Good old forwards from the family — without them, how would Snopes survive? This particular one is, of course, on Snopes for us. Snopes kindly explains that no, Ben Stein didn’t write the vast majority of it. Unfortunately, the message is sent around because people agree with the message, not because they love Ben Stein. Without further ado, here you go:
Only hope we find GOD again before it is too late ! !
The following was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on CBS Sunday Morning Commentary.
My confession:
I don’t like getting pushed around for being a Jew, and I don’t think Christians like getting pushed around for being Christians. I think people who believe in God are sick and tired of getting pushed around, period. I have no idea where the concept came from, that America is an explicitly atheist country. I can’t find it in the Constitution and I don’t like it being shoved down my throat…
Or maybe I can put it another way: where did the idea come from that we should worship celebrities and we aren’t allowed to worship God as we understand Him? I guess that’s a sign that I’m getting old, too. But there are a lot of us who are wondering where these celebrities came from and where the America we knew went to.
In light of the many jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke; it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking.
In light of recent events… terrorists attack, school shootings, etc.. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found a few years ago) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school… The Bible says thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.
Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave, because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about.. And we said okay..
Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves.
Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.
Are you laughing yet?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they will think of you for sending it.
Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.
Pass it on if you think it has merit.
If not, then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in.
My Best Regards, Honestly and respectfully,
Ben Stein
Love you too, fam.
Everything old is new again
Everything under the sun…
http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/2011/11/18/a-powerful-message/
I got it a couple of years ago, but it dates back at least another 5 or 6 years before that.
What an exquisite composition of non-sequirs and lies.
By the way,that was Dr Spocks GRANDSON who killed himself, and it had nothing to do with lack of self-esteem but rather a long battle with schizophrenia,so extra points for arseholish approbriation of a family tragedy.
Their “little personalities”. Ha, children don’t have personalities. They have yet to be molded by their parents.
I guess that’s what they who wrote this e-mail believe.
Oh really?
You must know know many kids. While they are most certainly effected by their raising, they definitely have personalities.
The person who wrote that e-mail thinks that children don’t have personalities. My evidence for this is their disparaging term “little personalities”.
Of course children have personalities, since they are people.
Resident alien,
Thank you for pointing that out. When I read this I hoped someone would.
And what Dr. Spock was struggling against was a rigidly mechanistic, “behavioralist” method of childcare in which parents were told that they must shake hands with their children rather than kissing them good-morning, must never play with their babies, and must absolutely not pick the baby up at 6:53, no matter how it cried, if the “schedule” said its next feeding was at 7:00.
The fact that she was murdered is supposed to discredit something she said?
Of course. God had her murdered as punishment, ’cause that’s how he rolls. Therefor, her argument is invalid. Or something.
Right? I guess they forgot how Jesus is supposed to have died.
This generation of the letter writer’s, the one that knew right from wrong: that would be the generation of segregation, genocide, the bombings of Pearl Harbor and Dresden, the internment of Japanese-Americans and Japanese Canadians? That generation?
That’s the one!
They also forget that Dr. Spock is responsible for raising awareness on and stopping alot of child abuse. Not just the spanking kind, but actually beatings. The man saved lives.
“I think it has a great deal to do with ‘WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.’” A direct quote from the Jimmy Swaggart Bible?
If Ben Stein reaped what he had sewn he would now be forgotten in a run down trailer park. The only reason we still remember him is his comical appearance, voice and demeanor. Bueller? Bueller!!
Opinions are like bums, everybody has one! If you don’t grasp the meaning and thought behind the email, well, you’re to far gone.