The Truth about “The Truth About Hell”

For over a year, our church has been receiving returned mail that has been sent by an unknown individual, using our church return address on the envelopes. The return address is stamped onto the envelopes using a rubber stamp. Inside the envelope is a tract called, “The Truth About Hell.” The message in the tract is very negative, uses scare tactics, and is something I would classify as Fundamentalism. It is not even close to being characteristic of the message preached here at Queen Anne Baptist Church . Our message is one of hope because of God’s love and grace.

Unfortunately, when people receive this mailing, they have no way of knowing that this has not been sent by QABC. Occasionally, someone who receives one of these mailings calls the church, and we are able to set the story straight. But most of the time, I’m sure they just assume this is being sent from our church. Many of the letters go out with insufficient or wrong addresses. Because they use our return address, they are returned to the church. I would estimate that somewhere around 500 of these misaddressed envelopes have come back to us at the church, over a period of about fifteen months.

It saddens me that people who are unfamiliar with QABC have this negative message come to them from our church, and think we have sent it. I have tried several things to stop it. I have filed a police report. I have talked, on two occasions, with the postal authorities. I have contacted the people in Alabama who publish the tract and asked them to tell me who in Seattle is purchasing large numbers of this tract so I can ask them to use their own return address rather than ours. So far, nothing has stopped the tract from being sent out.

If you have received this tract, I apologize.

Update:  We received an anonymous apology from the person who was sending these, and it has stopped.