Signs & Wonders Blog

Social media is a powerful tool that can be used for good or bad. That includes missing person alerts. Many posted online have the added plea, “It only takes seconds to share.” Verifying that a missing person report is legitimate and still active also takes a few seconds. For years, I’ve noticed many of these cases have been resolved and need to stop circulating .   In recent months, more missing child alerts have become phishing scams. Facebook posts about so-called missing children are later changed to something one might be selling or lead to a link to extract money from people. Unless it’s your child or someone you know, it’s best not to share these alerts until you do some research. A website called TinEye allows one to do a reverse image search. There’s also a national database available to verify if a child is missing.  Here are some red flags to look for when you see a missing person alert on Facebook: The post came from a “buy and sell” group instead of a law e...

In the classic police drama “Dragnet,” Sergeant Joe Friday (portrayed by the late Jack Webb) implored informants, “All we want are the facts.” Parodies have paraphrased this to where many believe Friday frequently said, “Just the facts, ma’am.” The truth is he never uttered that exact phrase on radio or TV. However, it was used to promote the 1987 movie “Dragnet” and as the title of an authorized biography of Jack Webb. As stated before in this blog, I refuse to pass on chain letters . They often contain outdated or inaccurate information. A new one that’s appeared in my Facebook news feed is Tim Tebow warning us about the government preparing us for a cashless society. I don't believe Tim wrote this. It resembles a meme falsely attributed to another well-known Christian.  For years, a prayer request has circulated with Joyce Meyer’s name attached to it. It claims twenty churches got burned down in an Indian province called Olisabang. There are no provinces in India. They have...

It’s often been said, “Think before you speak.” As James 1:19 says, “So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” Nowadays with texting and emails, we should think twice before typing and posting something online. In the words of one pastor friend: “Put brain into gear before putting mouth/finger into action.” Too many people quickly share stuff on social media without checking its veracity. As a result, hoaxes have circulated for years such as the “ 22 Christian missionary families that will be executed today in Afghanistan. ” I have a policy not to forward any chain letter or meme and will block (but not unfriend) individuals who persist in sending me these messages. One type of chain letter that can have negative consequences is those involving missing people. I’ve received messages with pleas such as, “If it was your child, you would want all the help you could get.” If it was my child and he/she was found, I wou...

Since I started using email in the late 1990s, electronic chain letters frequently show up in my inbox with the exhortation to “pass it on.” They vary from inspirational stories to virus warnings. Often these messages contain partial truths mixed with false information. For years I received online petitions against Madalyn Murray O’Hair campaigning for all Christian programming to be taken off the air , even though O’Hair had been dead since 1995! More recently, a couple of Facebook friends posted a prayer request for a 22-month-old boy who supposedly shot himself in the chest with a nail gun and was near death. Upon seeing this, I started praying about the situation and immediately perceived it was an e-rumor. A search on truthorfiction.com revealed this prayer request has circulated online since 2010 (meaning the boy would be 8-9 years old now). The validity of this is in question since no places are mentioned or even the boy’s name. I’ve also received emails containing...