Several years ago, before the advent of the Internet, evangelicals were sharing in a particularly disturbing rumor via mimeographed fliers that showed up on church bulletin boards and information counters around America. At the time the Procter & Gamble company had a slightly eerie face shaped like a crescent moon as their corporate insignia. Earlier reports had circulated claiming that this logo was an ancient symbol of satanic worship. Now we received notice that a Proctor and Gamble vice president had been interviewed on the popular network television news magazine "60 Minutes" and asked whether the symbol was satanic and whether it would continue to be used. His alleged answer was, yes, it was satanic and, yes, it would be kept in use. As a result of this shocking revelation the flier urged us to begin an immediate total boycott of the company. Many evangelicals no doubt did just that.

The only problem was that later investigation proved that the inflammatory TV interview not only did not contain the provocation, but also didn’t happen to exist.

Such misinformation is not unusual on the American Christian scene. Sometimes we appear to be the most gullible sub-culture in the country. We hear rumors; particularly rumors about anti-Christian activities, on a regular basis and we often buy into them "hook, line and sinker". Many times these tales include slanderous statements about secular personalities whom we do not like. In addition to being slanderous some of the information is invariably either blown completely out of proportion or, worse, altogether false.

Not all these unfounded rumors are negative, however. Another popular evangelical pastime is talking about which famous celebrity recently "got saved". Whether it be Jane Fonda, Alice Cooper or Larry Flint we love being able to claim a big name for our cause. Sometimes a true conversion has occurred and we have every legitimate reason to rejoice. But other times it is simply wishful thinking. Either the person in question never made a commitment to Christ or the brand of "Christianity" they have adopted is anything but biblical. Then their are the stars whose conversion seems to last for about three weeks. When we find out the truth about these celebrities we are either disappointed or we just deny the facts and continue to believe what we want to believe. "Is Marilyn Manson a Christian? You bet!"

Among the results of all this misinformation being credulously believed by Christians is the world being able to dismiss us as "uneducated…and easily-led" as the New York Times put it a couple of years ago. That we come across as mean-spirited by dishing holy dirt is bad enough, but worse is the perception that evangelicals are all naïve and totally out of touch with reality. This reflects terribly on our faith and, more importantly, on the One who is the Author of that faith and the worlds only hope. It is a sin to take part in rumormongering even if it the rumors are true. How much worse, then, when they turn out to be false?

I know of no Christian watchdog group whose purpose it is to track down the veracity of items making the rounds in the evangelical rumor mill. Maybe such a ministry could cut down on the number of spurious insinuations labeled as gospel truth traveling around the Internet today. But I’m not holding my breath. Sadly it may well be that we like our "sanctified gossip" just the way it is, clogging our spam filters and titillating the not-so-better angels of our nature.