Rumor-Mongers in the Pew
Many Christians spread lies and slander with righteous zeal, not realizing they've fallen for mere rumors.
Steve Dennie
You've probably heard that golf balls contain explosive acids. One family called a golf ball manufacturer after their dog swallowed a golf ball. They thought poor Fido might explode.
In 1979, radiation from Pennsylvania's Three Mile Island nuclear plant contaminated sweets at the nearby Hershey chocolate factory.
Captain Kangaroo's sidekick, Mr. Greenjeans, is the father of weird rocker Frank Zappa.
Humphrey Bogart was the model for the Gerber baby.
A secret hanger at Indiana's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base houses a crashed UFO and alien bodies.
Rumors, rumors, rumors. Such tales regularly sweep through society, fueled by gullible believers. A person hears a story and tells it to someone else, who tells it to other persons, who tell it again--with everyone accepting the story as true.
Including Christians. In fact, some of the most famous rumors involve Christians getting all worked up about nothing. For instance....
The Plot That Never Was
By now, you know about Madalyn Murray O'Hair's plot to ban religious broadcasting. Maybe you're even responsible for one of the 30 million protest letters sent to the Federal Communications Commission during the past 15 years, or for one of the 200-plus phone calls the FCC fields every months.
Mrs. O'Hair, no doubt, is very amused. You see, the famous atheist has never tried to ban religious broadcasting. Nor has the FCC received such a request from anyone.
This is the all-time most famous rumor. And it won't go away.
The rumor started in 1974. Two Californians who were denied a radio station license asked the FCC to study the operating practices of noncommercial radio and TV stations before granting any more licenses. Their petition was tagged RM 2493.
Christians mailed about 700,000 protest letters before the FCC unanimously rejected RM 2493 in August 1975. Religious broadcasting had won a major victory.
But things went berserk.
Somehow, O'Hair's name to RM 2493, even though she had nothing to do with it. And instead of a mere freeze on station applications, RM 2493 supposedly sought to ban religious broadcasting altogether.
Photocopied petitions still pour into the FCC. Obviously, it embarrasses Christianity. But it's also expensive. Stamps cost 25 cents and photocopies at least 5 cents. Multiply that by 18 million, and add the cost of thousands of long distance telephone calls to Washington, D.C. That's a lot of wasted money.
There has been one positive effect. The FCC fears tangling with religious broadcasters, knowing they command enormous public support.
P&G's Satanic Logo
In 1979, Proctor & Gamble began battling rumors that they'd been taken over by Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his Unification Church (the "Moonies"). The evidence: the company's logo depicts a quarter-moon and 13 stars. That rumor, fortunately died out. But it was quickly replaced by a much more persistent rumor.
You may have heard that Proctor & Gamble supports Satanism, and that their logo is Satanic. This rumor has flared up several times since 1981. Each time, P&G squelches the rumor with successful publicity campaigns. But it keeps rising from the dead. During the last 10 years, the company has received over 150,000 calls and letters about the accusations.
The main culprit, again, is a photocopied petition--undated and anonymous. (The photocopier is the rumor-monger's best friend.) It says P&G's president told Phil Donahue, on national TV, that a large part of his company's profits go to the Church of Satan. That's why a Satanic emblem adorns boxes of Pampers.
The logo does look a bit eerie, but it's not Satanic. It originated in the mid-1800's, when dock workers used an encircled star to identify crates containing the P&G's Star-brand candles. This evolved into a circle containing a moon crescent and 13 stars (representing the 13 American colonies). The man-in-the-moon was a fad in the 1800's--sort of like today's smiley face. P&G adopted the current logo, the seventh version, in 1930.
P&G has tried everything--from soliciting statements from Billy Graham and Jerry Falwell, to hiring a security team headed by a former FBI agent to track down and sue rumor-mongers. They have filed successful lawsuits against some rumor-mongers, several of whom have turned out to be Amway distributors, whose products compete with P&G's.
