Experiments in cross-cultural bridge building

----- Forwarded message from "david..." -----
Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2005 10:51:31 +1000

I don't want to forward this! My friends definitely don't want this kind of spam! It's so wet! I'd rather forward Jennifer Anniston's attendance at a baby christening before this.... whatever this is!

Gagh!

~david.
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I too think I shall have to pass this on, much as some elements of it gall me.

jim

--------------------- The original forward ---------------------------

Let me tell you, make sure you read all the way to the bottom. I almost deleted this email but I was blessed when I got to the end.

Subject: READ ONLY IF YOU HAVE TIME FOR God

God, when I received this e-mail, I thought...

I don't have time for this - and, this is really inappropriate during work.

Then, I realized that this kind of thinking is exactly, what has caused a lot of the problems in our world today.

We try to keep God in church on Sunday morning...

Maybe, Sunday night...

We do like to have Him around during sickness...

And, of course, at funerals.

However, we don't have time, or room, for Him during work or play...

Because.. That's the part of our lives we think... We can, and
should, handle on our own.

May God forgive me for ever thinking...

That there is a time or place where..

HE is not to be FIRST in my life.

We should always have time to remember all HE has done for us.

If You aren't ashamed to do this...

Please follow the directions.

Jesus said, "If you are ashamed of me, I will be ashamed of you
before my Father."

Not ashamed?

Pass this on ONLY IF YOU MEAN IT!!

Yes, I do Love God.

HE is my source of existence and Savior.

He keeps me functioning each and every day. Without Him, I will be nothing.
But, with Christ, HE strengthens me. (Phil 4:13)

This is the simplest test. If You Love God... And, are not ashamed of all the marvelous things HE has done for you, send this to ten people and the person who sent it to you!

I don't think I know 10 people who would admit they love Jesus.
Do You love Him?

---------------------------

THE POEM

I knelt to pray but not for long, I had too much to do. I had to
hurry and get to work For bills would soon be due. So I knelt
and said a hurried prayer,

And jumped up off my knees.

My Christian duty was now done

My soul could rest at ease.

All day long I had no time

To spread a word of cheer. No time to speak of Christ to friends,

They'd laugh at me I'd fear.

No time, no time, too much to do,

That was my constant cry,

No time to give to souls in need

But at last the time, the time to die.

I went before the Lord, I came, I stood with downcast eyes.
For in his hands God held a book; It was the book of life.

God looked into his book and said

"Your name I cannot find.

I once was going to write it down...



But never found the time"



Now do you have the time to pass it on?

Make sure that you scroll through to the end.

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Easy vs. Hard

Why is it so hard to tell the truth but Yet so easy to tell a lie?

Why are we so sleepy in church but Right when the sermon is over we suddenly wake up?

Why is it so hard to talk about God but yet so easy to talk about nasty stuff?

Why is it so boring to look at a Christian magazine, but yet so easy to look at a nasty one?

Why is it so easy to delete a Godly e- ma il, but yet we forward all of the nasty ones?

Why are the churches getting smaller but yet the bars and dance clubs are getting larger?

Do you give up? Think about it . Are you going to forward this, or delete it?

Just remember-God is watching you. Prayer Wheel-Let's see the devil stop this one!

Here's what the wheel is all about.

When you receive this, say a prayer for the person that sent it to you....

That's all you have to do, there is nothing attached....

This is so powerful....

Do not stop the wheel, please....

Of all the free gifts we may receive, Prayer is the very best one....

There are no costs, but wonderful rewards... GOD BLESS!

---------------------------

May God keep you and bless you. If this doesn't give you chills, nothing will. This message is very true. Hope you are all as blessed as I was from this story. I wonder how many people will delete this without reading it because of the title on it?



There once was a man named George Thomas, pastor in a small New England town. One Easter Sunday morning he came to the Church carrying a rusty, bent, old bird cage, and set it by the pulpit. Eyebrows were raised and, as if in response, Pastor Thomas began to speak..."I was walking through town yesterday when I saw a young boy coming toward me swinging this bird cage. On the
bottom of the cage were three little wild birds, shivering with cold and fright.

I stopped the lad and asked, "What you got there, son?"

"Just some old birds," came the reply.

"What are you gonna do with them?" I asked.

"Take 'em home and have fun with 'em," he answered. "I'm gonna tease 'em and pull out their feathers to make 'em fight. I'm gonna have a real good time."

"But you'll get tired of those birds sooner or later. What will you do?"

"Oh, I got some cats," said the little boy. "They like birds. I'll take 'em to them."

The pastor was silent for a moment. "How much do you want for those birds, son?"

"Huh?? !!! Why, you don't want them birds, mister. They're just plain old field birds. They don't sing. They ain't even pretty!"

"How much?" the pastor asked again.

The boy sized up the pastor as if he were crazy and said, "$10?"

The pastor reached in his pocket and took out a ten dollar bill. He placed it in the boy's hand. In a flash, the boy was gone.

The pastor picked up the cage and gently carried it to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a grassy spot Setting the cage down, he opened the door, and by softly tapping the bars persuaded the birds out, setting them free.

Well, that explained the empty bird cage on the pulpit, and then the pastor began to tell this story.

One day Satan and Jesus were having a conversation. Satan had just come from the Garden of Eden, and he was gloating and boasting. "Yes, sir, I just caught the world full of people down there. Set me a trap, used bait I knew they couldn't resist. Got 'em all!"

"What are you going to do with them?" Jesus asked.

