When the Lie is the Message

Once in awhile, a friend or relative will forward me a message containing a brief emotional anecdote encouraging me to be patriotic, "support the troops," or engage in some other form of desirable conduct. These messages then usually exhort me to forward them to everyone I know but never actually call for any constructive action in support of the causes they espouse (e.g., sending care packages to the troops I am supposed to support).

What is most disturbing about these messages, however, is that they typically contain some blatant, verifiable lie. A recent one, supposedly about honoring fallen veterans, contained in it the following:

"Did you know that the ACLU has filed a suit to have all military cross-shaped headstones removed? and another suit to end prayer from the military completely. They're making great progress. The Navy Chaplains can no longer mention Jesus' name in prayer thanks to the ACLU."

A little research revealed that these particular statements have been making their way around the Internet since at least June 2009 (as per Snopes, and that none of these particular assertions are true in any way"Grave Concerns"). Over the past two years, they have been read by hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of people who have simply accepted them as the truth, got all worked up about them, and then forwarded them to everyone on their contact lists.

Verification aside, anyone capable of critical thinking ought to be able to read between the lines on these statements and sense that they are not true. There would be no legal basis, for example, for removing headstones with Christian iconography but not those with the symbols of other religions. There is thus a vicious, unspoken implication in this particular lie (e.g., that it would be OK for those Jews at the ACLU if headstones shaped like the Stars of David were retained, or even those with Muslim crescents, presumably as part of some convoluted Zionist plan to strengthen the hold of Islam in the United States).

And anyone who has actually served in the military anytime in the last few decades, or bothered to talk to those who have while "supporting" them, knows that troops are in no way deprived of their rights to prayer or worship -- especially Christian troops. Over the past several years, in fact, I have heard numerous complaints from soldiers that Bible-thumping commanders have promoted their own extreme fundamentalist religious views on their subordinates.

On a personal note, it bears mentioning that, as a journalist, I have striven most of my adult life to be strictly apolitical. But as an American, a veteran, and a person of faith, I am both revolted that there are so many people willing to spread baseless lies and dispirited that there are so many people eager to accept and propagate them -- and I cannot help but notice that messages bearing such falsehoods almost never originate from the left and almost always come from the right.