Certainly, these prayer request chain letters are not as serious a problem as many others. Do you know why I don't post anything in the "Erection" or other obnoxious threads? Time and time again, I've said that the best way to deal with trolls, Spam, and flamers is not to respond to them, to act as if they did not exist at all. I stick to that policy, except in certain circumstances when I have to say something to deal with a problem. Apparently, dozens of Mudcaters disagree with me and post to those stupid threads with gusto.

Why do I post to this thread?
Is it because I don't believe in prayer? Nope. I pray and study the Bible every day.
Is it because I'm worried about New Age stuff? Nope. I don't like it when it's trendy, but I find it fascinating and inspiring when it stems from genuine tradition. If you think I'm against New Age thinking, you should meet my future wife, a chiropractor/massage therapist who's a mixture of Catholic, Zen Buddhist and New Age healer. We both find an strong connection between some forms of New Age thought and traditional Christian, Jewish, and Buddhist mysticism. I do admit that I am suspicious of big-money evangelists and those who make big piles of money with their trendy self-help and New Age books and tapes and whatnot.

I am very concerned about the baby and the family Charcloth spoke of in the first message in this thread, but I hate with a passion to see their plight cheapened with a thread that is full of empty platitudes posted in response to the request. I subscribe to WYSIWYG's prayer e-mail list and I read it, and I occasionally get similar requests through Katlaughing. Do you know what? These mailings are good, solid information - and they don't contain long lists of oft-recited aphorisms. I still think the best way to handle these concerns is in e-mail lists and personal messages, where the approach is more personal and the privacy of the people in need is more protected.
You know, it's not the individual message describing this family's plight that I find offensive and cheap. It's the fact that it's in a thread, all by itself, followed by a chain letter of same-old same-old aphorisms. I'd be open to something, maybe a PermaThread, that has message requesting prayer, good thoughts, healing or whatever - but does not have responses. If e-mail is not satisfactory, can somebody come up with a suitable compromise? Katlaughing is a JoeClone - maybe she'd volunteer to maintain a PermaThread.

Remember, though, that this is a public forum. If you post something here, you open your post to the scrutiny of all who read it - and if they disagree with you, they have a right to express their disagreement in the same thread where you have posted your message. If you insist on continuing these prayer/healing request chain letters, please remember that other Mudcatters have a right to disagree. I will politely voice my disagreement in the place where it will be seen - right in the middle of your chain letter thread, just as I have here. Sorry, people, I'm not going to take my disagreement into a closet. I'll post it right where you have to see it and deal with it.

We've had an unwritten truce on this matter for most of the time since the big flareup of 1999. We've also been pretty good about cutting down the endless chain of birthday greetings threads, although there's still enough of that to make me gag. This week, we've had at least three of these prayer/healing/sympathy chain letter threads threads. Can't we go back to the truce, and keep this stuff out of Mudcat? This is a music forum, and this prayer/healing request stuff just doesn't seem to have much to do with music - especially when the people involved are strangers to us.

-Joe Offer-