Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

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:
UnquietDad · 07/09/2010 10:16

I have Christian friends with whom I have very animated discussions and arguments, but none of them would ever stoop to emailing me this kind of astonishingly patronising bullshit.

pluperfect · 07/09/2010 10:16

Ah, the "non-Biblical music".

Well, it was written by someone with little sense of humour or cultural nous, but we can't all be hipsters, UQD! Your comment about insecurity was a bit more relevant.

UnquietDad · 07/09/2010 10:22

:) The bile about working mums is more offensive than the stuff about music, anyway...

boiledegg1 · 07/09/2010 10:24

Delete it, tell the friend not to send any more if it bothers you which it clearly does. Job done.

LOL at "Prophaganda"

pluperfect · 07/09/2010 10:26

Hah! There are some days when I'd love to be a working mother, or at least one who goes out of the door to work!

I work at home, both with DS and freelance, and it's demoralising to work on one thing while actually seeing the other kind of work piling up - both DS-work and computer-work!

pluperfect · 07/09/2010 10:29

This is an excellent thread. People are really thinking and arguing. Not like RL sometimes, when people can be so stubborn and lazy about their arguing.

And I did enjoy loopyloops's comparison of religion to a penis! I'm going to send it to my atheist DH. Smile I hope that's the sort of e-mail forward which will bring delight rather than annoyance.

Casserole · 07/09/2010 10:30

I'm a Christian, and I think it's a dreadful email. Honestly what on earth do they think will be the result?!?

Ugh. I can imagine Christians sending this sort of thing to each other in some sort of Christian ghetto (though I hate it and would hate to receive it), but to send it out to people who explicitly don't believe... v poor taste.

I'd reply saying something like "I'm trying to cut down on the amount of non-essential emails I get so would appreciate you taking me off your list for stuff like this".

Blurgh

sallyseton · 07/09/2010 10:30
Hmm
ChickensHaveNoEyebrows · 07/09/2010 10:33

I'm a Christian, and that email is total bilge. I wouldn't be offended by it, I'd just feel a little sorry for the sender who is spectacularly missing the point about what being a Christian entails.

FioFio · 07/09/2010 10:38

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted

teaandcakeplease · 07/09/2010 10:42

I've been sent this before and it was a little different, in fact it's been sent to me a number of times in the last few years as I am a Christian (C of E). This particular one has been doctored by somebody to include a lot more things I've noticed. I do not forward them on generally. I would never ever dream of sending them to someone who was an atheist, even if I did forward them. My SIL is an atheist and I know without a shadow of a doubt it would deeply offend her. Your friend shouldn't have sent it to you.

I do believe in satan, however I think a number of Christians over spiritualise things and blame satan for everything that goes wrong. This e-mail is along the same lines and is nonsense. Delete it. I'm with bumpsadaisie, puddlepuss and puddlemummy.

slug · 07/09/2010 10:44

So it's OK to work as long as you are not married???

I've always suspected that satan, should such an entity exist, carries out his work through the words and deeds of fundamentalist preachers.

MIFLAW · 07/09/2010 10:44

"Would you post similar things about other religions? Probably not."

No - because I am not constantly bothered by members of other religions telling me about their religions unprompted!

If a friend of mine sent me this messgae, he or she would cease to be a friend because I would assume our interests had diverged to too great an extent.

And that he or she was bloody annoying.

MIFLAW · 07/09/2010 10:47

"let them have their covered dish dinners" - ah, how well Satan knows the true essence of what being a Christian entails!

boiledegg1 · 07/09/2010 10:51

"Pound their minds with the news 24 hours a day."

I always suspected that BBC news24 was the work of the devil. Now I know.

Grin MIFLAW

FioFio · 07/09/2010 10:51

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted

Mermaidspam · 07/09/2010 10:54

Now I know Santa is the work of Satan I love him even more Grin

MangoTango · 07/09/2010 10:55

I think you should openly ask her if this is supposed to be a dig at you working FT. If she forwards the email then she should take responsibilty for the offense it causes, regardless of whether she wrote it herself or not.

marenmj · 07/09/2010 18:32

my father-in-law frequently sends these sorts of emails. It's only through a concerted effort over many years that he is starting to only forward jokes.

DH and I have a fairly standard response too. We usually say something along the lines of "while I would ALWAYS appreciate a note written by you about your life, I am not interested in any kind of forwarded message - please do not include me in these types of emails"

For a while there that meant that FIL just deleted the "FWD" tag off the subject line, like we wouldn't be able to tell. He is finally getting it hammered into him that we would really like him to WRITE TO US, but we do NOT want anything forwarded - no matter how "thought provoking" or "important" he thinks it is. If he wants to start a discussion with us he can fucking well write his own email instead of forwarding something.

It helped to tell him that forwarding us a message will be interpreted as though he has said, and meant, every word in it.

At least you can choose your friends Grin

And finally, in reading that email, methinks someone has finally gotten around to reading The Screwtape Letters Hmm

marenmj · 07/09/2010 18:37

and yes, ask what your friend meant by it. My aforementioned FIL forwards emails he likes to everyone (not just, say, people he thinks will like it) without even considering how it will be received because he is just that sort of inconsiderate person.

Perhaps your friend is equally rude inconsiderate thoughtless?

anonacfr · 07/09/2010 18:43

Send her this. If she's that 'committed' a Christian, she might find it interesting. Grin

christiandomesticdiscipline.com/home.html

homeboys · 07/09/2010 18:47

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Diamondback · 07/09/2010 23:28

You should email your friend back and ask her "So, am I to take from this email that you think I have an 'empty life', working all hours so that I can 'spend, spend, spend, borrow, borrow, borrow'? Do you really think that I neglect my children and my family is fragmenting?"

She probably hasn't realised how offensive her forwarding this email is and just thinks 'I found this thought-provoking and wise and other people will too', so it won't do any harm to point out to her how this could be read. Besides, helping her see the error of her ways is the Christian thing to do Wink

CheckingCheques · 07/09/2010 23:32

omg. shows no respect for you.

Personally I would have clicked "reply" and written "free will" "Do not send me this judgemental crap again" then block her

delphinedownunder · 07/09/2010 23:39

Well, i am capable of deleting the email and i certainly don't need a hobby - i am under satan's yoke quite enough already! i guess what i really want is an opinion on whether this email merits my rethinking the friendship or can i put it down to careless forwarding. I would NEVER forward a Darwin based email to my friend - actually I don't forward emails at all - they are the modern chain letter.

OP posts:
Swipe left for the next trending thread