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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

It is unreasonable to expect a friend not to send me this in an email?

102 replies

delphinedownunder · 07/09/2010 04:18

I have been sent this in an email by a christian friend. I am not religious at all (and she knows it) and I work fulltime. It feels like a personal dig and I am deeply offended by its content - especially the stuff about headaches, music (Christian music - yikes - spare me) and good causes. Who reads and believes this nonsense? AIBU to think this is absolute crap? Does it have any merit? Bombard me with opinions and comments please!

Satan called a worldwide convention of demons.
In his opening address he said,
"We can't keep Christians from going to church."
"We can't keep them from reading their Bibles and knowing the truth."
"We can't even keep them from forming an intimate relationship with their savior."
"Once they gain that connection with Jesus, our power over them is broken."

"So let them go to their churches; let them have their covered dish dinners, BUT steal their time, so they don't have time to develop a relationship with Jesus Christ.."

"This is what I want you to do," said the devil:

"Distract them from gaining hold of their Savior and maintaining that vital connection throughout their day!"

"How shall we do this?" his demons shouted.

"Keep them busy in the non-essentials of life and invent innumerable schemes to occupy their minds," he answered.
"Tempt them to spend, spend, spend, and borrow, borrow, borrow."
"Persuade the wives to go to work for long hours and the husbands to work 6-7 days each week, 10-12 hours a day, so they can afford their empty lifestyles."
"Keep them from spending time with their children."
"As their families fragment, soon, their homes will offer no escape from the pressures of work!"

"Over-stimulate their minds so that they cannot hear that still, small voice."
"Entice them to play the radio or cassette player whenever they drive." "To keep the TV, VCR, CDs and their PCs going constantly in their home and see to it that every store and restaurant in the world plays non-biblical music constantly."
"This will jam their minds and break that union with Christ."
"Fill the coffee tables with magazines and newspapers."
"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."
"Invade their driving moments with billboards."
"Flood their mailboxes with junk mail, mail order catalogs, sweepstakes, and every kind of newsletter and promotional offering free products, services and false hopes."
"Keep skinny, beautiful models on the magazines and TV so their husbands will believe that outward beauty is what's important, and they'll become dissatisfied with their wives."

"Keep the wives too tired to love their husbands at night."
Give them headaches too!
"If they don't give their husbands the love they need, they will begin to look elsewhere."
"That will fragment their families quickly!"

"Give them Santa Clause to distract them from teaching their children the real meaning of Christmas."
"Give them an Easter bunny so they won't talk about his resurrection and power over sin and death."

"Even in their recreation, let them be excessive."
"Have them return from their recreation exhausted."
"Keep them too busy to go out in nature and reflect on God's creation. Send them to amusement parks, sporting events, plays, concerts, and movies instead. "Keep them busy, busy, busy!"

"And when they meet for spiritual fellowship, involve them in gossip and small talk so that they leave with troubled consciences."
"Crowd their lives with so many good causes they have no time to seek power from Jesus."
"Soon they will be working in their own strength, sacrificing their health and family for the good of the cause."
"It will work!" "It will work!"

It was quite a plan!

The demons went eagerly to their assignments causing Christians everywhere to get busier and more rushed, going here and there.
Having little time for their God or their families.
Having no time to tell others about the power of Jesus to change lives.
I guess the question is, has the devil been successful in his schemes?

You be the judge!!!!!
Does "BUSY" mean: Being Under Satan's Yoke?

OP posts:
marenmj · 07/09/2010 04:33

oh yes, I am definitely too tired to "love" my husband at night because of Satan. I shall have to inform DH... Hmm

sallyseton · 07/09/2010 04:35

Yanbu, send her an email detailing exactly why you find this offensive and then put her on an email block list. This is awful.

Is it just me or does the person who wrote this sound slightly paranoid and, er, mental?

not all christians are like this or believe these things. In fact, the majority are not. I am an aetheist but I do not bombard other people with unasked-for, hyperbolic and vicious prophaganda relating to my beliefs and I expect the same courtesy.

sallyseton · 07/09/2010 04:37

*atheist. Durr, sorry, in my defense it is nearly 5 o clock in the morning and I am not feeling at my sharpest!

delphinedownunder · 07/09/2010 04:57

Sally, I know that she didn't write this, but is sending it on from some US site, probably hosted by one of those orange faced, send us your money preachers. She is always going off on some Christian conference somewhere where they discuss family values and loving your husband in the way of a true Christian woman. Please, can a Christian let me have their take on this. This feels extreme and scary to me, but am i being narrow minded?

OP posts:
IseeGraceAhead · 07/09/2010 05:08

I think it's horrible and not at all funny, but I'm not a christian either. I generally don't take offence at offensive (to me) emails sent by friends to their 'joke' list, though. We can't agree on everything and it's a hassle to select out names from a list.

Just delete it.

IseeGraceAhead · 07/09/2010 05:16

... or you could reply with a thoughtful critique on whether god really wants everyone to sit quietly at home, reading the gospels with their housebound children, etc, etc, and who then will keep the wheels of life turning?

Depends on whether you & she have that kind of relationship (and the time to discuss irreconcilable belief systems! If you're not too "BUSY", haha ... )

delphinedownunder · 07/09/2010 05:30

Grace, this isn't a joke. She means this stuff! And I have deleted it, but its content is now in my head!

OP posts:
mummytime · 07/09/2010 05:36

I would send back a message telling her you don't appreciate getting this kind of email.

How old is she? If young, you can hope (and pray) she grows out of it.

