Prayers with Threats

Today I received two emails with prayers to pray.  Both emails gave instructions to pray the prayer and then forward to ten other people if the prayer was to be effective.  One promised that if I followed the instructions I would receive enough money to pay off my bills.  I receive several of these type of emails each week; some of them even have angels that will come to my assistance!  In each case I delete them for the following reasons:

1.  It concerns me greatly that people would forward me these prayers.  Evidently because I am a minister they think that I would be interested.  I regret that they perceive me as the type of minister who would be interested in such nonsense.  It may also be that they simply follow the instructions hoping that somehow there would be some truth in the email they themselves received.  I suspect that some people simply forward these to everyone on their email address book.  I DO NOT WANT TO BE IDENTIFIED WITH THIS TYPE OF PRAYER.

2.  This sort of email is akin to chain letters which carry a threat that something will or will not happen unless you send it on.  This definitely plays on the fears and emotions of people.  I DO NOT WANT MY NAME OR EMAIL TO BE IDENTIFIED AS THREATING TO THE WEAK AND UNSUSPECTING.

3.  These email letters make we wonder about the spirituality of those sending them.  Their faith, it seems to me, is closer to voodooism than to historic Christianity.  Evidently they believe there is something spooky about God.  The God I serve, and the Christ of Christianity, is far removed from such, I believe.  These emails reveal persons of superstition rather than persons of faith.  I WANT MY FAITH TO BE BUILT ON MORE THAN SUPERSTITION AND FOLK THEOLOGY.

4.  For someone who is not a Christian to receive these emails further alienates them from the faith.  In their minds what they suspected all along is really true…Christianity attracts the “kooks.”  I DO NOT WANT TO BE IDENTIFIED WITH THE ‘KOOKS.”

Yours, but not for a “Kooky” faith,