Wednesday 23 December 2009

Steal from big business, priest advises

Parish priest of St Lawrence and St Hilda near York, Tim Jones, has told his parishioners: “My advice, as a Christian, is to shoplift.”

As reported in his local newspaper, The Press, Jones said: “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."

He told ITN on Monday that he was directing his advice to those with nothing and who had run out of other options. He said it was an acceptable alternative for those in desperate need, and was better than burglary or prostitution, for example.

"I would say to those people that are outraged: Compare how much you are spending on yourself this Christmas compared to how much you have given to people in desperate situations," he added.

He advised those who would now be planning to steal to only take what they needed for as long as they had a need.

He also said that his advocacy of shoplifting was a "grim indictment" of society and was a plea for assistance for the most vulnerable.

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