MOBILE, Ala. – Police searched for three men in the attempted robbery of a church bingo operation that seriously wounded a 60-year-old security guard in an exchange of gunfire.
The guard, Thomas Aricer, of Mobile, fired at the suspects before being shot in the abdomen about 11 p.m. Friday in the parking lot of St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church.
Police spokesman Officer John Young said the suspects fled in a four-door, dark blue or gray Chevrolet Caprice with the rear driver’s side window shot out. It was unclear if anyone in the car was shot.
Aricer was escorting William Rice, the church’s business manager, and a church maintenance worker, across the parking lot to deliver the night’s bingo cash to the rectory. The total amount was not immediately available.
The Rev. Edwin Beachum, the pastor at St. Catherine’s, said a car swerved in, and one of the occupants started shooting.
15 comments
If you are going to quote scripture, get it right, have an understanding of its meaning, and then be consisntent.
The translation is not “strikes you on one cheek” but “strikes you on the right cheek” The difference? To strike me on my right cheek you will likely use your left hand, which is a semetic insult – something you do when slapping a child or an animal.
But I digress, if you think it just means that you should “lie down and take it” why call for his punishment? Further, the guard was SHOT. He did not “shoot those people.”
Better I suppose that we make it known we are all simple targets?
I stand corrected. The guard tried to kill those people, but failed.
I’ll point out the glaringly obvious: the story doesn’t say who fired the first shot. And I’ll go out on a limb and guess the guard only fired after the robbers pulled their own firearm on him. He was doing his job and injured in the line of duty. But I guess no one should ever become police officers. And unless I’m mistaken, the money wasn’t exactly his to give.
Oh, and can I have your address. I’ll be over with a moving truck later today. There’s a few things I need…
Of course not melaine, but its your rulebook with the rules your god commanded you to follow, and mistakenly believe makes you morally superior to do so.
Of course not melaine, but its your rulebook with the rules your god(sic) commanded you to follow, and mistakenly believe makes you morally superior to do so.
This just goes to show that you don’t understand the rulebook, “hoodlum”. No surprise, though.
In his blog, Hoodlum says he “distain [sic] all faith,” and yet his blog shows that he has an evangelical zeal in blasting believers to unbelief. Why? Because Hoodlum doesn’t believe in nothing, he has faith in his atheism/agnosticism/whateveritism, otherwise he wouldn’t be wasting his time arguing with stupid Catholics and sharing his faith in Nothingness. Yes, you are a fellow believer Hoodlum. So why not ignore Catholics, Hoodlum? Do they bother you that much? Why? They’re just simplistic believers, right? They don’t deserve your precious time and energy so why the need to preach to those silly Catholics? I mean, just let the kids play with their vestments and their incense and their Latin, it’s not like they’re gonna build a civilization with those things right?
And do you think these Catholics are hyprocrites Hoodlum? Well they agree you on that. You think they’re pathetic sinners Hoodlum? I’m pretty sure they’ll agree with you on that one too. Catholics would be the first to admit that they’re bludering idiots and sinners at every Mass during the Penitential Rite, so this isn’t exactly an affirmation of moral superiority, especially in terms of keeping the commandments, as you mentioned earlier.
Or is it because the Church is the Baddest, Meanest, Eeeevilest thing on this planet and you wil save the dumb Catholics from the clutches of that Eeeeevil church because you’re the bestest and the finest and the smartest and the wisest guy in town and definitely the Catholic’s moral superior… oh wait…
Let me refer you to GK Chesterton, he does a finer job in blasting people like Hoodlum.
C’mon Hoodlum.. Do you REALLY believe that Jesus “clearly states” the little bit of holy writ which you cite?
You’re not going to trip a tradition that has been living and growing through 2000 years of the violent human condition and outlasting civilization and civilization around it. This particular sect has never been pacifist and you will never convince it that it should. Try the Anabapists next door..
I mock believers because someone has to save them from their delusions, no matter how happy they make them. It’s no different than me intervening to stop my friends when they tried to do drugs.
Plus, these fantasies are not harmless, and they effect everyone. Scientific progress and cures for real people are held up because someone’s rule book allegedly says its wrong to use globs of cytoplasm for science. Meanwhile, they conveniently forget to be morally outrage when their divinely inspired leadership tolerated priests diddling altar boys for decades, if not longer.
