Thanks, Jennifer. It's a good habit to have. Plus, I make an effort to clean 
out headers, annoying greater than symbols, blank lines and tabs before I 
forward the email. I just hit page down until I get to the meat of the 
message. That saves me from deleting countless email addresses.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "jenifer gilley" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, November 29, 2008 8:42 AM
Subject: Re: Email Curses


> you go Kim!  I don't delete anything, when forwarding this type of email, 
> but I will start!
> Jenifer Gilley
> email
> [log in to unmask]
> MSN: *no email please!*
> [log in to unmask]
> ----- 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
>>