BTW I am a Christian, but had to email someone asking them to stop sending me information on pro-creationism meetings, as I'm not a creationist (you'd have thought the fact I am a scientist might have given them the hint).

If it really bothers you, have a chat with a nice friendly vicar (a smells and bells church will certainly be safe).

Actually I may have received this email sometime, I find it slightly less worrying than the sane friends who send me pyramid type ones threatening bad luck.

ViveLeCliche · 07/09/2010 06:05

Appears she left a bit of the email out:

"Let them send spam email to the non-believers and be too lazy busy for anything but cut and paste converting."

I would send her a reply containing the above and tell her that you would pray for her but you've got a lot on at the moment.

MmeLindt · 07/09/2010 06:28

My friend's family belong to a church that teaches this kind of thing. As a child she was taught that wearing jewelry is a sin, dancing is not allowed and the women must dress modestly. She left the church as soon as she could.

Please don't take this personally. It is a stupid spam mail written by some poor person who is so deep in this cult (and it is a cult) that she or more likely he has lost all sense of Christian compassion.

I am a Christian, but not a church goer and if someone had sent me this I would laugh like a drain then bin it and them (depending on the relationship to the sender)

If you value this woman's friendship then reply to her that this email does not represent your personal beliefs, that you found it offensive but would like to stay friends with her. For that reason you are asking her to refrain from sending such emails in the future.

ZacharyQuack · 07/09/2010 06:33

Reply to her "I'm far too BUSY to read this crap"

SkiHorseWonAWean · 07/09/2010 06:46

FGS, it's only the bloody Christian equivalent of a forwarded joke or chain letter. Delete it, get yourself a large grip and a hobby.

moondog · 07/09/2010 07:03

I think there is a very important message in there actually, whether you are Christian Hindsu or Muslim.

In fact, I'll send it on myself.

MmeLindt · 07/09/2010 07:07

Moondog
No, it is a parody of an important message.

gtamom · 07/09/2010 07:08

E-mail her back saying you are too busy and have too bad a headache to read it. Wink

ragged · 07/09/2010 07:18

If she's generally a good friend I would reply to ask her not to forward stuff like that on because it sounds like she's having a dig at you for working full time.

She'll probably apologise profusely because she doesn't see you at all as over-busy person with misplaced priorities. Contrary to myth, most American fundamentalist Christian parents work full time too, they have to to make ends meet. Yeah, I don't think they can connect their own narrow-minded rhetoric to their own actions, either Hmm.

I'm confidently happily atheist myself; one of my distant cousins used to send me weird stuff like this, for years I amused myself browsing it with no comment until I received fictitious reactionary quotes from famous people, I found that much harder to mutely tolerate then OP's email.

StewieGriffinsMom · 07/09/2010 07:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

TooBlessedToBeStressed · 07/09/2010 07:30

Delphine,i am a christian,and received this email a while back,just like all the forwarded messages that tell me if i don't send them to others something bad will happen to me today,they go into the bin.

My faith is not based on what God can do for me,its easily about who God is in my life,and the last time i checked my bible ,God never said He would punish me or bless me less for not sending on an email

Do not read for you don't have to,a very good christian friend of mine always sends me dirty jokes,knowing that i don't like them,now anything that comes from her with a forwarded sign goes into the bin

and the crap about me loving my husband at night,boo hooo,the bible says he has to love me,and i respect him,,haha,life happens during the day,we have to work to feed our families,and it has nothing to do with satan,just us,its just a dig really at christians,i actually found it to be a joke ,,bin in

TooBlessedToBeStressed · 07/09/2010 07:32

oops,i meant to say bin it

massivemammaries · 07/09/2010 07:52

Absolute fucking bile. I can't bear this self righteous Christian bullshit. If a friend sent me this I would not only end the friendship but also send them a letter bomb in return.

SeaTrek · 07/09/2010 08:07

Horrid, self-indulgent....I could go on!

YANBU - it is a completely inappropriate email to send to a known atheist.

I would probably reply asking if she sent it in error as, as an atheist/humanist, you found it very offensive. I would also add that I am happy to pass on information about humanism if she would like to know more about it/understand why you found it offensive.

But, actually, I think stewiegriffinsmum has the best reply.

xstitch · 07/09/2010 08:11

So if I I don't do anything but read the bible and pray, leave my dd to starve and live in squalor in a squat (because I can't keep a roof over her head) that makes me a good Christian? Hmm.

So I am possessed by a demon and didn't love my now XH enough? That will be why he raped me then, I am evil and deserved it. Of course its me that's evil not him.

That e-mail is incredibly offensive. I would find it very hard to be polite to someone if they sent me that. WTF happened to Christian compassion. Didn't Jesus work hard? Or am I so demon possessed I didn't understand the bible?

Doozie · 07/09/2010 08:19

Good grief. Not at all. Return to sender with a polite but firm message never to be sent this stuff again. I'm Christian and would be offended to receive this sexist, judgemental, manipulative rubbish. I would never impose my faith on others.

This does not sum up all Christians or Christianity BTW.

QS · 07/09/2010 08:25

I had a friend that kept sending me crap like this. First I emailed her politely asking her to not send me such spam mails as I found them offensive. When that did not work I sent her an email saying I was now going to block her email address because I did not appreciate such lack of respect.

And I did block her email address. It changed my view on her completely. A respectful Christian would not pass on such crap.

Pan · 07/09/2010 08:28

sounds like a message worthy of a Talaban-esque outfit.