Email offenses (grrr)

This isn't a post about junk mail, which does deserve a growl or a post about spammers (ggrr). It's about forwards. Now, at the risk of offending my friends and families, I hate email forwards. Hate them. They encourage me almost never and most of them are more or less urban legends. Now legends can be valuable and inspiring, if only people would identify a fictional account as fiction. They don't though; they take partial truths and add and subtract until they have a message that they think the greatest number of people will be inspired or outraged enough to pass it on. And as for the blessings and curses attached to some of these forwards ....well...triple ggrrrrr.

I received a lovely forward the other day--a prayer by Billy Graham that I enjoyed, but I am suspicious of all things on forwarded email. So I did some sleuthing. I love the site http://www.snopes.com/ because it finds these email forwards, does the research and posts the correct information with sources. An English teacher's dream. The forward I received was supposedly a prayer by Billy Graham, delivered to congress and aired on Paul Harvey. Given the current headlines, the prayer seemed liked it was probably recent. First, the prayer was not Billy Graham's. It last spoken by the Rev. Joe Wright to the Kansas House of Representatives back in 1996. It was actually written by a Bob Russell who prayed it at the Kentucky Governor's prayer breakfast the year before. Egads. Thirteen years later Russell's prayer (altered in several places) shows up on my computer screen as a Billy Graham prayer prayed to Congress. Now I that I have vented. I need to step back. A prayer delivered to God to needs no author or correct documentation. Just a genuine faithful heart. It matters not who wrote it or how it landed on my screen. It has value if causes me to seek the Lord. So with that here is the original prayer which is decidedly less politically correct than the forward in my box....it should make you pause and think, if not cause you lift up a prayer. And next time you get a forward...check out the facts at Snopes.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness.
We seek your direction and your guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe
to those who call evil good.' But that is what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium. We have
inverted our values. We have ridiculed the absolute truth of your word
in the name of moral pluralism. We have worshipped other gods and called it
multiculturalism.

We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.

We have exploited the poor and called it a lottery. We've neglected
the needy and called it self preservation. We have rewarded laziness and called
it welfare. In the name of choice, we have killed our unborn. In the name
of right to life, we have killed abortionists.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self
esteem. We have abused power and called it political savvy. We have
coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it taxes. We have polluted the air
with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have
ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it
enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today. Try us. Show us any
wickedness within us. Cleanse us from any sin and set us free. Guide and bless
these men and women who have been sent here by the people of the State of
Kentucky.