Death to those who mock

[_zeezrom]

I got this message forwarded in an email from someone close to me:

DID YOU KNOW THESE FACTS? I SURE didn't TILL NOW

Death is certain but the Bible speaks about untimely death! Make a personal reflection about this....... Very interesting......

It is written in the Bible (Galatians 6:7): 'Be not deceived; God is not mocked:for whatsoever a man sow, that shall he also reap..'

Here are some men and women who mocked God :

John Lennon
(Singer):

Some years before, during his interview with an American Magazine, he said:

'Christianity will end, it will disappear. I do not have to argue about that... I am certain. Jesus was ok, but his subjects were too simple, today we are more famous than Him' (1966).

Lennon, after saying that the Beatles were more famous than Jesus Christ, was shot six times.

The email went on listing other people who died, including Marilyn Monroe for saying "I don't need your Jesus" to Billy Graham.

This email was pretty disturbing to me so I had to reply to the sender with:

Regarding John Lennon: he fought pretty hard for peace during the Vietnam war, which was a pretty sad war, from what I know. The question I have is this: is the author of that email trying to say the murderer of Lennon (Mark Chapman) was inspired by God to shoot him 4 times in the back? Did God want Chapman to shoot him?

The response was

No God doesn't want people to suffer and He doesn't want people to make others suffer but He allows it because everyone has their agency and He performs miracles, prevents suffering, I think, more often than most realize it. (usually through the Holy Spirit). From your response, I take it, you are angry at God? or the Church?
I still love you, anyway, [yours]

I replied with

No, I'm not angry at God. I'm actually very happy with God and glad to know that God wouldn't really cause a person to murder someone for being an outspoken political activist. I think we both would agree on that. Whoever wrote that email makes it sound like God wants to have people murdered for being critical of someone else's religious/political ideology.

I didn't get a reply and I'm afraid I may have caused a slightly wider gap in our now fragile relationship. I know I should bite my tongue and let things slide between family members but I just can't stand to let these types of hateful messages get sent around in the name of religion. It sickens me to see these kinds of thoughts.

[Guest]

Sounds like you are dealing with a zealot Zee. Whenever someone uses a tragedy to illustrate the biblical concept of the wrath of God, you know you are dealing with an unenlightened mind.

A person need not be "angry" at a religion or its stated beliefs about God, but rather, it is possible that a person just no longer believes, period.

[_Some Schmo]

Lennon was shot years after he made that statement.

Does anyone really need to explain how stupid this email is?

I didn't get a reply and I'm afraid I may have caused a slightly wider gap in our now fragile relationship. I know I should bite my tongue and let things slide between family members but I just can't stand to let these types of hateful messages get sent around in the name of religion. It sickens me to see these kinds of thoughts.

Dude, if they're going to open the communication with idiotic statements, you are under no obligation to respect their point of view or keep quiet.

Remember, there's a difference between respecting a person's right to have a different point of view and respecting the point of view itself.

[_Buffalo]

Maybe he was a little ashamed of it since he backed off so quickly.

[_Blixa]

I'm sorry, Zeez, but that email is disgusting. Not only does it play fast and loose with history (this email is discussed at length in the Snopes forums and elsewhere online) but also uses terrible tragedies as fodder for smug self righteousness. It's right up there with a recent post on MDD where the Civil War was claimed as God's punishment for the deaths of Joseph and Hyrum.

People who want to sling such garbage have no human decency.

[_Quasimodo]

Z,

Your friend's description of God is a little confusing. God is so insecure that He (or She) can't take a little criticism? Allowing the untimely deaths of John and Marilyn for some comments that were not well taken.

Yet, God allows free agency? "Do as you will, because I love you, but if you disagree with me you're toast. And, by the way, I'm sending you to roast in Hell for eternity".

Does this sound like a God one should worship?

[_Morley]

....

People who want to sling such garbage have no human decency.

Or critical thought process.

[_RayAgostini]

I didn't get a reply and I'm afraid I may have caused a slightly wider gap in our now fragile relationship. I know I should bite my tongue and let things slide between family members but I just can't stand to let these types of hateful messages get sent around in the name of religion. It sickens me to see these kinds of thoughts.

I believe I received that email a while ago from a Christian friend. I let it go and didn't say anything, though I thought it was quite vindictive thinking. This was discussed on the Snopes message board, where someone made a point about Aleister Crowley living to 72.

I've also received many emails like News From Egypt (Alternative titles "Miracle in Egypt" and "Buried in Egypt"). There was a time I used to write back to friends to inform them that the email was false, or only legend, and so on, but it got too large to keep replying. It seemed like eight out of ten emails were false or myth. If I thought they were benign "faith-promoting myths" (not like the Lennon one, which is clearly vindictive) I didn't mind. I'd just say, oh well he/she "means well", but I wouldn't forward them.

[_just me]

I like to reply with the link to Snopes. Luckily I don't get many forwards anymore. LOL

[_bcspace]

Waging war against communist regimes is always righteous but I don't think God had Lennon shot for opposing it. But didn't the Beatles imagine a world without religion? I'd say Lennon could be punished in the afterlife for advocating that. His only out might be that most religions are part of the church of the Devil anyway and he might not have had his opportunity to hear from the true Church in this life.