I made a preacher mad at me the other day. I apologized and he forgave me, but I don’t regret what I did.

Here’s what happened.

I received an email from the man of God telling how a group of liberals is petitioning the Federal Communications Commission to end religious programming in the United States. This would stop Charles Stanley, David Jeremiah, and a whole host of religious programmers from broadcasting their messages.

The e-mail was a “forward,” of course. My friend had not written it, but merely read it with alarm and forwarded it to dozens of his friends.

I clicked on “reply all,” which sent my response to everyone who had received his note.

I said, “My dear brother, where have you been! This is a hoax! It has been around for nearly 40 years. The FCC never was petitioned to stop religious programming and couldn’t if it wanted to.”

I added, “This meaningless petition has been circling the earth for all these decades, causing gullible, although well-meaning, Christians to tie up God’s resources and their time in bombarding the FCC with thousands and thousands of pieces of mail every year.”

“Christians of all people should not pass this stuff along when they can’t verify it,” I said.

That’s how I hurt his feelings. So, I apologized.

Then, last week, that same petition arrived again.

This time, having learned my lesson, I sent along a nice short note to say that it was not true, that people can check it out on snopes or truthorfiction or any of the other hoax-busting websites.

The sweet friend who had sent it came back and explained that since it had arrived in her mailbox from a well-known and highly respected church on the East Coast, she felt it had to be authentic.

That’s the very kind of thinking that has kept this fiction alive for four decades. God’s people have more zeal for righteousness than commitment to truth, so we will pass along reports of an attack on what is good and right without checking to see if it actually is authentic.

Can you say “gullible”? Let’s be honest; that is the word.

Here is another such erroneous e-mail, if you think you can stomach this.

A close family member–we’ll call her Sue–sent one that goes like this: “On July 8, 1947, a little over 60 years ago, a UFO with 5 aliens aboard crashed onto a sheep ranch just outside Roswell, New Mexico. This is a well-known incident that many say has long been covered up by the Air Force and other federal agencies. However, what you may not be aware of is that in the month of April 1948, nine months after that historic day, the following people were born: Albert Gore, Jr., Hillary Rodham, John F. Kerry, William J. Clinton, Howard Dean, Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Charles Schumer, and Barbara Boxer.”

I replied to Sue: “I’ve seen that before, and seriously question it. For one thing, I happen to know that Nancy Pelosi is my age. Makes me wonder about the birthdates of the others.”

Well, Sue went online and found the birthdates of each of those: Gore 3-31-1948; Hillary 10-26-47; Bill Clinton 8-19-46; Kerry 12-11-43; Dean 11-17-48; Feinstein 6-22-33; Schumer 11-23-50; Boxer 11-11-40, and Pelosi 3-26-40.

She wrote, “Close only counts in horseshoes, huh?”

(Now, please notice something: Sue said these are the birthdates. But I did not check. I’m wondering about Dianne Feinstein’s, for example. Could that 1933 be a typo? Since none of our readers know who my friend Sue is, you have no way of knowing whether she simply made up these birthdates or whether they are authentic! Frustratin’, ain’t it?)

Makes you wonder what in the sam hill the originator of that little piece was thinking?

For my money, this is in the same category as a spammer.

Some person with more creativity than integrity seems to have decided, “Believe I’ll come up with something outrageous to fill the boxes of all those gullible people who read this stuff and pass it on mindlessly?”

And because we quote stuff we read as though it were the truth without checking and pass along slanderous attacks on those we disagree with without taking a moment to verify its genuineness, we play into the hands of such mean-spirited people.

No wonder outsiders think Christians are mindless. No wonder they think Conservative Christians are stupid.

Because sometimes we are.

I’m sorry. But it’s true.

Several years ago, when I told a friend that the petition against the FCC was a hoax and that the federal agency received millions of pointless petitions a year for this foolishness, she tried to defend herself. “Well, I think we’re doing good.”

I said, “How is this good?”

She answered, “We’re rousing God’s people to take action against attacks on our sacred rights. We’re letting the feds know we’re out here.”

I said, “We let them know we don’t care for truth! We are sending a message, all right, but not the kind that we ought to be proud of!”

Question everything, friend. Forward very little of it. Particularly–please!–never ever forward something that ends with, “If you are a person who cares for others, forward this to ten people.”

When I get to that place, I don’t care what it is, I hit ‘delete.’

I suggest you do the same. But it’s up to you. Use your best judgement. Which, I hope you noticed, is the point of this long article!