Satan replied, "Oh, I'm gonna have fun! I'm gonna teach them how to marry and divorce each other, how to hate and abuse each other, how to drink and smoke and curse. I'm gonna teach them how to invent guns and bombs and kill each other. I'm really gonna have fun!"

"And what will you do when you get done with them?" Jesus asked.

"Oh, I'll kill 'em," Satan glared proudly.

"How much do you want for them?" Jesus asked

"Oh, you don't want those people. They ain't no good. Why, you'll take them and they'll just hate you. They'll spit on you, curse you and kill you. You don't want those people!!"

"How much?" He asked again.

Satan looked at Jesus and sneered, "All your blood, tears and your life."

Jesus said, "DONE!"

Then He paid the price.

The pastor picked up the cage he opened the door and he walked from the pulpit.

-------------------------

Notes: Isn't it funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder
why the world's going to hell.

Isn't it funny how someone can say "I believe in God" but still follow Satan (who, by the way, also "believes" in God).

Isn't it funny how you can send a thousand jokes through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing?

Isn't it funny how when you go to forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you're not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it to them.

Isn't it funny how I can be more worried about what other people think of me than what God thinks of me.

I pray, for everyone who sends this to their entire address book, they will be blessed by God in a way special for them.

And send it back to the person who sent it, to let them know that indeed it was sent out to many more.

##############################

Why I did what I did (david's foolhardiness)
--------------------------------------------

Well, the little end story was kind of cute. But that so does not justify impertinence and social self humiliation. What is it with Christians and this kind of terrible behaviour?

I don't know exactly. But my inspiration here was not all due to the silly email. If you've read this far you're already something of a sucker or a moron, so let me explain myself to you, also.

I'm reading some stuff by Martin Luther King, Jr. Amazing, as you would expect. His movement started off, I am hearing, with a bus boycott. Some quotes:

---

After a rather lengthy discussion, E. D Nixon rose impatiently:

"We are acting like little boys," he said, "Somebody's name will have to be known, and if we are afraid we might just as well fold up right now. We must also be men enough to discuss our recommendations in the open; this idea of secretly passing something around on paper is a load of bunk. The white folks are eventually going to find it out anyway. We'd better decide now if we are going to be fearless men or scared boys."

---

That was my first challenge. This idiotic email is something I have to own, in some sense, anyway. People will realise that about me sooner or later, in one way or another, whether I pass it on or not. The idea of just quietly deleting it doesn't help me at all. I'm too far gone, already.

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The white opposition was so impressed at this miracle of quick organisation that they had to admit in a White citizens Council meeting that the [car]pool moved with "military precision." The MIA had worked out in a few nights a transportation problem that the bus company had grappled with for years.

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That was the second thing. The diehard marxists in my company, even they may see the blind passion of the christians I am around. The may (almost certainly) not agree with the sentiment my people are distributing in these coddling email stories, but the audacity IS commendable! How far these christians will go to stick out their necks! How foolish they look, and how seemingly unafraid! They are manic indeed!

----

"Jump in, Grandmother," he said. "You don't need to walk."

She waved him on. "I'm not walking for myself," she explained. "I'm walking for my children and my grandchildren." And she continued home on foot.

----

And that was the third thing. Who am I, to become complicit in the persecution of the people I belong to, if they are game and foolish enough themselves to send out these ridiculous messages? Let me then add my support, that those who I know who would resent these messages may at least proclaim with Voltaire "I may disagree with what you have to say, but I will fight to the death for your right to say it."

So um yeah, thanks for your tolerance and sorry for the additional burden to your inbox, all you who recieve this.

Hehe. But go on, pass it on; I dare ya. Come on, it'll be a lark.

[snip: antivirus/privacy garble]

To everyone on my address book? Am I a maniac? There is a list of hardcore activists in my address book! What on earth would they think of such sap?! There is someone I have promised not to write to all year in my address book. What will she think of me breaking my promise for this kind of infantile emo email?!

Don't you all realise that if everybody forwarded messages such as these to everybody, that all our email accounts would fill up, and our bandwidths would choke up, and our entire complex
communication platform here would, in all likelihood, grind to a halt?

Jack was a rake...
****************************************************

David you're a genius! Possibly mad, possibly evil, but definitely a genius. You built up this horrendous energy of revulsion and loathing with a shamelessly simplistic, manipulative and self-serving Christian forward and then with sheer honesty you aim all of that aggression at our own prejudices!

Gandhi said that resolving antagonism and oppressive structures required that we realise that we are all connected - all made in the image of God - and that therefore we could not abide hatred, not even of an oppressor; and as you've shown, not even of uncool, presumptuous 'saps'.

Indeed, rather than excluding and labelling them we have to complicate our world and admit that these sentiments can mean a great deal to people from a (sub)culture we don't share, that it's just possible they are completely sincere and humble in what they do, and even if they aren't
that much of what we think and say is likely at least as offensive to people who don't share our experiences.

Which is not to say we simply agree with them, or pay lip service to 'their truth', but we do respect them, love them and - as you said - own them. These are my people, they share my God and I, though I rarely admit it, am at least as fallible as they are. That's the meaning of communion, and the meaning of the body of Christ.

Anyway, that's what I made of it all :)

And to those I sent it to:

"So um yeah, thanks for your tolerance and sorry for the additional burden to your inbox, all you who recieve this."

I wasn't going to change any of the text but I did reformat it - NOBODY needs that much whitespace! And it was a bit ambiguous who was speaking in some bits.

May the peace of God which passes all understanding...

jim