Randy Cassingham's Blog

Last week I noted:

When I moved to Western Colorado, I chuckled when I was assigned my PO Box: it's number 668. Several readers chuckled too, commenting that I must be the "neighbor of the beast". Yes, I did look in the little window of Box 666 and saw it had mail in it -- so it wasn't available. But guess what? That boxholder let his box go so I grabbed it.

As of now, True's official address, and the address to mail order Get Out Of Hell Free cards by mail, is Box 666 (what the heck? Sounds fun to me!)

This week, the response:

Sallie in Pennsylvania: "My husband is a Presbyterian pastor and when he went to his first church in Amherst, VA, he discovered that the mailbox # was 666. Apparently the Baptist postmaster made the assignment as a joke on the Presbyterian assistant postmaster. The church still has that post office box and no one has trouble remembering it!"

Jim in California: "A few years back our home phone number had a 666 prefix. When we got the number, the phone company actually asked us hesitantly if we had any objections. I found it funny, even though as a Christian I'm apparently not supposed to. Every time I gave anyone my phone number, I got a funny look or a comment, most frequently a frightened 'ooooh' sound. I always replied, 'yes, it's true; Pacific Bell is the antichrist.' If they persisted, I would say 'do you honestly believe that both God and Satan have nothing better to do than play number games?' before launching into a very brief explanation of the biblical meaning of '666' as found in Revelation. I don't have that phone number anymore since we moved, but my address is now 676, and I use the 'neighbor of the beast' line a lot. It happens that my next door neighbor's address is 666 and his wife is not very nice. heh."

Debbie in California: "17 years ago our assigned phone number was 666-. I am the original church lady, on the altar guild, Sunday School helper, taking classes in ministry at church, etc. I was in a Christian bookstore writing a check for a fairly large pile of books and goodies. The youngster behind the counter looked at my phone number on my check and dropped it on the counter, as though it had burned her fingers! Good grief . I chatted with her about it, yeah, we didn't have a choice, no, it was too much of a pain to change, etc. But she still really didn't want to touch my check. [It's amazing how some Christians] allow something as silly as a phone number or an amusing t-shirt (or card -- I liberally hand out my GOOHF cards to people I think need them) to cause them upset." And Karen in Nevada: "LOVE the P.O. Box number change! Years ago my father-in-law was a Lutheran (ECLA) pastor in Colorado. When his church first opened it was assigned the 666 phone exchange. There was such an uproar about it in the congregation he had to contact the phone company to get the number changed. Combine that with the newspaper headline of 'Christ The Serpent' (rather than Servant) had opened its doors.... We still laugh about it to this day."

I just ordered 20,000 more Get Out of Hell Free cards -- after all this time, you're still loving them!