As all devout Christians know, the Lord will provide.

To some, that includes free restaurants meals (for when the loaves and fishes run out, I guess).

Take a gander at this recent dustup at the A&G restaurant in Winter Haven, Florida. It involves a woman named Ruthena Lewis, 44, and her 78-year-old mother Willie, who went there for breakfast last month.

According to the police reports, Crystal Henson, a restaurant staff member, ran a credit card that Ruthena Lewis gave her and it was declined. Restaurant staff told police Ruthena Lewis held the cancel button down as she ran the card, according to the reports. The report said police were told that “(Ruthena Lewis) stated to (Henson) that if she gave them the meal for free she would go to heaven. If she ran the credit card again, she would go to hell.”

Bizarre enough for you?

It gets better.

Lewis left the restaurant, leaving the business card of her church bishop, Joseph Lewis (no relation). She told restaurant employees to call him and he would pay the bill. … Bishop Lewis later dropped in to pay the bill, plus a tip. In exchange, he asked restaurant owner George Paragios not to press charges against the women. Paragios reportedly agreed, but then changed his mind when he spoke to police.

Now there’s a court case pending against the two restaurant patrons, which infuriates the Lewises’ friends. They’ve been picketing the restaurant to get Paragios to drop the charges.

The case is an unnecessary tempest in a teapot, and I hope the owner will work something out with his deadbeat customers sans the intervention of a prosecutor and a judge. But the picketers … they simply amaze me. If someone had stolen money from their church, would they be angrily demanding the thief’s legal absolution? Or do they only practice this aggressive brand of forgiveness if it benefits one of their own?

(image via Shutterstock)



