{"id":1229,"date":"2003-05-07T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2003-05-07T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/07\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/"},"modified":"2013-01-30T16:00:22","modified_gmt":"2013-01-30T21:00:22","slug":"touched-by-an-urban-legend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/","title":{"rendered":"Touched by an urban legend"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Did you know NASA scientists proved that God really made the sun stand still just like it says in the book of Joshua?<\/p>\n\n

Have you responded to the urgent prayer appeal from Mrs. Fatima Abass Yakubu Idris, the wealthy Nigerian widow cancer victim who wants to donate $7.2 million to your church?<\/p>\n\n

Did you hear about the upcoming movie in which Jesus and his disciples are gay?<\/p>\n\n

Surely you\u2019ve seen this email bulletin: \u201cCBS will be forced to discontinue \u2018Touched by an Angel\u2019 for using the word God in every program.\u201d Now, the disciples of atheist Madalyn Murray O\u2019Hair have \u201cbeen granted a federal hearing on the same subject by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in Washington D.C. Their petition, Number 2493, would ultimately pave the way to stop the reading of the gospel of our Lord and Savior, on the airwaves of America.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

It\u2019s hard to believe that after 30 years and 30 million letters to the FCC, this false report continues to haunt pulpits, pews and the Internet.<\/p>\n\n

Believe it. The O\u2019Hair, FCC and \u201cTouched by an Angel\u201d email is back in the top 10 at the San Fernando Valley Folklore Society\u2019s sprawling \u201curban legends\u201d site (www.snopes.com<\/a>). And with the Angels era ending at CBS, Cathy Holden is bracing herself for more right-wing email blaming the show\u2019s demise on a vast left-wing conspiracy.<\/p>\n\n

This will all end up in a revised entry at www.TruthMiners.com<\/a>, her website that strives to convince other conservative Christians that passing along half-truths, scams and urban legends is not a doctrinally sound thing to do. Her niche-audience page includes 100 of the most common emails and links to larger secular research sites.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThis story will not die. I mean, \u2018Touched by an Angel\u2019 has been on for nine years,\u201d she said. \u201cAnybody who reads a newspaper knows that everybody who\u2019s involved says it\u2019s time to end the show. But people who send these emails don\u2019t read newspapers. Then they get an email about that atheist O\u2019Hair lady and they say, \u2018That\u2019s it!\u2019<\/p>\n\n

\u201cYou just want to tell them, \u2018Get over it. Go on with your life.\u2019 \u201c<\/p>\n\n

Holden became fascinated with urban legends when she helped a Baptist church outside Orlando start its website. The minute she signed on the junk emails rolled in, including a new incarnation of the O\u2019Hair report. It took five minutes online to dig up the truth.<\/p>\n\n

The church lady who forwarded the rumor said she did it for fun. What\u2019s the harm?<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI said, \u2018Wait just a minute. I just told you this is a lie and you don\u2019t care?\u2019 \u2026 Ever since, I\u2019ve been trying to get people to realize that a lie is a lie. This is not harmless. People get hurt. Christians have to believe truth matters,\u201d said Holden.<\/p>\n\n

The O\u2019Hair story originally was read in pulpits, shared at prayer meetings and printed on church mimeograph machines. Now people simply click \u201cforward\u201d and their email goes global.<\/p>\n\n

Most of these messages take two forms \u2014 outrage and inspiration. A major theme is that mainstream media hide the truth, said Holden.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s that vast conspiracy out there \u2026 and it\u2019s keeping us from hearing all of the really bad stuff that our enemies are doing. The media also keep us from hearing any inspiring stories about good things that are happening. All that gets covered up, too. So we have to pass on these stories by email in order to beat the conspiracy. You see?\u201d<\/p>\n\n

So untraceable stories spread about President Bush leaving a reception line to evangelize a teen-ager, a pastor\u2019s wife preaching to passengers on the doomed Alaskan Airlines Flight 261 and a little girl\u2019s testimony converting actor John Wayne. The list goes on and on.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe bigger the story the more we like it,\u201d said Holden. \u201cWe can be really syrupy, sappy people and we tend to fall for things that grab our heartstrings. It\u2019s all about our feelings. \u2026 My ultimate hope is that if we can get people to care about what is going on in their Internet lives, then this new concern about truth may actually spread into other parts of their lives at home and at work and at church. Wouldn\u2019t that be interesting?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Did you know NASA scientists proved that God really made the sun stand still just like it says in the book of Joshua? Have you responded to the urgent prayer appeal from Mrs. Fatima Abass Yakubu Idris, the wealthy Nigerian widow cancer victim who wants to donate $7.2 million to your church? Did you hear […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[341,431,458,896],"class_list":["post-1229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-evangelicalism","tag-hollywood","tag-internet","tag-urban-legends"],"yoast_head":"\nTouched by an urban legend<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Did you know NASA scientists proved that God really made the sun stand still just like it says in the book of Joshua?Have you responded to the urgent\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Touched by an urban legend\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Did you know NASA scientists proved that God really made the sun stand still just like it says in the book of Joshua?Have you responded to the urgent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Terry Mattingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2003-05-07T12:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-01-30T21:00:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/\",\"name\":\"Touched by an urban legend\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2003-05-07T12:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-01-30T21:00:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"Did you know NASA scientists proved that God really made the sun stand still just like it says in the book of Joshua?Have you responded to the urgent\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2003\/05\/touched-by-an-urban-legend\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Touched by an urban legend\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/\",\"name\":\"Terry Mattingly\",\"description\":\"On Religion\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. 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