Internet Hoax

Well, it looked good:  Joel Osteen Renounces Christianity!  Resigns from Megachurch!

But, like a host of other headlines, it was a hoax.  An elaborate one; the creator not only created a fake Joel Osteen Ministries site, but several fake news sites to push the hoax!

Facebook, of course, picked this up and ran with it.

Look, I am the first guy to ever be glad that someone dumps the kool-aid and gets reality into their brain, especially if that person is someone important to the other side.

But there are limits to both believability and to what is the right way to do things, and to make a leader of a large number of people the target of a hoax is not only flat out wrong, but counter to what those of us who are humanists should believe in.  This hurts people, both the man as the target and the people he leads.  It also hurts the image those of us who are atheists would like the world to see of us.  This kind of childish prank hurts our cause and does not advance it one bit.

We should be better than that.  I want all of you to understand that I categorically denounce these kinds of pranks and do not support this hurtful activity.  Really, it wasn't even very funny.