ANST - Emergency Prayer Request (Amanda hoax)

[Michael Tucker]

Greetings, all:

Ranzy D Rowe wrote:
> 
> If this is a hoax than it is something that must be stopped But if it is
> not a hoax then we must all pray to what ever god we believe in .  and do
> we dare take the chance that is a hoax and not prey it is not like it
> cost us anything to prey and it dose only good so i personally will pray
> for this little girl and if you think that it is a hoax than do what your
> conscience tell you to do... BUT DO NOT TELL ME WHAT TO THINK OR DO
> [flames snipped]
> 
>  IN SERVICE TO THE DREAM AND GOD
> LORD RANDOLPH STEWART
> 

My apologies to everyone, and especially Pug, for continuing such an egregiously
off-topic conversation. But if Lord Randolph felt strongly enough to post what
he did, who knows how many others felt equally strongly but kept silent.

As a service to whoever is interested, but most especially Lord Randolph, I have
researched this using the tools discussed in previous postings. For Lord
Randolph's reference, I repeat them here:
> 
> If you would like some good starting points for Virus, Hoax, and other
> related items, please check out:
> 
> http://ciac.llnl.gov
> http://csrc.nist.gov/virus/
> http://kumite.com/myths/
> http://www.snopes.com
> http://www.urbanlegends.com
> 

A search on www.urbanlegends.com for articles related to "Amanda Bundy" led me
to several postings in alt.folklore.urban. The gist of them is that the first
request for this prayer was evidently written by Michele Stefanowicz and posted
to bit.listserv.conyers on March 30, 1998 (yes, one year ago!) by Mike Fichera
(I didn't discover any way to contact these people to confirm the validity of
this). As reported, "An author search for Mike Fichera turned up many posts,
most dealing with prayer requests. I don't know what [bit.listserv.conyers] is
all about, but many of the posts concern Mother Angelica and the ETWN cable network."

Mike Fichera subsequently posted a follow-up, dated Wednesday, April 1, 1998. It
says, in part:
> This is no April Fool's joke - Amanda is home - praise God!!! Although they
> expected to keep her at least until this weekend, she recovered so rapidly
> and strongly from Firday's surgery that they released her yesterday at 1:00
> pm. She even wanted to go to school yesterday for the afternoon! Her
> parents are keeping her out this week, though, and they'll wait to decide
> about next week until they see how sore she is.
>

It goes on to say how happy her parents are, but how there may still be some
chemotherapy, etc. It also gives thanks to the healing power of prayer.

Surprisingly (or maybe not, given human nature), the follow-up letter was NOT
echoed and re-echoed around the planet, as the original letter has been.

Was the original letter a hoax, or real? Who knows... if it was real, then I'm
happy that Amanda Bundy was helped. But, either way, this is no longer an issue.
If you want to pray for someone, just ask your church, or look around you; I'll
bet you will quickly find someone you know, or at least in your community, who
could use some help.

But, please: next time you get something like this in the mail, ask yourself:
How likely is this to be true? Is there a way to find out if this is a "known"
hoax? (Yes, there is: just check the above list of web sites.) If I had to pay a
nickel for every person I forwarded this to, would I do it anyway? If you
*personally* know the request to be ligitimate, then by all means forward it in
all appropriate venues. Tell your friends. Tell your minister. Tell your prayer group.

Recently, I received some E-mail from my brother, who told me about a personal
friend of his (a well-known Christian music star) whose child had wandered away
near an icy lake. His friend was asking for prayer to help his little boy stay
warm, safe and brave until the searchers could find him. You may have seen this
story on the news (it made the national news). I believed my brother, and
accepted the story as real, even before I saw it on the news. The little boy was
found, safe and warm, the next morning. Did prayer help? Again, who knows... as
the saying goes, "It couldn't hurt."

So, I know from first-hand personal experience that legitimate prayer requests
go out. They go out all the time, in churches and prayer groups all over the
world! I *also* know that bogus stories, outright hoaxes, and "old news" get
echoed and re-echoed, and probably will as long as there is an Internet that
costs nothing to use. I strongly suspect that this kind of activity, along with
chain letters and "get rich quick" schemes that *also* prey on the unwary and
uninformed, will decline sharply if and when it costs money to send E-mail.

Again, I apologize for taking up everyone's bandwidth and mailbox space with
this letter, which has *nothing* to do with the SCA or Ansteorra. But I felt
that Lord Randolph deserved a serious, considered reply to his concerns. I hope
that I have managed to make one.

Yours in service and with compassion,
Michael
(Michael Silverhands, Baron of Stargate, who also happens to know something
about computers and computer-borne hoaxes)

-- 
Michael C. Tucker   | Java Developer
Software Engineer   | Sun Certified System Engineer
Solid Systems, Inc. | Certified Lotus Professional
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