becoming

How many times you receive emails detailing new vicious schemes criminals used to attack the innocents, or new health alerts on household products commonly used? How many times you received warnings saying certain restaurants are so dirty that you should stop going right away….

What do you do when you receive something like this? Do you, with good intentions, forward them to your friends immediately? Do you ever wonder about its accuracy and its authenticity?

For more than 8 years, what I normally do when I got email like that is to first run them through the website BreakTheChain.org. These guys are constantly researching and tracing emails which make claim on certain facts or truths. For example, I received this “good intention” email from my relative this morning entitled PLEASE READ – RCMP Report. So I use their search engine, search with several keywords from the emails: “RCMP”, “head-lights”, etc and here it is! Just read what they have to say.

Use it! It is really helpful. I know many of you do not see the harm of sending unverified emails to those you loved. It won’t hurt, right?! But in reality, it does:

Unfortunately, it can hurt. This chain letter, and others like it, incite panic, lead to copycat crimes and bog down officials with questions about legends, occupying time they could be using to address real crimes and other matters of public safety.

Please also consider the fact that as Christians, we are truth-seeking individuals. It matters if something is fact or plain gossip; it matters if we are being used to spread rumors or creating unnecessary panic or that we do the wrong things with good intentions.

Truth matters!