She just won't die. Madalyn Murray O'Hair, that is.

Even though the famous atheist's body was discovered in 1998 and positively identified in Texas—and even though she apparently has been dead since she disappeared in 1995—rumors about her alleged anti-Christian campaigns continue to spread across the Internet via e-mail.

What is most frightening about such e-mail rumors is that evangelical Christians may be the worst rumor-mongers of them all. For instance, perhaps you received an e-mail advancing one or more of the following stories as fact:

• Geologists in Siberia drilled a hole deeper than any hole ever drilled by humans. When they placed sensitive audio equipment at the bottom of the shaft, they were amazed to hear what sounded like horrific human screams. Of course, Christians know that the screams are coming from souls being tortured in hell.
  
  
• Sophisticated calculations by NASA scientists determined there is a missing day in time—proof of a literal interpretation of the biblical story in Joshua that God made the sun stand still for a 24-hour period.
  
  
• A notorious atheist professor at the University of Southern California intimidates his philosophy classes every semester by proclaiming that, if God truly exists, then God could surely keep a piece of chalk from breaking as the professor drops it on the floor. Of course, the chalk always breaks when the prof drops it. However, one semester, just as he's giving his incontrovertible "proof" of God's non-existence in order to shame a lone, brave Christian student who has challenged him in class, the chalk slips out of the professor's hand, rolls down his pant leg, and slides unbroken onto the floor. The professor is so mortified that he flees the room, allowing the recalcitrant Christian to explain the source of his atheist-slaying faith to his classmates.

Of course, none of these rumors are true. But probably every Christian with e-mail has received at least one of them.

So why are Christians so willing to believe unsubstantiated rumors? And more troubling, why are Christians, who should hold the highest standards of truth-telling, so eager to spread rumors—and even downright lies?

Rumor debunker John Williams of Oklahoma worries that Christian gullibility and dishonesty is damaging the image of Christians in the wider culture. "If we're known for fabricating stories, for passing fearful stories around, we're going to lose our right to be heard in the public arena," the former pastor warns. "We're going to be looked upon as fools for Christ."

Fools for Christ was the working title of  Williams' new book, which now is called The Cost of Deception: The Seduction of Modern Myths and Urban Legends. In the book, he chronicles and debunks some of the most popular e-mail myths. 

Love to Hate

O’Hair is the hands-down favorite target of the Christian rumor mill. Some tales tied to her name have been in circulation for more than a quarter century—before fax machines and e-mail made distribution infinitely easier.

The most pervasive and indestructible O’Hair rumor credits her for a campaign to ban religious broadcasting. The later iteration of this e-mail rumor demonstrates that some Christians have a problem not only with facts but also with grammar:
 

 
There indeed once was a petition about religious broadcasting filed with the FCC, but that's the extent of the truth in this rumor. The petition, called RM-2493, was filed more than 30 years ago, but not by O'Hair and not to eliminate religious broadcasting.

According to Snopes.com, a website that debunks urban legends, e-mail rumors, and other myths, Jeremy Lansman and Lorenzo Milam asked the FCC to prevent religious organizations from obtaining licenses to operate radio and TV channels reserved for education.

The petition was not intended to ban all religious broadcasting but rather to prevent religious organizations that operate universities and schools from receiving FCC licenses for broadcast frequencies reserved for educational use. The FCC turned down the petition in August 1975. And O'Hair never had anything to do with such a petition.

There are other problems with the latest rumor. O'Hair’s infamous court case—in 1964, not “fifteen years ago”—didn't eliminate "Bible reading and prayer from public schools" but lead to the Supreme Court decision that government-sanctioned school prayer and school-led devotional Bible study are unconstitutional.

Moreover, the FCC would not have the authority to ban religious broadcasting, since such a rule would violate two different protections of the First Amendment and would be overturned by even the most secularist Supreme Court.

Still the rumor just won't die. According to Snopes.com, the FCC has received at least 30 million letters, faxes or e-mails expressing opposition to this petition since 1974. I personally have received this rumor six times from well-meaning Christians. Heck, my own mother—a college-educated woman who taught me never to spread rumors—sent it to me a couple of years ago.

The only new element in this later incarnation is the mention of Touched by an Angel. Laying aside my own curiosity about why anyone would be bothered by the cancellation of a mediocre TV show, there remains the problem of how someone who's been dead for five years could testify before the FCC.

