Priest advises parish to shoplift...

[Merlot]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/north_yorkshire...

I thought one of the ten commandments was "thou should not steal" ?

[satchbot]

R

[AndrewW-G]

A

[CommanderJameson]

T

[tinman0]

[Merlot]

Sorry gentlemen, I did check the News forum but didn't see it!

[elster]

He didn't advise that anyway.

He said it was the lesser of two evils if someone was starving.

[10 Pence Short]

elster said:

He didn't advise that anyway.

He said it was the lesser of two evils if someone was starving.

Exactly that. The way he was interviewed on 5 Live last week was disguisting, they had no interest in allowing him to clarify his comments and started quoting bits of Bible to him as if he'd forgotten some of it and needed reminding.

To the best of my knowledge he said if your only choices to feed your family were to commit a crime, it was better to shoplift from a retailer than to burgle or rob from another family. The context being that to steal was wrong, but if you were doing it for the 'right' reasons, choose the stealing that will impact on others the least. He also said that you should only steal as little as you need and for as little time as possible.

He did not say it was OK for people to steal, but that's not what the press wanted to hear.