“Wrongdoers eagerly listen to gossip; liars pay close attention to slander.” Proverbs 17:4 NLT

About once a year I find myself sending the same message to all of my email buddies after receiving another email that is viraly spreading gossip and lies, reminding them to check things out before they click that forward button.  The problem is that we don’t even think about it much.  We read something that sounds like a legitimate warning and we want to share it, so we send it on.  Some people are not going to like what I have to say, but in reality, we often are doing more harm than good, even if the information is valid.

You probably never thought of it as gossip.

Many people don’t know any better, or just don’t stop to consider that this email has been forwarded over and over.  Each time another 10 to 15 email addresses are added to the thread.  Malicious programs are trolling cyberspace looking for large lists of email addresses to collect.  We add to the problem of spam when we do not take steps to protect our buddies and their buddies by using BCC (blind carbon copy) or just deleting the previous lists of addresses before we click send.

These programs and the people who create them are taking advantage of the fact that most of us will jump on the bandwagon when we read an emotional story or highly charged warning, and share that gossip with as many people as we can.  It is human nature.  When we do, we are helping the enemy to do his work, totally unaware, actually thinking we are doing a good thing.  Many of these bogus emails become so viral they achieve the status of urban legend and continue to spread for months or years.

Snopes.com has become a well know leader in exposing these urban legends, and does exhaustive research to clarify which are truth, which are lies, and which are gossip.  So why do I receive so many of these bogus emails that cite Snopes.com as the source for their legitimacy?  When I go to the Snopes URL referenced in the email, I find that it is just gossip.

Friends, DO ME A FAVOR, PLEASE… Don’t click the link!  Anyone can embed anything in the text and make a dangerous link to a virus look like a link to Snopes.com, but do go to www.Snopes.com and type the subject line or a line from the email into the search box on Snopes.  Nine times out of ten (or more), you will find the entire gossip email you received posted word for word on Snopes.  That does not mean that it is true.  Scroll down past the text and read the comments.  Many are based on some small truth, or were true in 2007, but not anymore.  Do the research and stop spreading the gossip.

Just yesterday I received an email from 3 different people with a subject line that read CAR AIR-CONDITIONING – VERY IMPORTANT!  It went on to tell me that especially in the summer, poisonous gas was leeching from the plastic in my car when it sat in the sun, and that if I turned on the A/C without opening the windows and airing the car out first, I would breath in mass quantities of carcinogens.  You can read the email, and see the truth at   http://www.snopes.com/medical/toxins/benzene.asp. They are so far apart that it really made me think…

What a great way to spread whatever mis-information is to my benefit.  Disguise it as a warning sent with the best intentions and it can spread like wildfire!  I could squash a competitor’s product like a bug.  The right gossip could change the outcome of an election, convict an innocent man, or free a guilty one.  It only has to sound true, and there are enough good writers around to make that happen with little effort.

And that brings me to the next kind of gossip spread in email messages…

Sign this petition and send it to EVERYONE in your address book.  Just add your name to the bottom of the list and forward it to everyone you know.  If you are number 500 send it back to somebody@something.com.  Now stop and think for a minute. If I sent it to 10 people then my name is on the petition 10 times.  Is somebody@something.com sorting this list for duplicates?  They may be raising awareness for a cause, but more likely they are collecting email addresses to send you more spam.  If you want to support the cause, find a legitimate organization soliciting support on a valid website.  Again, do your research instead of spreading gossip and rumors.

Upon close examination, you will find that much of the seemingly well intended email you receive is filled with gossip, rumors, and lies.  It is designed to make masses of people believe something that is not true, and as surely as Satan is laughing at how easy we are to fool, it is working to dumb our society down into little more than sheeple who will follow anyone that speaks what they want to hear with more than a little charisma.  (I am tempted, but I won’t name names.)

We must guard our integrity.  Take responsibility for the written word you spread as seriously as for the words you speak.  As the definition of relationship changes to include cyber relationships, our reach is extended and our power to spread gossip and untruth increases, with potentially devastating consequences.  Think first, and use delete when you are not certain of the facts.

Blessings & Adventure,

Lynn “lynnibug” Rios

Proverbs 16:28 (NLT)

“A troublemaker plants seeds of strife; gossip separates the best of friends.”

Let the gossip stop with you.

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