Does this bother you????

I get this kind of stuff in the mail and I find it .... I want to say offensive, but that's not the word I really want.  I find it irritating, bothersome, unchristian, unbiblical and just wrong.

What kind of stuff am I talking about?
This kind of stuff
"If I don't get this back, I will know you really didn't read it.  I got this from someone and thought the last part was really a good thought. "

So far...not too bad...just lines to try to keep something circulating.  I generally delete the "if I don't get this back I know you didn't read it part".   IF and  ONLY IF I choose to pass it along to someone.  AND  IF I do...I do not send it back to the original person... seems silly to me to do so.     If a person really wants to know if I care, they can ask, OR write me an email and see if I respond at some point within the next three months.    :) 

The email continued....   "Too bad that the  person who sent it to me did not know 10 people who would admit to knowing the Lord.   If I send this to you, please send it back so that I will know that my friends do know the Lord.         I konw 10 people.  Do you LOVE HIM?     This is a simple test:   If you love Jesus, send this to at least 10 people including the person who sent it to you!"    

So my query is simple....what does sending an email have to do with "proving" if I love Jesus or not?    Doesn't my life and personal witness (my walk and talk) indicate that? 

Maybe I'm missing something here, but this just seems like blackmail in a way.   I know you don't really love Jesus if you don't forward this picture and poem on to at least 10 people.  What?    I don't love Jesus if I simply delete it?  I don't love Jesus if I send it to only one person?   What about 9  people?    

I just find the mindset irritating.   And I probably shouldn't vent when I'm tired and more easily irritated!   :) 

The other emails that bug me are the ones that come through... you get this really nice poem or picture or letter and at the bottom it says something along the lines of...if you don't send this then bad luck will come to you!  As a Christian I can't abide these ones.  And when fellow believers send them out, I tend to ask them, what are they trying to say with this email?  Are we to trust in the power of the internet, or are we to trust in God?   I teach them to do a cut and paste or a Highlight and delete before sending these types of emails on to others.  Why continue the fraud?

AND even worse are the ones that are warnings that if a person just went to snopes or to truth or fiction .   They would find out that it was wrong and save themselves and the world a lot of wasted time.   It's like think about it folks!  

I can honestly understand people who don't know about these sites.   So I always tell folks about them.   Check it out, I did, this is what I found out, could you let all the people you emailed know that it is Or is not true.  And please also let them know about these sites so that they can check things out to.     It does however bother me when the snopes address is right in the body of the letter ... and people still didn't bother to check it out.  Are they not reading what they are sending out?   ARGH!!!!   :) 

It does however serve a purpose.....teaches me patience!   :)   And that in turn does benefit those around me.   Oh...it also teaches me how to tactly tell people to get a brain. to think more carefully before they just willy-nilly send on emails to other folks.  Spam is problem, why should we add to it?

That's my rant for the week.   What do you think?  Am I off base here?  Am I missing something that I shouldn't?   Or am I on target?