http://205.160.185.47/2000/May/5/FLA11.htm

Thousands mailed unsolicited Jesus movie return videotape to sender

News-Journal wire services

WEST PALM BEACH - Hundreds of videotapes about the life of Jesus that landed on the doorsteps of Palm Beach County residents are back in the mail marked return to sender.

Some residents - a lot of them Jewish - were so mad about the unsolicited mailing they tied bricks to the tapes to bump up the return shipping charges, said Rabbi Stephen Pinsky of Wellington's Temple Beth Rorah.

"We've never had as many people call or as many returns in the 22 years I've worked here," Cecile Sasso of the U.S. Postal Service in West Palm Beach said Wednesday.

About 400,000 tapes were mailed to Palm Beach County residents the week of Easter and Passover by a coalition of evangelical Christian churches called Campus Crusade for Christ. The Orlando-based group spent $1.2 million on the project.

Clergy involved in the mailing said they didn't intend to offend.

"We did this because God's nature is loving and giving and we wanted to give the gift of Jesus to everyone in the county so they could view him without all the religion and the other trappings," said the Rev. Gene Walton of Grace Christian Fellowship in West Palm Beach.

But rabbis and Jewish leaders condemned the tactic as offensive and disrespectful, and the Anti-Defamation League of Palm Beach County sent a letter to synagogues urging congregation members to mark the videos: "return to sender."

Palm Beach County has about 225,000 Jewish residents.

"It's not something we need in our homes, especially during Passover," Pinsky said.

Postal workers said the returned videos would be held at post offices until member of the coalition pick them up. The coalition was not being charged for the returns, they said. . news-journalonline.com

-- Maya (Maya@eck.ist), May 05, 2000

Answers

Talk about the return of Jesus.

-- ~***~ (~***~@earth.ebe), May 05, 2000.

*** that as bad..... :)

-- (Sheeple@Greener.Pastures), May 05, 2000.

"Postal workers said the returned videos would be held at post offices until member of the coalition pick them up. The coalition was not being charged for the returns, they said."

Preferential treatment by USPO, a government agency. The Christian Coalition thought nothing of spending $1.2 million for their unsolicitated "gift" of persuasion, they should be held responsible for the consequences. Not the rest of the tax payers, of which a great part happen not to be Judeo-Christians.

-- (y@x.x), May 05, 2000.

Yes sir, it's "my way or the highway."

I would have attached the return postage sticker to an Army Tank...let 'em pay for that!

-- Richard (Astral-Acres@webtv.net), May 05, 2000.

Stop the Murder:

Is this you?

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), May 05, 2000.

y -

I'm not sure your statement is supported by the data. According to 1999 World Almanac, 85% of the US population professes to be Christian (Protestant 61%; Roman Catholic 23%; Orthodox 1%). Jewish believers and Muslims account for another 1% each, and the remaining 13% do not profess a religion.

Do you consider 15% to be "a great part" of the population?

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), May 05, 2000.

Dee:

I think Y was referring to the population in Palm Beach County, versus the overall population of the U.S. [not like I know the statistics on various religions in Palm Beach County, mind you.]

-- Anita (Anita_S3@hotmail.com), May 05, 2000.

I don't think it matters what percent of the population is Christian or otherwise. This is just another instance of the evangelical religious right, once more, trying to push their brand of religion on to others who have not asked for it, and do not want it. They should damn well have to pay for the returns. What a waste of money!

It's bad enough to have to deal with all the unwanted mailings we get. But for the Christians, or any religion, to add more unwanted trash is arrogant and pushy. I've filled out the card to stop junk mail, and I've called the 800 number to get it stopped, and though I get much less, I still get a lot of stuff, clutter and trash I do not want.

I also get this stupid, aggravating email newsletter from Cindy Crawford every month, and I've answered the damned email to stop it, and they still send it. I don't give a shit about Cindy Crawford. I think I'm going to send her nice bottle of Fleet Soda and an enema bag.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), May 05, 2000.

Preferential treatment by USPO, a government agency. The Christian Coalition thought nothing of spending $1.2 million for their unsolicitated "gift" of persuasion, they should be held responsible for the consequences. Not the rest of the tax payers, of which a great part happen not to be Judeo-Christians. -- (y@x.x), May 05, 2000.

Last time I was in the Post Office, it was not tax supported, but stamp supported, as in revenue from the sale of postage. [Along with the associated merchandising]

-- 34 cents anyone? (check@next.year), May 05, 2000.

"Last time I was in the Post Office, it was not tax supported, but stamp supported, as in revenue from the sale of postage. [Along with the associated merchandising] "

And who pays those stamps? Aliens? Christians only? Paying a stamp 34 cents or giving it directly to the government, it's still paying out of everyone's pocket.

-- (y@x.x), May 05, 2000.

gilda, "Trash"? lol...you've sunk to new lows. You are quickly moving up my list of "Most Dispical Examples Of Humanity Ever" ;)

It's a free country, anyone can send mail. Christians, Jews, Pagans, Humanists. Get over it.

-- FactFinder (FactFinder@bzn.com), May 05, 2000.

DeeEmBee, I'd say your guess is as good as mine. How the World Almanac came to their numbers is up for question.

Looking up Duke University's public statistics, which brought me to American Religion Data Archive (ARDA), I see that even ARDA has a difficult time coming up with anything so clear as the World Almanac's 85%.

