Opinions/Editorials
See other Opinions/Editorials Articles
Title: Lipsher: What would Jesus tip?
Source:
denverpost.com
URL Source: http://www.denverpost.com/lipsher/c ... 2/lipsher-what-would-jesus-tip
Published: Mar 5, 2013
Author: Steve Lipsher
Post Date: 2013-03-05 13:07:33 by Ferret Mike
Keywords: None
Views: 6422
Comments: 23
By now, we're all well aware of the woeful tale of the Applebee's waitress in Missouri who publicized getting stiffed on a tip from a church pastor last month and subsequently was fired. Objecting to an 18 percent tip automatically included on her restaurant bill, Pastor Alois Bell crossed it out and wrote: "I give God 10 percent why do you get 18?" Waitress Chelsea Welch posted a photo of the bill on the social media site Reddit, and the story went viral, prompting the restaurant to fire her for the unseemly disclosure. These types of "stiffers for Christ," unfortunately, are not all that rare. "The idea that Christians are poor tippers apparently has been whispered in service circles for a long time," The Daily Finance website reported in 2011. "Many waiters try [to] not work Sunday brunch, so as to avoid notoriously stingy churchgoers." Writing for The Lutheran Magazine in 2009, Minister Justin Wise wrote that Christians don't tip very well. "As a matter of fact, we're pretty cheap. What makes this worse is that we paint 'cheap' with a religious-sounding veneer and call it 'being a good steward.' Nothing like hiding behind the Bible to camouflage your stinginess." Just here in Summit County, a waitress working last Christmas Day was given a big fat goose egg for a tip on a $114 tab for a family of four. Instead, the patron signed the bill: "Isaiah 41:10." For those whose rote memorization of the Bible is lacking, that verse roughly translates: "Fear not, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you." That undoubtedly is of great spiritual comfort to the waitress — who did not want to be involved in this story nor have the restaurant identified — but it does not help pay the rent. Equally as classless is leaving gospel tracts instead of tips, including a fake $10 bill with scripture and the phrase: "Some things are better than money." "By leaving tracts and not tips, that person is saying to their waiter or waitress, 'You are not a person, but rather just a notch on my belt of evangelistic pride," Daniel Readle, a pastor at a Baptist church in Cleveland, wrote on his Christ and Culture blog. The accounts of "bad-faith" tipping are not merely anecdotal. A 2012 study of 1,638 adults by Cornell University professor Michael Lynn and Benjamin Katz of HCD Research indicated that self-identified Christians tip poorly almost twice as much as Jews and people with no religion. Even Karen Swallow Prior, an English professor at the ultra-Christian Liberty University, recalled encountering skinflint "holy rollers" during her days as a waitress in college for an article in Christianity Today. "Knowing there would be little, if any, tip left at the end of their meal, the servers saw the Christians' robust attempts at 'friendliness' instead as pushy and arrogant," she wrote. "The memories still pain me now." Waiting tables is tough enough as it is without getting an unwanted dose of piousness, especially in place of a gratuity. Many waiters and waitresses — who are on their feet all day, patiently taking specialized orders, indulging demanding diners and assuaging picky kids — work at least two jobs to make ends meet. Of course, "tipped employees" in Colorado received a generous jump in their minimum wages on Jan. 1, from $4.62 to $4.76 an hour. That extra $1.12 per day means that they earn a base salary of $9,900 annually — still comfortably below the federal poverty line. The scripture-quoting cheapskates among us would be well reminded that Jesus advocated giving to the poor in the Sermon on the Mount. Or as Mahatma Gandhi once said: "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." Steve Lipsher (slipsher@comcast.net) of Silverthorne writes a monthly column for The Denver Post.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
#1. To: Ferret Mike (#0)
Sounds like something redleghunter might do. I suppose I should ping him - but I won't - he'd likely muck up this thread with one of his megapixel tracts.
#2. To: Fred Mertz (#1)
Reddie would probably want 18 percent from the waitress for having the 'honor' of serving him. Especially if she didn't allow him to give her a lesson on religion complete with a quiz.
Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/LatestEqually as classless is leaving gospel tracts instead of tips, including a fake $10 bill with scripture and the phrase: "Some things are better than money."
Replies to Comment # 1.
End Trace Mode for Comment # 1.
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]