Comments on: “Worth Remembering”

By: Erin

Erin — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 03:41:44 +0000

Amen! I too don’t understand how the religious convictions of the nation’s founders affects a person’s own faith. Nor do I understand the modern connection between politics and religion- yeah, we get it, you hate abortion. And with all of this, why do they need such external validation if their belief is so strong? I guess I would hate knowing half of everything I was taught was crap also (i.e. intelligent design, literal interpretation of the Bible, 6000 year old Earth…)

By: hooboy

hooboy — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 15:36:19 +0000

As for the first Patrick Henry “quote”, see the full context in his speech from the Second Virginia Convention, the “transcript” of which was actually recreated decades later. The “quote” in the email omits, without any ellipses or other indication, key clauses that give practical meaning to Henry’s rhetorical invocations of God.

By: Freeman

Freeman — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 23:10:47 +0000

I get these from my family all the time. The most recent one, about 6 months ago as I recall (pre-”surge”), claimed that things are going extrememly well in Iraq, though un-reported, and that Christianity is booming in popularity there, especially the Northern Kurdish areas, with many Muslims converting and churches being built. Oh, by the way, the WMD’s have been found in Syria as well.

It’s a waste of time to try to reason with people who NEED to believe this stuff.

By: Larry Jones

Larry Jones — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 20:20:38 +0000

Whew! Lucky you didn’t send that reply, or there would have been some damned uncomfortable Thanksgiving dinners with the folks. But it seems to me that passing along this type of email is a little like slapping a “Support the Troops” bumper sticker on your car. It’s an easy, meaningless gesture that aligns you with the “right” side — provided you and the people you send it to don’t think much about what’s right or wrong.

Who knows why it’s important to some people to think the U.S. was and should be a “Christian” nation? But my guess is there’s a big overlap between those people and the ones who still think Saddam Hussein blew up the World Trade Center.

By: Dr. Pants

Dr. Pants — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 16:53:25 +0000

I enjoyed the myth-busting there, but I knew the point of the e-mail after the first paragraph:

“Vote Jesus! Not the stuff he actually said, but the stuff we use to make it seem like hate is OK and freedom is bad. Support your hypocritical politicians! Huzzah!”

By: josephdietrich

josephdietrich — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 09:59:58 +0000

You know, I used to do this; get e-mails like this from my relatives and compose long responses debunking them. It’s cathartic. I would even send them sometimes, if upon re-reading them they didn’t turn out to be too insulting.

One of my favorite ones was an e-mail about Coca-Cola, which claimed that the soft drink would dissolve a nail if said nail were left in a glass of it overnight. My father sent me that one. On my next visit we did a little experiment involving one glass of Coke and a carpentry nail, and that was that.

Still, after a while I just started deleting them unread. I guess the stupidity wears you down after a bit.

Anyway, reading this reminded me of that. It was entertaining. I guess I should have thought to publish them for the world to see (although I doubt my letters were nearly as thorough).

By: Vitaliy V

Vitaliy V — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 05:24:15 +0000

Wow, what a great read. It’s amazing how with just a bit of research you’ve debunked that stupid chain letter and all of it’s half-truths. :)

By: Joshua

Joshua — Wed, 25 Jul 2007 05:21:09 +0000

55 signers of the Declaration of Independence? There are 56 signatures on the Declaration of Independence. I assume that they are omitting Charles Carroll of Maryland since he was a Catholic. That leaves two Quakers and two Unitarians according to Adherents.com. The four Quakers and Unitarians add up to three Christians. I am quite sure that the 3/5ths Compromise in the Constitution does not apply to Quakers and Unitarians.

Most of these mis(quotes) come from “The Myth Of Separation” by David Barton. There is a good article on their validity here