What is an Urban Legend?

Peter van der Linden and Terry Chan seem to think in their alt.folklore.urban FAQ:

"An urban legend:

• appears mysteriously and spreads spontaneously in varying forms
• contains elements of humor or horror (the horror often "punishes" someone who flouts society's conventions).
• makes good storytelling.
• does NOT have to be false, although most are. ULs often have a basis in fact, but it's their life after-the-fact (particularly in reference to the second and third points) that gives them particular interest."

Urban Legends abound in our society. Human beings love good story telling, even when they know there is not one particle of truth to what is being told. I guess I have taken part in spreading the Legends, especially if I have gotten a good laugh. But sometimes the Urban Legends are cited to prove a point that is otherwise unsupportable.

The Bible condemns lying. "But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, their part shall be in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone; which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8). Is the repeating of an Urban Legend lying? If you know that it is not true, and your intention is to deceive, then you are lying, and you ought not to engage in it. Your reputation for veracity is at stake. We are to let our light shine. "Even so let your light shine before men; that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 5:16). Jesus also said, "Swear not at all … But let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: and whatsoever is more than these is of the evil one" (Matt. 5:34-37). If we are all the time "joshing" people without telling them that we are "joshing," they will soon come to the point where they do not believe anything we say. That is bad for the cause.

I have repeated many Urban Legends, and you probably have, too. It is easy to find them, if you have a computer connected to the Internet, or if you take one of the weekly bulletins. As I have mentioned, they are often cited to prove that which is unprovable. When I first started preaching, for example, the word went out that a computer scientist at NASA had discovered a Joshua’s long day by running the Space Agency’s computer backward to the time of Joshua. That sorry story still pops up in bulletins and emails from well-meaning preachers. But the tip-off, even for computer illiterates is the scientist’s name – Harold Hill. That is also the name of the con-man in the Broadway musical and movie, The Music Man. The story is false, and thanks to Farrell Jenkins, many of us were straightened out before being made a fool of. (I read Farrell’s explanation before I heard the Legend – I plead Not Guilty!

One of the more popular Urban Legends (one that I enjoyed) is about a man who attached a JATO tube (Jet Assisted Take-off) to his Impala car. Supposedly, he and his car were found imbedded in a cliff at the end of a long and lonely stretch of highway. It did not happen. It makes a good fiction, but now I know that it is not the truth.

One of my favorite Urban Legends has to do with the airlines and their chicken cannon. Supposedly, the airlines (as though they act in concert) have a cannon that fires dead chickens at airplane windshields at 600 miles per hour. The purpose is to test canopy strength designs for aircraft, because they are always crashing into birds. It seems that the British (no agency is ever named) borrowed one of our cannons to test the windshields on some of their planes and high speed commuter trains. When the chickens were fired at the test vehicles, the chickens always went crashing through the plexiglass, destroying everything in the cockpits, and embedding in the concrete walls behind the targets. When they inquired about it to the Americans, it was suggested they might thaw the chickens first. There is no official record of this ever happening.

However, the Air Force uses such a cannon which uses air pressure to fire the chickens. Two or three aircraft are lost a year to bird wrecks, and a couple of flight personnel every 2 or 3 years. They have used both real dead chickens and fake rubber chickens. Because the chickens must be enveloped in a gel casing and then handloaded into the cannon, it would be impossible to load up without knowing if the chicken was frozen still. To date, I haven’t found anything about the British borrowing the Air Force’s Rooster Booster. That part of the tale is best explained as less trustworthy than hearsay.

Sometimes we hear Urban Legends of a more sinister nature. Dangerous myths surround the use of alcohol. Those myths need dispelling. Just a few quotes from the February 1992 National Geographic will do the job.

"1. A shot of brandy chases the chill. (It actually makes you colder.)

2. The French can’t have many alcoholics, because they drink wine. (Not true. They have a high incidence of alcohol-related problems, with twice the rate of death by liver cirrhosis as in the U.S.)

3. Similar defenses are made for beer, yet most alcoholics in Britain are beer drinkers, because beer is still predominately what the British drink. It’s not what you drink; it’s how much alcohol goes down your throat." (These quotes from pages 14-15)

"4. It may be rare to see a drunk Italian, but 20,000 Italians die each year of cirrhotic livers.

5. Roughly 9 percent of the population are estimated to be alcoholics … The police almost never check for blood alcohol." (These quotes from pages 27-28)

How many times have you heard someone justifying "social drinking" on the basis of European countries starting their children on wine, and having wine with their meals, and they don’t have near the problems we do with alcohol. Folks, that’s what I’ve always heard, and I don’t know on what grounds people repeat such misinformation, but you need to know that it is not the truth. I cannot imagine a society where the population is nearly 10% alcoholic being used to argue that societies that drink as a cultural thing don’t have a problem. It simply is not so.

Jesus said, "The truth shall make you free" (John 8:32). That drinking is harmless is not the truth. It is a lie that was spun by the devil, and he wants you in its web.

"Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler; And whosoever erreth thereby is not wise" (Proverbs 20:1).