It Takes Guts to say Jesus Virus–Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
A virus warning about a virus named “It Takes Guts to Say Jesus.”
It says the virus is very dangerous, much worse than the infamous Melissa virus, and that it uses the Norton Utilities “reformat” function to reformat your hard drive and make you lose everything.
It also claims that it destroys both IBM and “Macintosh” computers.
The Truth:
This warning is a hoax that has been circulating on the Internet since the late 1990’s.
Variations of it also warn against opening any email that has a subject line of “RETURNED OR UNABLE TO DELIVER.”
The phrase “It takes guts to say Jesus” hearkens back to the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado in 1999.
A story circulated shortly afterwards that one of the of the students who was shot, 16-year old Cassie Bernall, was challenged by the student who shot her with the question of whether she believed in God.
She is said to have responded by saying “Yes, I believe in Jesus” or simply “yes,” but there has been controversy over whether it was she or another student who said those words.
Cassie became well known as a result and many Christian luminaries participated in her funeral service.
Out of that came the phrase, “It takes guts to say Jesus.”