I got my first Gold Dollar the other day from a friend. I was excited about the new dollar and looked at it quite closely. I enjoyed the new look of the dollar and as a coin collector, I look forward to seeing all of the Presidential Dollars as they are released. One thing I liked about the dollar was that instead of a smooth edge like a nickle or the ridges of a quarter, the new dollar has words printed on the band or edge. It was unique enough to me that I took notice.
Well, today I got one of those emails. You know the ones that people feel they just have to circulate in order to preserve our heritage, our christian way of life, our freedom. You know what I'm talking about. This one was decrying the decision to not include the words "In God we trust" on the new dollar.
I knew immediately that it was a scam. I am looking at it right now - there it is! In God We Trust. But just to see if there was any information, I went to my favorite site for this junk. Snopes.com is a myth-busting, urban legends, and scam page. If you have never used it - you should check it out. I like to check it out any time that I get something fishy. Here is what they say about the email today.
There is a part of me that doesn't understand the mind of a person that chooses to intentionally manipulate information. What is so funny about it? What gain is there?
The person that forwarded the email was a well intentioned individual from my congregation. I suspect they forwarded it to me because I just used the Dollar in my children's message on Sunday. What bothers me is how these emails really only affect those who trust others enough to believe what is sent to them. They then send them, in all sincerity, to others who get caught up in the game.
For the most part, I hate forwarding emails. But what I hate worse is sending a reply to someone telling them they were the brunt of a joke. It makes it even worse when it is a parishoner and you have to tell them not to worry, Touched by an Angel is not being cancelled because they say God, and no Madeline O'hare is not alive, you are not going to win a shopping spree, etc, etc.
Anyway - go use the coin. I want to see it in circulation regularly! And check out Snopes.com
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4 comments:
I loved the Sacagawea coin; I'd also love to get my entire paycheck in gold coins.
Snopes is a good a site.
We got three of them from a vending machine last Wednesday. One of the first things we noticed was that In God we Trust was written on the side of the coin. We are keeping one for Pearl.
One of the things that I liked about England when Jan and I were there a couple of years ago was their one-pound coins and their two-pound coins. They seemed substancial to me. I knew that I was holding something. I like coins and hop ethey begin to catch on here in the good ole US of A.
I don't care about coins, but I LOVE those rumor emails. I got one from my sister a few years ago that a creative person had sorta conglomerated all of the frequently passed "if you love Jesus" kinda emails into one. I wish I would have kept it...it was one of the funniest things I had read in a long time!
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