http://www.salvationarmyethics.org/2010/06/my-advice-as-a-christian-priest-is-to-shoplift/ The Salvation Army Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:17:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://www.salvationarmyethics.org/2010/06/my-advice-as-a-christian-priest-is-to-shoplift/comment-page-1/#comment-557 Tim Jones Sun, 28 Nov 2010 00:25:53 +0000 http://www.salvationarmyethics.org/?p=862#comment-557 Killing? Raping? That's quite a jump. Killing? Raping? That’s quite a jump.

]]> http://www.salvationarmyethics.org/2010/06/my-advice-as-a-christian-priest-is-to-shoplift/comment-page-1/#comment-513 F Powe Sat, 31 Jul 2010 13:30:00 +0000 http://www.salvationarmyethics.org/?p=862#comment-513 no, No, NO...as a 'vicar' myself in a very poor rural church...AND living literally just at the poverty line in these hard times, I don't send someone away empty handed with the advice to go steal...even from a national brand company; STEALING is STEALING. I've been faced with this ethical question on a lesser level, and at some level I was proud to be able to share from my poverty at least some food to help someone else who came to my house in worse need than myself. I would possibly even give shelter if I could. Everything I have is a gift from God, and this experience has taught me that if it is all God's, then I should be ready to share it... absolutely right down to the silver candlesticks à la Victor Hugo's impoverished bishop in Les Misérables. But while Mary and the Magnificat are all about throwing down the rich and raising the poor, she wasn't about to steal, or by extension, kill and rape to do it. How can God's "Magnificat" ever be accomplished by embracing and advocating evil?? Mary was prophesying that JESUS was the demise of evil, typified by the rich and raising the poor...and he never stole...the worst thing we know he did was drive the money changers out...and I pretty much guarantee he didn't so much as pocket one brass lepton! In charity, we all say stupid things from the pulpit on occasion that we regret the next week...and heaven knows that I'm on the far liberal left end of the church, and like where the preacher is going in general, but the stealing part of the sermon was just plain wrong. Even in straitened circumstances, he should open his own home and his own heart, knowing that God will honour his righteousness. no, No, NO…as a ‘vicar’ myself in a very poor rural church…AND living literally just at the poverty line in these hard times, I don’t send someone away empty handed with the advice to go steal…even from a national brand company; STEALING is STEALING. I’ve been faced with this ethical question on a lesser level, and at some level I was proud to be able to share from my poverty at least some food to help someone else who came to my house in worse need than myself. I would possibly even give shelter if I could. Everything I have is a gift from God, and this experience has taught me that if it is all God’s, then I should be ready to share it… absolutely right down to the silver candlesticks à la Victor Hugo’s impoverished bishop in Les Misérables. But while Mary and the Magnificat are all about throwing down the rich and raising the poor, she wasn’t about to steal, or by extension, kill and rape to do it. How can God’s “Magnificat” ever be accomplished by embracing and advocating evil?? Mary was prophesying that JESUS was the demise of evil, typified by the rich and raising the poor…and he never stole…the worst thing we know he did was drive the money changers out…and I pretty much guarantee he didn’t so much as pocket one brass lepton! In charity, we all say stupid things from the pulpit on occasion that we regret the next week…and heaven knows that I’m on the far liberal left end of the church, and like where the preacher is going in general, but the stealing part of the sermon was just plain wrong. Even in straitened circumstances, he should open his own home and his own heart, knowing that God will honour his righteousness.

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