANGRY, SCREAMING liberal who has had two elections stolen and, NO, I will NOT get over it.

[Voice for Peace]

10. Good for you. I have also found many times that people may have private opinions

but are afraid to speak up and stand out in some way from a group. But courage begets courage in others. Thanks for the inspiring reminder.

[OregonBlue]

11. Hooray for you. That takes guts.

[donheld]

12. .

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

[Goat or Panic]

13. Snopes

and an stern tone are the only way to deal with this nonsense. Most people know these things are lies when they pass them on and will back down when called on it.


Good on you.

[JohnnyLib2]

14. Proud of you!

Looks like many of us as Democrats will be put in your position.
Thanks for this story. :kick: Rec.

[EmilyAnne]

16. AWESOME! My mother and father are in the same boat with their church. My poor mom gets the stupid

Obama is a secret muslim and his dad was an alcoholic polygamist one EVERY WEEK! Its bizarre. Anyway, they voted for Obama in the Texas primary (both times) and have gotten more and more comfortable talking about it with the people at their church. In fact, they have been able to convince many of their church members that Obama will make a great president. Sadly, they didn't have much luck with that when Kerry was running.

[Maraya1969]

17. Can you pm me the email? I posted one here and the thread got lock

and removed. I really just wanted a reply which I think are good threads but...oh well.

Anyway I would love the replies to these frigging things going around. We know there are only going to be more of them as November gets closer.

[eissa]

22. Here is my response

I hope you don't mind if I do it here so others can see. Like I said, it's not very in-your-face, but it seemed to do the job!

Hi everyone,
I love receiving church-related announcements from all of you, but I’d like to respectfully request to be omitted from anything politically-related, especially ones that I consider rather insulting as the below. Thanks for your understanding.

[truedelphi]

19. Good! Good! Good!

When my son was in High school, the principal was this guy who had gotten the post solely because of his love for the Nancy Reagan "Just say no" program.

One day at a PTA, I couldn't take it any more. After the guy went off for ten or twelve minutes on the evils of drugs and the need for kids to say no, I said, "This is so riciculous. Anyone can tell by looking at the people in your audience that we are part of the Sex and Drugs and Rock N roll generation. Our telling our kids to say no is not gonna do it. Saying yes to things that are fun is gonna mean something, but any school official that creates a wildly pointless hysteria over drugs is not going to make any type of difference."
I made a few points about good things that the school was doing, and then I sat down to this awesome silence. The PTA program continued. As everything finished for the night, people came over to me and said the equivalent of "Thank goodness someone tried to wake this Nazi up." Over the next week, other parents contacted me as well.

But i will never forget the silence in that auditorium - I remember thinking - "Oh boy now I've done it!"

[matcom]

20. "you can't be a democrat and a christian"??

last time *I* would step foot in that cess-pool

why you people surround yourselves with assholes on a regular basis is beyond me.

[SharonAnn]

31. I reply that "as a Christian, of course I'm a Democrat. I couldn't be Christian and a Republican"

[JerseygirlCT]

21. Good for you!

My church is a bit more liberal than that, but even so, I had a few moments when I needed to speak up. What pleasantly surprised me though was how many people came up to me later to thank me. Not the people I would have expected at all.

You're doing them a service, and so long as you do it in a way that keeps communication open, there really is a chance of changing minds - much, much better than just sniping back and forth. Sounds like you did just the right thing!

[Orsino]

23. Jesus shouldn't be used as a weapon...

...particularly not a hateful, vengeful fake Jesus.

[Quantess]

24. Good for you! If these obnoxious emails continue,

you might consider finding a different church.

But then, it's easy for me to say that, since I'm not a church goer.

[raccoon]

25. Good for you! nt

[Irishonly]

26. Good For You

I don't get the anti Obama ones because DOC and UCC are closely aligned and the neocons won't attack a fellow church member. I get Hillary ones though. The ones that irritate the bejabbers out of me are the Christian nation. I finally got fed up and literally wrote a research paper debunking all of the crap with references. They even got links to the Jefferson Bible. It's amazing how quickly they stopped.

Aren't you glad you found members that agree with you about the emails. I have almost wrote several times to some of the more ardent ones that I find it difficult to be a republican today and be Christian since Christ was a liberal and could be classified as a socialist to boot. Good for you again. It's about time liberal Christians started standing up for themselves and not be defined by conservatives.:applause:

[TomBall Democrat]

27. Good for you!

Check out a Unitarian Universalist congregation.

Much more tolerant group of spiritual travelers.

[EFerrari]

28. Good job! K&R

[noel711]

29. It's not just narrow church groups...

I used to get weekly emails from my sister,
who is a legal secretary for a high powered legal
partnership in Chicago.

(Apparently all the partners are flamin' lefties
who have fund raisers for Hillary, BArak,
and Al Franken!)

The hired staff get annoyed with all the pandering
and pass along every evil email they get.

I spammed the 'reply all' with a snarky rebuke
about their moronic use of the bosses time...

And I shamed them about fanning the flames of
the mindless masses who believe every one of these
stupid emails...

By the way.... this is just for general consumption...
There is absolutely NO book in the Bible named
'RevelationS..'

There is a book titled The Revelation (to St. JOhn)
but it's singular, not plural. (There was only
ONE revelation- ONE dream to JOhn)...
I can always tell if someone uses the wrong title
they obviously don't know what in hell they are
talking about..

[IowaGirl]

32. I did something similar with a poisonous family emailer and it really does..........................

make you feel righteous.:toast:

[SammyWinstonJack]

33. Why in the 21st century do humans still believe in an invisible sky being?

I don't get that? :shrug: Time to revoke your Church's tax status. Now!