Proselytizing emails at work

[irishrosem]

So I get into my office and look through my inbox and find the following email sent to all city court employees. Quote:Subject: DON'T BUY PEPSI IN THE NEW CAN! Don't buy Pepsi in the new can. Pepsi has a new "patriotic" can coming out with pictures of the Empire State Building, and the Pledge of Allegiance on them. However, Pepsi left out two little words on the pledge, "Under God." Pepsi said they didn't want to offend anyone. In that case, we don't want to offend anyone at the Pepsi corporate office, either! So if we don't buy any Pepsi product, they will not be offended when they don't receive our money that has the words "In God We Trust" on it. HOW FAST CAN YOU FORWARD THIS ONE?Now I work for a government office, the email address of all the recepients of this email is a ".gov" address. How is this an appropriate message to distribute over a work email? In order for any list serve email to go out you must get user permission, to prevent spam from being sent out city-wide. Therefore, someone in court administration must have approved this email being sent to the city-wide court system. So frustrating!!!!!! Any suggestions on how or whether I should proceed?

[Mr. P]

These people are just sad...and a lot funny!!!Is this true, about the Pepsi? If so, I am going to buy TONS of soda from them!Mr. P. Mr. P's place. I warned you!!!Mr. P's Bookshelf.I'm not saying it's usual for people to do those things but I(with the permission of God) have raised a dog from the dead and healed many people from all sorts of ailments. - AsanaThe one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart...Scorsese's "Mean Streets"I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

[LanDroid]

Perhaps you can get permission to send the following link de-bunking that story to the entire court system...www.snopes.com/politics/b...dergod.asp

[irishrosem]

Thanks for the reference. (My initial thought when I read the email was that it could be a hoax.) I'm not so much offended by the reliability of the information but by the permission that it was sent out at all. I am considering whether or not to say anything. On the one hand, it is inappropriate. On the other hand, I don't really want to send out red flags about internet use at work. I'm still considering which is more important to me. Either way, I will be letting the original sender know that the story itself is false.

[MadArchitect]

They should replace it with "under corn." That would be particularly appropriate for a soda manufacturer.