Let's get gut-level honest

[Pastor Gary]

It's easy for us in 21st Century America to speak in abstractions and high-sounding theory, but can we be real here for a minute?

Like everyone else, I have watched the endless news reports from Haiti with a knot in my stomach. Mass graves... bodies decaying in the streets... the entire national infrastructure, such as it was, broken down... chaos... hunger, thirst and lack of the basic necessities of life... mass graves... it is just too horrible to imagine, but it is happening just miles from our shores.

SO: imagine you are a Haitian who survived the quake, and you (and your family) have been without food or water for days. Someone breaks the locks on a store that has supplies inside and people begin to strip it of contents, passing the food and liquids out to the crowd. Do you stand on principle and watch your family go without, or do you take the food/water from the store to keep you and yours alive?

[TW]

To be perfectly honest. If my families survival depended on it, I would be the one breaking the locks.


TW

[Susie Hamilton]

I have to agree with TW. At that point who knows if the owner is still alive and what their primary concerns are as well.

[beckrl]

David may have not broken in the holy place at took the shewbread, but he did eat.

And David said unto Ahimelech the priest, The king hath commanded me a business, and hath said unto me, Let no man know any thing of the business whereabout I send thee, and what I have commanded thee: and I have appointed my servants to such and such a place.

3Now therefore what is under thine hand? give me five loaves of bread in mine hand, or what there is present.

4And the priest answered David, and said, There is no common bread under mine hand, but there is hallowed bread

6So the priest gave him hallowed bread: for there was no bread there but the shewbread, that was taken from before the LORD, to put hot bread in the day when it was taken away

[pastorables]

That's a tough question. As a store owner, I wouldn't desire it to be looted anymore than my home. By the same, I would desire to help the hungry as much as possible.

This raises a sidebar question, would you protect your personal property from vandalism and looting during a national crisis?

pa

[Pastor Gary]

That's a tough question. As a store owner, I wouldn't desire it to be looted anymore than my home. By the same, I would desire to help the hungry as much as possible.

This raises a sidebar question, would you protect your personal property from vandalism and looting during a national crisis?

I know... I am a conservative capitalist, but I have trouble seeing opening a stockpile of goods to save lives as looting in times of massive tragedy. I also sympathize with the store owners who have risked, saved and invested to stock their shop, only to see it trashed and cleaned out -- sometimes by the desperate and sometimes by opportunistic thugs.

I'd like to think that, were I the shopkeeper in Haiti, I would forget investment and profits and choose to distribute the stock freely in an orderly way... but I am human, selfish and generally put #1 first, just like everyone else, so I might not be so noble.

[dolfan]

I'd do whatever I had to do, I suppose, to keep my family alive.

[Paully_44]

huge difference in your scenario of looting as opposed to looting during riots after sporting events or protests. In the case of Haiti, I'd do whatever it takes to survive and feed my family.

[Russell Roberts]

I don't honestly know. We have a limited knowledge of how we might respond under any number of situations. I suspect that if my wife and child were hungry, I would steal food to feed them.

[MacUser]

In a New York Minute.

My choice would be Order rather than Chaos. But in a "real Chaos" situation.. I wouldn't hold to useless empty rules... but quickly form new ones that would attempt to reorder the chaos into a more controlled situation for my family and people around me.

And I would be praying all the way.. expecting the best result.. Clear as mud?

[TC]

would not think twice about it... If it was the only thing that could save anyone's life I would do it. But my family would come first.

to be blunt if there is a store that is still somewhat standing and it has things that are needed by people to survive it is a sin to let people die because you are not making a profit.

[Poimen]

to be blunt if there is a store that is still somewhat standing and it has things that are needed by people to survive it is a sin to let people die because you are not making a profit.

Given the qualifiers ... AMEN!

[one love]

I would feed my family at ALL cost

[Full Quiver]

I'd supply the lock cutters for sure. It's sorta like it's easier to ask for forgiveness than permission sometimes.

[Darling]

I would do all I could to feed my family.