{"id":7377,"date":"2009-12-22T07:30:28","date_gmt":"2009-12-22T12:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=7377"},"modified":"2009-12-22T07:47:43","modified_gmt":"2009-12-22T12:47:43","slug":"7377","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=7377","title":{"rendered":"Thou Shalt Gig Up"},"content":{"rendered":"

I know this story’s been making the rounds, but I had to get in on it; a Brit Anglican priest is urging the poor to shoplift<\/a>:<\/p>\n

‘My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift,’ [Father Tim Jones] told his stunned congregation at St Lawrence and St Hilda in York.<\/p>\n

‘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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s right.\u00a0 There’s nuance!\u00a0 More later.<\/p>\n

Father Jones does have scruples, though:<\/p>\n

‘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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In other words – “pass a tax on the rest of society without bothering to go through the government”.<\/p>\n

It’s the ultimate manifestation of “hope and change”; it’s Chicago politics taken to the streets.\u00a0 Er, aisles.<\/p>\n

‘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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Oh, heavens no.\u00a0 It’s a simplistic call to for people to shoplift wrapped in a tortilla of demented pseudo-religion.<\/p>\n

‘The observation that shoplifting is the best option that some people are left with is a grim indictment of who we are.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Depends on what the definition of the word “we” is.<\/p>\n

‘Rather, this is a call for our society no longer to treat its most vulnerable people with indifference and contempt.<\/p>\n

‘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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Er, yeah.\u00a0 Perhaps the Anglican Church could, y’know, help people<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I know this story’s been making the rounds, but I had to get in on it; a Brit Anglican priest is urging the poor to shoplift: ‘My advice, as a Christian priest, is to shoplift,’ [Father Tim Jones] told his stunned congregation at St Lawrence and St Hilda in York. ‘I do not offer such […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crime-and-punishment","category-faiths-and-their-followers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7377"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7381,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7377\/revisions\/7381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}