Saints in heaven
I am becoming alarmed that increasing numbers of people are lying and spreading rumors and defending the lies when they are found out. They don't even have the good sense to be ashamed of it!
This is ever more true on Facebook which can be, at times, a scary ride. Today a Facebook contact posted a story that has been making the rounds on Facebook for a long time. Supposedly, a pastor, poses as a homeless man to see how his new congregation will treat him. This "news" item is a hoax. The events detailed never happened. The picture that is provided is said to be that of Pastor Jeremiah Steepek (a fictitious name.) In fact, the photo is one taken in 1970 on the streets of London, England. The man pictured has no relation to the story whatsoever. By including his photograph, the "news" item is geared to mislead people into believing that the story actually happened and that the characters are real. The whole purpose of the story is to slam Christians for, supposedly, being hypocrites when confronted with the poor, which is ironic because most of the efforts to care for the poor throughout the world are conducted by Christian, and especially Catholic organizations.
Homeless man on a London Street
whose picture was used in the hoax.
He was falsely identified as "Pastor
Jeremiah Steepek"
When I offered the snopes.com link that exposed the hoax, the person posting the item defended it, saying that it was heart warming and insinuating that I was a scrooge. According to the poster, I was offering "bah humbug." The Facebook poster extolled the "beautiful message" that was contained in the bogus news item. (See that item on the snopes.com website by searching for the name "Jeremiah Steepek.")
What is really sad is that the person posting this lie and defending it considers themselves a highly spiritual person with big credentials. I wish I could say that I had never seen this kind of disconnect between what people claim to believe and what they actually defend. More and more, I am seeing the deification of personal opinion at the expense of religion and sp
