This could be filed under news of the weird, but one we wanted to share here. A priest in Eng­land says that it is OK for the poor to shoplift, but it can only be from big chain stores.

From the UK’s Inde­pen­dent, writer Kather­ine Bowen reports on this strange Christ­mas time message.

Father Tim Jones, parish priest of St Lawrence and St Hilda in York, broke off from the tra­di­tional Nativ­ity story to say that some­times shoplift­ing was the only option for poor fam­i­lies and cer­tainly bet­ter than “pros­ti­tu­tion, mug­ging or bur­glary” as a way of mak­ing money.

Mr Jones, who pre­vi­ously worked as a prison chap­lain, told his con­gre­ga­tion: “My advice, as a Chris­t­ian priest, is to shoplift. 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. I would ask them not to take any more than they need, for any longer than they need.”

He said he offered the advice “with a heavy heart”, and wished soci­ety would recog­nise that bureau­cratic inep­ti­tude and sys­temic delay had cre­ated an “invi­ta­tion and incen­tive to crime for peo­ple strug­gling to cope”.

Mr Jones cited an exam­ple of an ex-prisoner who had received less than £100, includ­ing a cri­sis loan, in the six weeks since his release.

He said his advice did not con­tra­dict the Bible’s eighth com­mand­ment, not to steal, say­ing God’s love for the poor and despised out­weighed the prop­erty rights of the rich.

He added: “Let my words not be mis­rep­re­sented as a sim­plis­tic call for peo­ple to shoplift. “The obser­va­tion that shoplift­ing is the best option that some peo­ple are left with is a grim indict­ment of who we are.

“Rather, this is a call for our soci­ety no longer to treat its most vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple with indif­fer­ence and contempt.”

We are reminded of Rev­erend Love­joy from the TV show The Simp­sons’ advice on the topic. He says that it’s ok to steal bread if you are hun­gry, but please don’t put any jelly on it. For Father Jones, he is clearly forc­ing his own views into scrip­ture, and not let­ting scrip­ture form his worldview.

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