I am sure everyone has those friends or relatives that feel the need to forward (spam) you with all of these cute pictures, anecdotes, and jokes. While I read some of them, most end up getting deleted, despite the email promising doom and gloom if I delete it. While this can be mildly annoying, those who send them are usually endearing and sweet so it does not bother me.

Where I get irritated is when an aquaintance from Church sends out a forwarded message (usually on some political or social issue) that assumes all whom they forward the email to are in line with their views and will sign the petition or be interested in attending the event. When this occurs, I have politely emailed and said that this topic is something which I either don’t agree with or have no interest in and would they please not send these to me anymore. Interestingly, one fellow HC, when I was in the HC, kept sending me information about subjects I did not agree with him on, but he assumed I did, even though we had actually said about 10 words to each other in total. This stream of emails eventually led me to send the email asking not to include me on his email list. Some of the topics I have had forwarded by these individuals include - missionary updates on their children whom I have never met, information on rallies against gay marriage, invitations to MLM meetings, etc. My question is “why do people feel the need to send these out?” “are they naive enough to assume that everyone believes what they do and will have interest in it just because we are Mormon?”