you go Kim!  I don't delete anything, when forwarding this type of email, 
but I will start!
Jenifer Gilley
email
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MSN: *no email please!*
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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kim Etheridge" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 5:51 PM
Subject: Re: Email Curses


>I agree with you. I don't forward those tag lines either. If it's worthy of 
>being forwarded, I highlight everything except the thousands of email 
>addresses someone didn't bother cleaning from the email and the tag line. 
>God's love was around, way before email and the Internet, so why should I 
>believe that I won't experience His love if I don't forward this or that to 
>ten or twenty people.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Phil Scovell" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Friday, November 28, 2008 12:16 PM
> Subject: Email Curses
>
>
>> Christian Curses Via Email
>>
>> By Phil Scovell
>>
>>
>>     Now, don't become offended, or take it personally, as you
>> read this article.  It is something I have been prayerfully
>> considering for a long time.  Now just seems to be the time to
>> write about it because I believe it is a spiritually important
>> topic.
>>
>>     I know everyone with an email address has received Christian
>> related email messages which tell a wonderful story.  I have read
>> these for years.  These messages are often clones of the secular
>> type which normally end with a tag line which reads, "If you don't
>> forward this to your 10 best friends within 5 days, you will
>> experience bad luck for a month."  Sometimes it will say just the
>> opposite, that is, you will have amazingly good luck for a week.
>> The Christian ones, or those that appear Christian in nature,
>> normally have a kinder and gentler suggestion that you won't be a
>> very good Christian if you don't forward the message.  The
>> variables on this theme are endless and I have literally seen
>> hundreds of them.
>>
>>     The Christian stories have always intrigued me.  I mean, they
>> sound true, they feel good, they are often stories of miracles, or
>> cute innocent reminders of a big God somewhere up in the sky that
>> loves you, but when you hit the tag line, wham!  You are belted
>> with a threat.  For example, "If you believe in prayer, forward
>> this message to your friends."  So if you don't, you aren't a
>> believer in prayer?  "If you want to really experience  God's
>> love, forward this message."  Meaning, of course, if you don't,
>> you won't experience God's love?  "Forward this message and don't
>> break the circle,"" Meaning, if you don't send it to others, you,
>> you and you alone, have broken the circle?  Again, they vary
>> limitlessly but  they all sound somehow threatening.  The question
>> is not, "Is the  story real," but what is behind the message tag
>> line.  I do believe it is a curse, of sorts,  which is very
>> likely, in most cases, initiated by someone who  doesn't believe
>> in the salvitic message of the Bible and wants to  see their own
>> message come back a couple of months later to get a  good belly
>> laugh at Christians.  At the very least, it is a passive form of
>> control, or manipulation, and those who participate are engaging
>> in acts of superstitious beliefs.
>>
>> Note.
>> Definition of Superstition.
>> 1. An irrational belief that an object, action, or circumstance
>> not logically related to a course of events influences its
>> outcome.
>> 2.
>> a. A belief, practice, or rite irrationally maintained by
>> ignorance of the laws of nature or by faith in magic or chance.
>> b. A fearful or abject state of mind resulting from such
>> ignorance or irrationality.
>> c. Idolatry.
>> (The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth
>> Edition copyright -2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in
>> 2003. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company).
>> End of note.
>>
>>
>>
>>     More sinister, in my opinion, is the  curse that is delivered
>> with the good old Christian story for  which I have already stated
>> examples.  Is it really a curse?  Good  question.  Those who
>> fiddle around with the unseen world have no  problem believing it
>> is a curse that works.  Christians, on the  other hand, think it
>> is just good Christian works playing itself  out on the global
>> internet and reaching millions of souls for  Christ.  I consider
>> them a story with a curse.  Yes, I have  forwarded them on myself
>> over the years so don't get your tail in  a knot because I am not
>> criticizing anybody.  The question that comes to my mind asks, "Is
>> it wrong to forward the message?"  I believe it is more than
>> possible that the suggestiveness of the tagline is a passive form
>> of executing a curse.  The harsher ones, those that threaten bad
>> luck and the like, may fall into more spiritually harmful
>> categories such as hexes and spells.  Then again, as Christians,
>> we don't believe in such evil things today, so what do we do?  We
>> forward the message right on.