To wit: "Defining Membership: The most critical methodological problem was that of defining church membership. Since there is no generally acceptable definition of church membership, it was felt that the designation of members rested finally with the denominations themselves. In an effort to achieve comparability of data, however, two major categories were established: "communicant, confirmed or full members," and "total adherents."

I could not find a sweeping statistical percentage of Christians on that site. But I concede that "great number" was an exageration on my part. "Large number" would have been better, even though they are in the minority. It doesn't contradict my point though, which was that what USPO is doing is preferential treatment.

-- (y@x.x), May 05, 2000.

Gilda,

Cindy Crawford never sends me an email. What do I have to do?

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), May 05, 2000.

First off, it's the USPS.....United States Postal Service, not Office. Stamps are still .33 for first class letter size, less than an ounce. And due to the slamming of the USPS in recent years, we're trying very hard to become more customer-friendly. Sometimes this means bending to the will of the community, as in holding the tapes for pick up from the mailer. The tapes we had in my post office over a year ago, were non-addressed boxholders...everyone got one. Some tried to refuse them, but because the return postage wasn't guaranteed by the mailer, we had to just toss those few that people refused to pick up.

Give the USPS a break. who else will take your letter across town or across the country for less than the price of a....well, most anything these days.

-- Kat (kat3@crosswinds.net), May 06, 2000.

If the forum decided that it wasn't rude to post anti-Christian articles during Holy Week, why would anyone care that some group mailed free videos (that could easily be thrown away) during passover?

Personally, *I* think it was rude, but am suprised some of you do. Free enterprise, religion's bunk anyways and all that.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), May 06, 2000.

y -

The ARDA report was attempting to be a bit more granual by establishing membership in a wide variety of denominations, rather than the Almanac's relatively simple "Protestant, Catholic, or Orthodox". Reminds me of Emo Phillips' very funny bit about trying to talk another fellow out of jumping off a bridge by finding out where he went to church. Goes through a whole great long laundry list and discovers that they both are members of the "Reformed Baptist Church of God". Things go wrong from there...

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), May 06, 2000.

Frankly, I'd like AOL to stop sending me CDs all the time. I refuse to convert to "AOLism" and their constant proselytizing is really getting on my nerves... 8-}

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), May 06, 2000.

Dee,

No lie, AOL is the LAST place I'd go to online due to their constantly stuffing my mailbox with their junk. Talk about filling our landfills for no reason.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), May 06, 2000.

Hey, those free AOL CD's make great mobiles, strung together with microfine fishing line and hung in your veggie garden-they're great at keeping the birds off your tomatoes!

-- Aunt Bee (SheriffAndy@Mayberry.com), May 06, 2000.

Fact Fouler--Whether it's bubble gum, soap samples, girlie magazines, or religious tapes, if nobody wants them, then it is TRASH. Gee, it sure doesn't take much to get on your "Most Dispical (sp) " list does it?

Kat said, "Some tried to refuse them, (that means they didn't want them) but because the postage wasn't guaranteed by the mailer, (cheapskates) we had to toss those few that people refused to pick up." Are Kat and the USPS on you nasty list for tossing these unwanted tapes in the trash?

Lars, I would be delighted if you had Cindy's emails--wish I knew how to get her on you, and off me.

Frank, you ask "why would anyone care that some group mailed free videos (that could easily be thrown away) during passover? To me the key words here are "could easily be thrown away." Good grief, the landfills are overflowing with junk, trash and unwanted mailings. Why on earth would this group, or any other thinking group, whether Girl Scouts, Proctor and Gamble, or a religious group send unsolicited merchandise to people who only view it as more trash to clutter up the earth.

My husband ordered one item from a Tall Man catalog years ago, and we continued to get dozens of unsolicited letters and fabric samples from them, until we wrote them a letter saying we did not want all these mailing to add to the trash.

We try to live lightly on the earth, and not create more landfill waste. This is another thing I like about online catalogs, they don't go into land fills, after you've looked at them.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), May 06, 2000.

Gilda-

You're right. We do not need anybody creating more garbage for us. We are running out of landfill space.

-- FutureShock (gray@matter.think), May 07, 2000.

Gilda,

I highly doubt that the Jewish residents would have gotten irate about a detergent sample being sent to them during passover. The CONTENT of the tapes was the issue, not the mailing itself.

I do agree though that it would be very nice both from a "save the planet" perspective and a "save my mailbox" perspective if one could refuse to have ANY bulk mail delivered to their house BEFORE it was delivered.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), May 07, 2000.

Aunt Bee -

Thanks for the tip. Having been in the industry since the days of the Apple I, it would make a lot of sense for me to put up a "CD Mobile" outside. They probably don't chime worth a darn, but I'll certainly try to come up with some attractive color combinations. Thanks again!

-- DeeEmBee (macbeth1@pacbell.net), May 08, 2000.

Dee & Aunt Bea,

On mobiles, I take the kids walking down to the train tracks on occasion, and we always come home with "train metal" -- old spikes, broken off bolts, etc.

Made a neat mobile out of some of this "stuff" that the kids "helped" with, and it looks pretty neat, but it'd take a hurricane to actually get good sound from it!

Anyway, if you live near some tracks, lots of great stuff to recycle.

Frank

-- Someone (ChimingIn@twocents.cam), May 08, 2000.