An Urban Legend has the form of ancient folklore but with the advent of the Internet and email the legends can be created and disseminated in a matter of days. It is incumbent on the Christian to be on guard to avoid propagating these myths, while some merely expose the gullibility of those who forward them, others create such a nuisance that the victims of the Urban Legends are required to spend a great deal of time and money debunking the lies and suffer a loss of reputation from the attacks.

Any email containing an inflammatory story calling you to action should immediately be suspect. If it has a strong appeal to your emotions and sketchy details, before you forward it on try to track down the source and verify it for yourself.

Elements of an Urban Legend

1. An unsolicited email that arrives in your mailbox with several other email addresses CCed on it.
2. The email has several indents in it that indicate it has been forwarded several times already.
3. A story that contains a strong appeal to your emotions using either horror or humor.
4. An extremely inflammatory story or one that it very "unusual".
5. An Urban Legend does not have to be completely false. They may contain elements of truth or have the names of actual people, organizations or corporations, but the "truth" is exaggerated or combined with outright falsehoods to create the legend.
6. On the other hand if the email doesn't mention actual names rather it refers to a "friend of a friend" or an unnamed relative such as a cousin or aunt . The term "Friend of a Friend" is used so often it is now commonly referred to as "FOAF".
7. The story does not cite specific sources such as "the March 23, 2008 edition of the London Times" ("the London Times" does not qualify as a citation).
8. Alternatively the if story does appear to cite specific sources but the sources can not be found it is a good indication that the story is being pumped up to sound authoritative.
9. Urban Legend typically do not specify a specific date when the event occurred. The term "last month" is totally irrelevant for stories that are circulated on the Internet for many years.
10. Any story that asks you to send it on to everyone one in your email list is extremely suspect, particularly those that promise dire consequences for not passing it on or include phrases designed to "guilt" you into sending it on. Trust me God will not send you to hell for not passing on an email.
11. Beware of any new scientific discoveries that purport to prove a aspect of the Bible or the existence of God, Heaven, Hell or guardian angels.
12. In short watch out for any stories that "Smell Funny", seem too good (or bad) to be true or claim to be a "True Story".

It is important that Christians in particular be diligent in ferreting out and not perpetuating the Urban Legends, because they can be damaging to the victims of the myths or at best they make Christian look like fools for believing them.

Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. James 3:1

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Philippians 4:8