What are your thoughts about this?
 

The other night Mrs. Instigator and I were driving back home. We stop at a red light and I see that there is a guy with a cardboard sign and a backpack standing on the corner. He looked like he had been on the road traveling for a while and could use help, so I pulled out my wallet and grabbed a couple of bucks.

I changed lanes to the right so I could go behind the car he was currently talking to, and rolled down our passenger window. The young man comes over and only then was I able to read his sign. It read, "Christian, please help."
As he came to the window I said, "Excuse me, this is not much but I hope it helps." He came over and leaned down, and instead of taking the money looked at me and asked, "Sir, are you Christian?" I did not feel like being confrontational so I answered, "I was raised Episcopal."

He then replied, "Episcopal...let me ask you, do you believe that homosexuality is a sin and that God will punish them for their wicked ways?"

I was quoet for a second and said, "That's none of my business." while at the same time my wife answered, "No."

The young man then stood up saying, "I cannot take your money. I can only accept money from a Christian."

I did NOT say "Go Fuck yourself then you sanctimonious asshole." and instead just drove away holding the money...

My wife said "well, at least he stands by what he believes, huh?"

and I replied, "Fuck that dumb ass. Who is he to say his god did not have me go out of my way to help him out with a couple of bucks? It is absolutely UN-christian to not give charity and to not accept charity when it is offered. That brainwashed fuck doesn't even know what he thinks he is advocating."


I have had many many many run-ins with homeless, vagrants, street kids, gutterpunks, tramps, and drifters, and have never come accross this type of nonsense.

It reminded me of the joke about the god fearing man who, when the floodwaters came, got on his roof, and kept turning down offers for help from people in boats, the army, and helicopters, saying "God will protect me," until he dorwned and when he met god god chastised him saying "You dumbass, what did you think I sent the boats, army and chopper for?"

weird.

I surmised that he was on a trip across teh country doing some sort of missionary thing, but wow, ity really threw me for a loop.

I should have told him I was a Discordian Pope.

no thoughts? Hmmm. slow day

i have them but you probably wouldn't like them

whether I like or not like is no issue. Just wondering. Have you experienced something like that before?

a choosy beggar is a new one to me.

I have offered food to homeless before just to be turned down because they "didn't eat Mexican food." or whatever, and I can accept that, but if you are asking for help, unless "satan" himself is the one offering, should you not accept it? Just curious.

I felt bad because the dude looked like he could really use some money or warm food or something of the sort.

yeah i have a story with a picky & demanding leech. "lived" outside of my building. started like a common beggar and the more i gave him the more he acted like a spoiled child. i had to eventually tell him to fuck off, the ungrateful fucker. i no longer give money to beggars. i also remember when i showed up to volunteer for habitat for humanity and the family that was getting the house built for them for free didn't show up to do their part. entitled fuckers. assholes are still assholes even when they're broke. i'll give money to someone who does something useful, otherwise they can fuck off.

I can relate to your experience, having been "burned" by bums before.
(Austin was notorious for shit like that)

I give what I can when asked. I am not capable ot judging honestly whether someone needs it or whether they just WANT it, so I give what I can.

If I see the same person begging in the same place, panhandling basically, then I give them something once and not again.

In Austin I once gave a gutterpunk a dollar (mind you I was making $7.50/hour at a shit file clerk job) and the fucker looked back at m,e in disdain and said "Man, can you give me $5? What can I do with $1?" He had his gutterpunk "wife" and a baby with him (sad shit), and I grabbed my dollar back and told him to fuck off. he got VERY ANGRY and I had to be rushed away by a friend who kept whispering "those fuckers will stab you man. don;t even talk to them."

but I know what it is like to be desperate, to be so hungry you are digging in garbage looking for food.

I can't help but give when I can, even if I really could use the $1-$2 in coins myself....

Dude, if you've had many run-ins with vagrants, street kids, drifters, and gutter punks why are you surprised? There is no pattern or sense of reason behind this lifestyle. The dude wasn't in his right mind, why try to understand insanity? What, did you think it something genuinely Christian? You were raised Episcopalian, did that strike as something you saw in your upbringing? Also, you're IN TEXAS brah, honestly seems tame to me ;)

I was not surprised. I was more left wondering what his deal was? he did not look to be a mentally ill person, although that is obviously not something that can be seen ussually, but he looked like a young kid, out exploring the world, and needed a hand.

I thought maybe someone here had heard of a mission trip type of thing where you travel only acceptimng the kindness of christians. you never know.

Who knows? Maybe that guy was just on a good one that night ;)

That guy doesn't sound like any panhandler I have run into--and I've encountered a lot of them. The dude was likely just off his rocker. Hope he gets some type of help in that regard.

As for offering food to the homeless, they usually won't take it because what they really want is money for their drug and/or alcohol addiction. I never give them anything. I wouldn't feel good about feeding someone else's misery. In probably 99.9999% of these cases, these are streetwise people who know damn good and well where the soup kitchens are to get free food.

I know, I know, " you uncaring, right wing Mitt Romney-type blah blah blah."

Give the bums a few bucks, everybody needs to get high yo, think about it the other way, if you lived on the street wouldn't you?

If I were living on the street, I'd be trying like hell to get off it. But that's just me. Let them recycle aluminum cans--at least they would be helping the environment while getting blitzed. ;)

You can recycle thousands of cans a day and only afford some tacos and a few tall cans or a 20 rock..

Just sayin ;)

I meant to add that they could also do some metal scrapping--as long as they aren't stealing.

Just sayin' ;) ;)

So we can get a taco plate, beers, and a 40 rock instead??

Nah, get the food from the soup kitchen so there's more money for the "psychoactive agents", as they were called in a high school class I had to take.
Unless "taco plate" is some drug slang I'm not familiar with. If it isn't, maybe you could start a trend by making it refer to, hmm, weed or heroin from Mexico? Just a thought.

Haha.. it can be!

"Beggars can't be choosers"....

That's in the bible isn't it?
Somewhere in Exodus next to "Thou shalt not park thy ass on a clearway during rush hour"