Not to mention the wasted resources given to religion, that are used to pay religious leaders fat salaries, build McChurches, and would be better spent on things like education and science.
Besides, I understand your rule book, after all, any text can be read and understood, even without the secret decoder ring of “faith”.
+JMJ+
THINK A MINUTE!
He was a SECURITY GUARD. They are TRAINED for these situations–and are usually ex-MPs or former (often retired) police officers. They are trained to react in dangerous situations–not stop and split theological hairs.
GIVE ME A BREAK!
He was, I might add, doing his job! And it cost him.
Now, how about a prayer for his recovery????
Hoodlum,
I pray that God’s answer to your cry of help, masked as it is as a “service” to believers, will allow you to discover why you are so fascinated by Christianity despite your superficial belief that you reject it.
At that point you will also be able to truly understand the science behind stem cell research, the psychology and sociology behind the scandal of homosexual priest predators and the correct spelling of English words.
May He bring you Peace.
Hoodlum,
If you have no philosophical or religious basis for the objective reality of the world and no ethical basis for stating that one form of belief is morally superior to another, how to you claim that these delusions are to be avoided?
You should actually learn about the individual faith traditions in question, rather than create a new one in your mind as an amalgam of various doctrinal points you find reprehensible. The Catholic faith does not see Scripture as a “rule book” or even as a set of direct divine commands. Those are tenets of certain sects of Christian biblical literalists and Islam, both of which the Catholic Church has been aware of and teaching against for centuries.
As to scientific progress, it is only the objective moral teaching of the revealed faiths that allows you to make moral presuppositions, such that certain sexual practices are immoral. Your open-minded and progressive predecessor Alfred Kinsey states (based on his own empirical studies free from the delusions of religion) that “diddling” of children by adults is natural and healthy. Do you disagree? Can you prove your point from science alone? Or do you rely on Catholic moral teaching and/or the societal conventions upon which it is based? Hmmm…
As to moral outrage, the Catholic Church has done more to prevent such a problem that is pervasive and continues to be ignored in large segments of society, especially the public school system. Are you outraged at that?
Education and science? Are you not aware that was the Catholic Church that developed the university model? Are you not aware that empirical science developed only in a certain cultural setting (philosophical and religious) based on the religious doctrine of divine creation and order of the world?
Sorry, but you deserve to get your money back for your history degree. They didn’t give you what you ordered; it was rather a cheap slice of history filtered through a post-enlightenment sieve. I recommend using the money to take some philosophy and scientific methodology courses; it will broaden your mind.
Roberto, I am glad my learning disabilities bring you so much amusement. But I must have done something really bad as a child to be born to poor people who lived in home with significant quantities of lead.
Mocking people because of their god inflicted infirmities makes the baby Jesus cry.
Hoodlum, you make me smile by wasting your time. If you were truly an atheist, you’d realize that by wasting time on this site, you’re squandering your own valuable time and resources. You should realize that it doesn’t matter if religions exist. Nor if they “hold up” medical or scientific research, as a cure for aging isn’t going to be developed during your lifetime. And let’s face it; if you’re really an atheist, you realize that no matter what happens, humanity is doomed.
Long before our sun burns out, our world will be uninhabitable. Even if we develop the ability to send humans across vast distances towards habitable planets in life-supporting solar systems(assuming that the individuals will survive the trip, the planet will still be habitable in the centuries it takes to travel there, and that the colony survives the first difficult decades), everything you currently value will have to been replaced by humanity’s needs and desires of that moment. Not to mention, even your great-grandchildren will barely know or care anything about you, much less your distant ancestors if (and a BIG if) they escape the destruction of Earth. So your existance, your hobbies, your attempt to “educate” the religious – all these are meaningless.
So, what’s your learning disability?
(Yeah, yeah, other readers… I’m well aware that trolls like to make up that kind of stuff. I just want to make Hoodlum waste more of his limited lifespan.)
Hoodlum:
mocking a disability? Oh no, I was simply pointing out, put in easier terms, that if you looked better into what you are talking about, you would probably not say such stupid things and I was asking God to help you get there.
Disability my foot! Not having a clue of what science, sin and words are all about and mocking other people who try to figure out what they are is not a disability, it is a disgrace.
What disability do you, have, how should I have known it and what makes you think that poor parents and lead caused it? I suspect that you keep saying stupid things because you have not found out what makes sense in life, and that is what I am praying God will help you with.
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