The Spam of the Spirit

If only I had a nickel for every dollar I've won in some international lottery I never entered. Just a nickel for every long-lost distant relative who has died in some African country, and after an extensive search for heirs, I finally was located so I could inherit the estate left behind. Oh for pennies on the dollar every time someone needs to move an obscene amount of money from a foreign bank account to an American account, with a generous cut of that money for me if I'll do nothing more than be the American account the money is transferred to....

I used to keep a file where I saved all of the e-mails I got like that. But I got so many, that I quit saving them. Today's spam was different though. It's the first one I recall that came in the name of religion.

For your reading enjoyment, today's spam, from a Reverend Jones Smith:

Dearest in Christ, Calvary greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I am Revrend Jones a member of Redeem ministry, basically a prayer and deliverance ministry. During a Prayer and fasting session in my Minstry, I asked our Lord Jesus Christ to give me the oppotunity to redeem my life and purify what remains of my wealth. God deliverly revealed to me to Invest in His Kingdom through you and your organisation and also give to the needies,orphanages,widows,and charites. You should immediately get back to me so that i can go ahead to send the funds according to the will of God so that you can distribute to the needys and hence further the works of the lord. Remain blessed Revrend Jones.

Rev. Jones Smith. How clever. Of course, that's not the most glaring giveaway that this e-mail is a fraud.

When was the last time you ever heard of a preacher doing the prayer/fasting thing and when he's finished, start looking to give money away? I mean, every time Oral Roberts holes himself up in his tower on the ORU campus in Tulsa, when he's done, he comes down asking you to give money to him. It's the American way. Sometimes Oral even threatens to stay in the tower and starve until we pony up the dough necessary to nourish his spirit. And for some reason, folks in Oklahoma always seem to fall for it.
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In the mailbox yesterday was my recently-ordered copy of Beginnings, a CD produced by the praise team of the Northtown Church of Christ in Milwaukeeish, Wis. (They might be in Waukesha, I don't remember.) My understanding is that it's the group's first recorded effort, and it's not bad. They credit Free Indeed as inspiration, and there's certainly some FI influence in the music. It's a little lite, only eight tracks and 26 minutes of music, but at least the price was lite too -- just $10 from the place I ordered it.

It was worth every dime if for no other reason than the song Someday, a standard at WCYC and a favorite song of one of my favorite people, Roger Dunnam, who has counseled there since I was a camper. One day I'll write in this forum more about Roger, which I can easily get away with because Roger's a technophobe. He has no computer, and will never see this blog. But I'll refrain from posting about Roger until I can get a good picture of him to include with the post.

At any rate, while I don't usually play songs on the blog before I get permission from the artist, I'm thinking that Northtown isn't likely to sue me anytime soon, so I'll loop Someday from Beginnings for your listening pleasure.

Enjoy.