By Rev. Guido S. DeLuxe -- 28 July, 1999
I am a member of a large "cyber-community" on the web, where I participate in a variety of different discussion groups, rather like the old static bulletin boards of the 2400 bps modem era. One of these discussion groups is a so-called "christian" group called "Study on False Teaching".
If that wasn't funny enough on its own, one of the members of this group, someone named Sean Anderson, posted the following message:
=================== i got this from my pastor: > Subject: Alarming Statement from Janet Reno > > 'A cultist is one who has a strong belief in the Bible and the > Second Coming of Christ; who frequently attends Bible > studies; who has a high level of financial giving to a > Christian cause; who homeschools for their children; who > has accumulated survival foods and has strong belief in the > Second Amendment; and who distrusts big government. Any > of these may qualify a person as a cultist but certainly more > than one of these would cause us to look at this person as > a threat and his family as being in a risk situation that > qualifies for government interference.' > > Janet Reno, Attny. General, USA > Interview on 60 Minutes June 26, 1999 Do you qualify? Are you (as defined by the US Attorney General) a threat? This concerns me. (Personnally i do not care for the second amendment but that is beside the point) ===================
This piqued my interest, primarily because I can't possibly imagine one of our wimp politicians making such an inflamatory statement concerning such a large voter-base without some further qualification. So, I decided to do a little research.
First, I went to Google and searched for "Janet Reno 60 Minutes" and I hit this page. The owner of the page, someone named Don Chancey, removed it as soon as I pointed out to him that it was a lie, but fortunately I was able to download a copy from his server before he did. Even with that amount of information I could tell that it was a hoax. The discrepancy in the dates was enough to convince me. Please note: I have reproduced his page exactly as I found it posted on the web, complete with a "back link" to his homepage. Follow it at your own risk. It was clear to me in my brief interaction with him (we exchanged 3 emails over 2 days) that he really didn't care whether it was a lie or not, and he was going to continue believing that it was true anyway. Nevertheless, I decided to go even further.
I then browsed over to the 60 Minutes web site and quickly discovered that there was no 60 Minutes broadcast on June 26, 1999. At that point I was convinced, but I knew that a so-called "christian" would not accept merely my word for it, so I called up their contact number by voice telephone.
I spoke with a representative of CBS News on the telephone. They informed me that Janet Reno did not make the statement concerning cultists, "christians" and the bible which is attributed to her at any time during her May 14, 1995 interview on 60 Minutes, or at any other time. Her interview on 60 Minutes had been concerning the Branch Davidian cult of Waco, Texas, and the segment was called What Really Happened (transcripts are available from CBS News).
All of this "extensive" research to determine whether the original message was true or not, took me all of about 5 minutes on the web. Even with bogus dates I was able to track down verbal confirmation that it is a lie without any difficulty whatsoever. Why was it not possible for Mr. Anderson and Mr. Chancey to check up on the statement before posting it on the web and actively participating in spreading lies?
My impression, from reading their bible, is that their so-called "saviour" would not like it one little bit if he knew they were lying about stuff like this, and he'd very likely send them to hell, especially since it was so easy to figure out that it was a lie! Why is it, apart from the painfully obvious, that these people have such a low regard for our nation's leaders, who the bible commands them to respect, that they will spread lies like this without even bothering to check them out? Why is it always people like me who have to expose their lies?
My conclusion: If we can't believe them with stuff like this, why should we believe them any other time? If "christians" are so gullible that their own pastors can pass off lies like this to them without their noticing, why should we even bother to take them seriously? It's clear that they don't know what they're talking about, and this kind of thing just proves it. Tina Chopp, truly, is God!
That being said, you can now choose to go back from whence you came, or you can go to the main menu, or you can do nothing.
