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