Thou SHALT shoplift: Priest tells congregation it's better than robbery or prostitutionBy Chris Brooke
Last updated at 9:44 AM on 22nd December 2009
(from
www.dailymail.co.uk)
Poor people who are desperate for cash have been advised to go forth and shoplift from major stores - by an Anglican priest.
The Rev Tim Jones said in his Sunday sermon that stealing from successful shops was preferable to burglary, robbery or prostitution.
He told parishioners it would not break the eighth commandment 'thou shalt not steal' because it 'is permissible for those who are in desperate situations to take food that they might not starve'.
But his advice was roundly condemned by police and the local Tory MP. Father Jones, 42, was discussing Mary and the birth of Jesus when he went on to the subject of how poor and vulnerable people cope in the run-up to Christmas.
'My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift,' he told his stunned congregation at St Lawrence and St Hilda in York.
'I do not offer such advice because I think that stealing is a good thing, or because I think it is harmless, for it is neither.
'I would ask that they do not steal from small family businesses, but from large national businesses, knowing that the costs are ultimately passed on to the rest of us in the form of higher prices.
'I would ask them not to take any more than they need. I offer the advice with a heavy heart. Let my words not be misrepresented as a simplistic call for people to shoplift.
'The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are.
'Rather, this is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt.
'When people are released from prison, or find themselves suddenly without work or family support, then to leave them for weeks with inadequate or clumsy social support is monumental, catastrophic folly.
'We create a situation which leaves some people little option but crime.'
ija nalang na gi justify ija pagka KLEPTOMANIAC. Honest to God, wa jud insaktong ginikanan mo ingon sa ija anak nga its ok to shoplift! for heaven's sake!
Now, i would like to ask Chicky, is it okay to shoplift if one is hungry? One can ask! ilabi na diri sa Merika nga people are very generous!
He is a shame, im sorry to say. makadaut sa moral sa ubang mga pari nga maajo!