>>
>>     Let's look to the Bible for confirmation of what I am saying.
>>
>> John 5:1-9
>> 1 After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to
>> Jerusalem.
>> 2  Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is
>> called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.
>> 3  In these lay a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind,
>> halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water.
>> 4  For an angel went down at a certain season into the pool, and
>> troubled the water: whosoever then first after the troubling of
>> the water stepped in was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.
>> 5  And a certain man was there, which had an infirmity thirty and
>> eight years.
>> 6  When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that he had been now a long
>> time in that case, he saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole?
>> 7  The impotent man answered him, Sir, I have no man, when the
>> water is troubled, to put me into the pool: but while I am
>> coming, another steppeth down before me.
>> 8  Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take up thy bed, and walk.
>> 9  And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed,
>> and walked: and on the same day was the Sabbath.
>>
>>     Many years ago, it was discovered that there was an
>> underground spring which fed this pool of water.  Occasionally,
>> therefore, the water passing beneath the pool released air into
>> the pool and the water appeared to be mysteriously moving by an
>> unseen hand.  A religion developed out of it, a superstition, if
>> you will, that whoever made into the water the second it began to
>> move, would be healed.  There is never any Biblical confirmation
>> that a single person was ever healed at this pool in this manner.
>> Yes, it is possible, that God Himself did send an angel down to
>> this pool occasionally in order that people could be heal, too, so
>> I am not eliminating that possibility but if God was doing that,
>> then why did Jesus need to come an intervene?  Yes, it says that
>> the man reported, "I have no man to put me into the water," but
>> you will note, Jesus didn't offer to assist him; Jesus healed him
>> outright.  The only question Jesus asked the lame man is if he
>> wished to be made whole.  Likely the man thought, "Finally.
>> Someone to help me into the water."  He was wrong.  Jesus healed
>> the man by His own spoken Words.  The Biblical truth is clear; it
>> is in the Lord, and in nothing else, we should believe.  If you
>> don't believe the Enemy works consistently in attempting to gain a
>> foothold in your life in any way possible, you have just exposed
>> yourself as a willing target for deceitfulness.
>>
>>     With this in mind, people then ask me what I do.  If I think
>> the story sounds legitimate, or is an encouragement, I may forward
>> the message to someone I think would benefit from it.  First,
>> however, I removed the tagline and refuse to forward that part of
>> the message.  I also pray against, bind and remove, any curses
>> associated with the tagline or message.  So, I'm crazy.  What else
>> is new?  You may do as you like and believe as you wish.
>>
>>     Many years ago, I was running a bulletin board.  This was
>> long before most of us were on the internet.  I received a message
>> sent to me directly, that is, the person was on the east coast
>> and he literally dialed up my computer's telephone number and sent
>> me a message.  It was short, had a nice little story with it, but
>> a very ominous tagline.  The tagline basically said, "If you
>> forward this to 5 or 7 or 10 of your friends, you, and they, will
>> have good luck come to you, lots of extra money that comes into
>> your hands, good health," and several other such things were
>> promised.  "If you don't forward it," so it read, "you will have
>> bad luck come your way."  So, the tone of the tagline sounded
>> evil.  I just laughed it off and deleted it because I in no, way,
>> shape, or form believed in such things.  The next three weeks were
>> hell on earth for me.  You can't believe the things that happened.
>> I was even notified by the IRS I was being audited.  I did not
>> know how to pray against such curses back then, nor was I even
>> certain I believe in such things.  I do now and I know how to pray
>> against such passive suggestiveness.  I trust you do.
>>
>> 4  (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
>> through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
>> 5  Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
>> itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
>> every thought to the obedience of Christ;
>> 6  And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when
>> your obedience is fulfilled, (2 Corinthians 10:4-6).
>>
>> Safe Place Fellowship
>> Phil Scovell
>> Denver, Colorado USA
>> www.SafePlaceFellowship.com
>