We Often Forget the Needy....

Thou shalt shoplift, priest tells congregation……..
U.K. clergyman advises poor people to target ‘large national businesses’

MSNBC, December’2009

LONDON - A British priest has advised people in "desperate situations" to shoplift from chain stores.
Reverend Tim Jones said society "leaves some people little option but crime," the BBC reported.
The Anglican clergyman made the controversial remarks while addressing the subject of how poverty-stricken people deal with the holiday season during his Sunday sermon
The Daily Mail newspaper reported that Jones said it "is permissible for those who are in desperate situations to take food that they might not starve."
"My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift," he told parishioners in the northern England city of 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."
'Indifference and contempt'
Jones, a father of two, said people who find themselves suddenly unemployed or released from prison are often treated with "indifference and contempt."
He suggested that shoplifting was preferable to prostitution, burglary or violent crime.
Jones said that those in dire straits "should not hurt anybody and cope as best they can".
"When we, as a society, let our most vulnerable people down so terribly badly, I would rather that people take an 80 pence ($1.28) can of ravioli rather than turn to some of the most appalling things," Jones told BBC Breakfast on Tuesday. "Burglary causes untold harm and damage to people in a way that taking a can of spaghetti rings from a supermarket doesn't.
"That's not to say that shoplifting is good. Shoplifting is a dreadful thing but sometimes that's all we leave people with."
'Storm of protest'
The remarks sparked a firestorm of protest, and a summons from Archdeacon of York Richard Seed, who said in a statement posted on his Web site Tuesday that the church rejects the view that shoplifting can be acceptable. "The Church of England does not advise anyone to shoplift, or break the law in any way," he said. Eleanor Course, a spokeswoman for Seed, said the Archdeacon wants to meet with Jones to discuss his sermon.
A spokesman for North Yorkshire Police described Jones' sermon as "highly irresponsible," while the British Retail Consortium also condemned the clergyman's views.
Jones told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he stands by his comments. He said he regretted only that most of the focus had been on his shoplifting comments rather than his other points. "The point I'm making is that when we shut down every socially acceptable avenue for people in need then the only avenue left is the socially unacceptable one," he said, adding that people are often released from prison without any means of support. "What I'm against is the way society has become ever more comfortable with the people at the very bottom, and blinded to their needs," he said.

Food for thought....you'll agree. Sadly, the same is true here in the USA.....a large and growing disconnect between those that have too much and a huge many that don't.......of course, our 'free markets' also dictate and direct the path to endless human greed!