Shoplifting will not cause global warming
If there’s one thing we can rely on christianity for, it’s preaching the right message to the wrong people. This is what happened to Father Tim Jones, who decided to tell his congregation that shoplifting is, “a better moral thing to do than robbery or prostitution.”
The logic is fine, we’d all rather someone shoplifted than robbed us. The problem is that his congregation, much like christianity in this country, isn’t representative anymore. Therein lies the cause of the discontent and bad press that followed.
You can’t mention anything the slightest bit controversial to the god-fearing without causing a chain of “strongly worded letters” anymore. These are the people that kept Points of View running for all those years. These are the people that make up half of the Daily Mail’s readership. These are the people that invented political correctness because they’re so scared of offending anyone they’d rather sit in their own home with the curtains drawn.
The message the poor Father is trying to put across here, is that the government doesn’t help the right people at the time they need it and that if they’re faced with the robbery of a private citizen or shoplifting, then choose shoplifting. This isn’t rocket science, I’m sure everyone would prefer that to happen. This isn’t saying he’s pro-shoplifting, this is stating the obvious. Both criminal acts, yes. Both on the same level, no.
I don’t agree with crime in any form, I’m also an atheist, a humanist and I don’t particularly like religion, but… if I had to choose whether you became a christian or a scientologist then I know which one I’d rather you be. They fall under the same umbrella (yes, yes, I know) but only one is noticably more harmful to yourself and others around you. Would you prefer your child smoked weed or took heroin? This is why we have different sentences for criminal acts. Steal a can of baked beans from a major supermarket chain to feed your kids might be against the law, but it’s not the same as raping the pope.
So, what happened to Father Jones? Aside from forgetting that as a man of the cloth he’s no longer allowed freedom of speech, well, he made the mistake of having logical and current views, forgetting that religion is still many years behind. In response to the sermon, the Archdeacon of York proved that very point with his statement, “I really don’t think that the church can in that sense condone or even support shoplifting because it will often lead somebody into deeper trouble.”
That old chestnut has been doing the rounds as long as, “It’s not the children, it’s the parent’s fault.”
It’s the person, not the act, that dictates their life. Some people with bizarre childhoods do turn out mental. Some with equally bizarre childhoods go on to lead rich and fulfilling lives. Everyone is in control of their own destiny, which brings us nicely onto my main gripe with those that insist there’s a God…
… but that’s for another time.
