Just a few days ago a Daily Kos Diarist Dayton Ohio for Obama wrote a diary entitled my sister-in-law just sent me this... concerning a recent email from Kenyan Missionaries claiming Sen. Obama is a Muslim. Dayton concluded the post by writing, I would love to hand her a substantiated response to shut this filth down, and at the same time email it to everybody on her distribution list.. Please help!!
Today the Matthew 25 Network is announcing a new response effort to these viral emails about Sen. Obama. Many of these emails have their origins from folks with faith-based concerns, so we believe it to be our task to set the record straight within our own communities.
Put Away Falsehood comes from a verse in Ephesians which reads:
"Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are all of the same body."
This site is our best attempt to respond to the distortions and misleading information being circulated within our community about Senator Obama. We're providing it as a resource to answer people who are spreading falsehood from the Christian community - because when Christians spread falsehood folks see us as deceitful and ill-informed.
We need to seek the higher ground - honest, open discussion about where the candidates stand and what they believe, no matter who we support politically.
So take a stroll through the site... and I'll walk through some of what weíve put together.
Facts and Falsehoods is the collection of rumors and researched responses. We will update it regularly as new items arise. We hope to get quite quick and responsive about it, so we can begin to push back on rumors before they quickly spread.
Take Action will be the hub for response efforts. Whether it's a letter-to-the-editor campaign for answering mistruths or a petition in response to a public figureís distortions, Take Action is where those efforts will be based.
Email the Facts is a neat tool which writes a researched and scripturally-based email in response to a rumor. Folks can just cut and past the pre-written email and reply to the sender.
And lastly Tips is where we really need you all. The faster we hear of a rumor the fast we can craft a researched response. Also, if you have a story about using the site send it in here... we like to read them and would like to eventually post some of them.
The Matthew 25 Network is doing this out of our conviction for honest public dialogue. But we really need your help.
Invite Friends. There's a signup form on every page, and the more people we have behind this effort the louder we can be in making the positive case for Sen. Obama.
Reply to Emails. It is really important that no rumor go unawnsered. It can be hard. It can be from people you respect and love. But the future of our nation could be undermined by email rumors, and we all have a responsibility in not allowing that to occur.
Donate to us via ActBlue. We have a great web team, but we need your help in supporting their efforts. Donate to help us keep the site running through the election.
Thanks for the tips and recs. Hope you all find PutAwayFalsehood.com to be a helpful tool in the coming months.