But O’Hair’s posthumous powers really shouldn’t surprise us. Labeled by Life magazine in 1964 as "the most hated woman in America," O’Hair is considered enough of an enemy by many Christians that they are willing to believe just about anything about her. The advent of the Internet only made the rumors easier to spread and harder to correct. 

Tapping Hostility

Rumors like the ones tied to O’Hair become more powerful when they tap into the hostility and distrust toward government that is widespread among conservative Christians. It's easy for the average evangelical to believe any rumor that fits this larger political paradigm.

Factor in a contentious presidential election and the stakes go even higher. During the 2000 campaign, dutiful Christian culture-warriors worked overtime.

One popular e-mail rumor claimed then-Attorney General Janet Reno had described evangelical Christians as "cultists" in a 1994 60 Minutes interview. The fabricated story received such wide distribution that Religious Right leaders James Dobson and Jerry Falwell had to warn their followers publicly against believing it.

Another e-mail rumor prevalent last fall credited then-Vice President Al Gore with a campaign-speech gaffe. To quote the e-mail: "In his typically stiff, condescending and insincere manner, he said his favorite Bible verse is John 16:3. Of course, the speech writer meant [John] 3:16, but wasn't even familiar enough with this often-quoted and, of course, often-taken-for-granted Scripture to catch the error. Neither was Gore, and how incredibly appropriate it is."

John 3:16 reads, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." But John 16:3 reads, "They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me." The implication was obvious: Gore's misquote was some sort of Freudian slip that revealed his true un-Christian nature.

Like the others, this story is untrue, according to Urban Legends, another website that investigates e-mail rumors and other folklore (www.urbanlegends.com). The irony of the rumor is its original source.

According to conservative columnist Cal Thomas, the quote is real but Al Gore did not say it—then-President George Bush did, 15 years ago.

“Bush said it in my presence at a religious broadcasters convention about 1990,” Thomas told Urban Legends, “and I wrote about it in my book, Blinded by Might: Can the Religious Right Save America? But somehow it got twisted around and stuck on the Internet and put in Al Gore's mouth. He [Gore] has got a lot of stuff that he has to defend, but that's not one of them.'" 

Live Subjects

Political rumors like these are more damaging even than the O'Hair rumors because Reno and Gore are real, living public figures with careers and reputations on the line.

Of course, rumors can be used to enhance a reputation as well. The e-mail hoax I received most recently claimed that President George W. Bush, at a "thank you" dinner for campaign workers, took time out of his duties to share the gospel with the son of a volunteer. As the story goes, the boy prayed to receive Christ on the spot, with Bush leading the prayer.

This story, like the others, was sent to me by well-meaning Christian friends. And like the others, it is untrue. Bush's campaign never held any such dinner, and campaign officials said that the pressing time commitments of the ongoing Florida recount would not have allowed Bush to deviate so dramatically from his schedule even if he had wanted to.

Those minor details didn't stop many church newsletters and websites—even the website of Christianity Today, the flagship evangelical publication—from reporting it as fact.

The George W. rumor fits a pattern that folklorists call "cult of personality" myths. They often spring up around new presidents and are most prominent among the president's core supporters.

Some Christians are so willing to believe rumors that reflect well on their heroes and poorly on their opponents that they abandon even a modest concern for the veracity of the rumors. Yet the Bible clearly prohibits “bearing false witness” and spreading rumors and gossip. Perhaps Christians who spread such rumors think they serve a greater purpose, as if the end justifies the means. 

The Real Truth

Author John Williams says all urban legends share several attributes: "They are fun or shocking to tell, entertaining to hear and simply not true." But why do Christians need such apocryphal stories to bolster our cause?

We have a whole collection of shocking and miraculous stories that are more truthful than any floating on the Internet. They are found in the Bible.

Is Scripture so uncompelling that some Christians feel the need to fabricate and perpetuate stories—whether about celebrity conversions or embarrassed atheists—to prove the gospel is relevant and powerful today?

The public image of Christians is tarnished enough already. We don’t need to attract further ridicule by becoming gullible yokels who fall sucker to any story forwarded to us or, worse yet, mean-spirited Machiavellians who perpetuate untruths that serve our political agenda.

Let’s stick to the real truth, the scandal of the Cross and Resurrection. That’s shocking enough, isn’t it?
 
Rob Marus is a journalist and activist in Jefferson City, Mo. This article is reprinted with permission of FaithWorks.