I remember, as a child, receiving a chain letter in the mail, though it was addressed to my parents. I don't remember, perhaps it was anonymous. But one thing I remember is that it was very gray like it had been photo-copied many times. It stated that it was important to send copies of this letter to, say, five or ten other people. It said that, if one don't do this, there would be a curse. So, to avoid this curse, one had to copy and re-send this letter.
Nowadays, I receive emails from some well-meaning people, Christians, about issues that are alarming. Some of these issues are: religious freedoms being lost, malware in cyberspace, and other political and social issues. Usually at the end of the letter, there is a call for people to re-send this email to all their email contacts. Though there is not a curse warning, there is an urgency for people to share this information to their friends. When one gets this letter, there is implied guilt if one doesn't go ahead forward this information with their email contacts.
Unfortunately, many times this information is bogus; sometimes it is dated and no longer true. I have learned by experience that if the subject is about the FCC making religious broadcasting illegal, or about a particular malware that will destroy the contents of ones computer hard drive, or about some miracle cure, or another political/social issue that seems incredible, maybe this deserves an inquiry first. Why do people forward emails like this without wondering if it is true? Maybe, they trust it because it came from a friend.
However, a true friend would check out the facts in the information first. One way to do that is to take some or all of the letter, and copy/paste it into a search engine such as google. In the search results, there might be a reference to some web sites that check out the veracity of the claims in the email. Sites such as http://www.snopes.com/ evaluate the truthfulness of the facts in the email. Anyone who deals with the Internet needs to be weary of Urban Legends. These are stories regarding issues, that if unchecked, are nothing more than gossip.
Imagine the embarrassment of one who finds out the email he/she sent on was found out to be false. Well, imagine the denial, then. If more people check out to see if such emails are true, then more people might guard their reputations and check out to see if they're true, too. Especially for Christians, who represent Christ, who is Truth, isn't it important to present truth in ordinary life.