P&G typically gets letters in batches. For instance, the paper reaches someone in a small town in Kansas. That person distributes copies to coworkers, fellow church members, and other people. Local pastors encourage their people to respond. Presto! P&G receives 200 letters from the area.
The company responds by sending information packages to the local media and ministers...and waits to see where the rumor catches fire next.
McDonalds and Satanism
Like Proctor & Gamble, the McDonalds fast-food chain has been accused of supporting Satanism. First, company president Ray Kroc allegedly tithed to Satanic churches. Then it was the whole company.
Neither is true. Ronald McDonald's hands are clean.
Jesus as Gay
If you haven't signed a petition supporting religious broadcasting or denouncing P&G's Satanic involvement, perhaps you've signed one protesting a movie which depicts Christ as a homosexual.
In 1977, a Danish filmmaker briefly considered making a movie on the sex life of Jesus. Public outcry persuaded him to abandon the idea.
In late 1984, Paramount Studios found itself battling a spin-off rumor. Paramount was supposedly considering making a movie based on the book The Last Temptation of Christ, by Greek novelist Nikos Kazantzakis, depicting Christ as gay. Paramount insisted there was no truth to the rumor.
Turns out there was. While the movie didn't portray Christ as gay, the movie was made--by Universal.
Abortion and Cosmetics
Another rumor says aborted fetuses are used to make cosmetics. It originated with an over-zealous Frenchman who is president of the International Association Against the Exploitation of Human Fetuses. Investigations by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Moral Majority, the news media, and other groups have yielded no proof to support his claims.
The Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association insists the industry "never has condoned...the use of fetal material in any product."
Some products do use collagen, a protein derived from animal cartilage and tissue. Collagen conditions and moisturizes skin, helps split ends, gives hair a shine, and has other benefits. Cosmetic manufacturers buy it from the meat industry. It's so abundant and cheap that cosmetic companies have no reason to look elsewhere for collagen.
End Times Frenzy
Doomsday watchers perpetuate various rumors which imply that Christ's second coming is imminent. For instance, you may have heard about a super-computer in Belgium which is nicknamed The Beast and uses 666 as its access code. Or about the population explosion among vultures near Armageddon.
The most interesting rumor concerns Social Security checks mailed by the Internal Revenue Service in 1980. You can't cash them unless you have an identifying mark on their right hand or forehead. That's part one of the rumor.
Part two says the IRS admitted making a mistake--that the requirement wasn't to take effect until 1984. That year, of course, was under suspicion thanks to George Orwell's classic book.
The IRS, by the way, doesn't issue Social Security checks.
Responding to Rumors
How should Christians respond to a story which sounds suspiciously like a rumor? Here are some suggestions.
1. Treat the story as a rumor until you learn otherwise. That means, don't spread it! Question the story's validity before accepting it as true.
2. Try to identify the original source of the information.
"Did you hear about that movie they're making depicting Christ as a homosexual?" someone asks you.
Respond with a question. "Where did you hear this?"
"A friend at work told me."
"And where did this person hear it?"
"From her pastor last Sunday in church."
"And where did the pastor hear about it?"
"From a relative in another town."
"Where'd that person hear it?"
"He received a paper in the mail about it."
"Who wrote the paper?"
"I don't know. It came from...."
And so it goes. You can trace the story forever without reaching the original source. You'll probably dead-end with an anonymous, undated photocopy.
3. If the story involves a company or organization, write to them about it. Companies, especially, are very concerned about public relations. They'll probably send you the same information kit they sent to all the people who contacted them before you did.
It's humbling to think we Christians have caused so much damage to innocent parties.
We've forced Proctor & Gamble to spend millions of dollars preserving its reputation.
We've sent other companies into costly PR campaigns--McDonalds, Paramount Studios, cosmetic companies.
We've been a royal headache to the FCC and a drain on their workers' time.
And we've embarrassed our Lord.
The Body of Christ has no business engaging in shameful rumor-mongering. And we don't have to. By applying some healthy skepticism, we can avoid falling for unfounded rumors.
|
