This guy is so full of shit.

He’s a liar, and this didn’t actually happen. Sorry to rain on your parade.

Just because you’re full of bile doesn’t mean that everybody else is as hate-filled as you. Would it help if I give you my coat and take you to dinner?

I’m not a Christian, and I’d have quite readily shot him. This is a natural manner in which to respond to a direct threat to one’s own safety, and has been since before humans being started walking on fewer than four legs. If a mugger is uncomfortable with the possibility of his own violence being returned with interest, perhaps he ought to find some other less perilous means of making a living. I hear getting a job is highly thought of…

I won’t discuss my failures.

The ones you’re thinking of would probably be ultra-right wing, stick-in-the-mud old farts living in the Bible Belt. Contrary to popular belief, they’re more in the minority than you might think. They’re just the ones you actually hear about most often. We think they’re crazy too. ;)

Either way, this guy is a great example of Christ-like behavior. “Give him your tunic,” indeed.

As in what Humans are supposed to try to be?

I considered writing her myself, but his charges would be much more effective, if true, if they came directly from him. Interesting, however, that his website, joeypark.com, doesn’t appear to include any contact info–rather an odd strategy for a site that’s presumably meant to showcase the owner’s skills as a designer. (Gahhh! I hate how the nature of talking on teh internetz pretty much *encourages* the sort of amateur-detective speculation I’m doing here!)

DetentionSlip

cannot also the douchebag do the right thing once in a while ?

Get a grip.

It is NOT bigoted but rather a statement of fact that “too many” (not “ALL”, mind you) Christians would be have been delighted to read the thief in this story getting capped. And yes, “too many” would have readily shot the thief themselves.

Consider, for example, the over-the-top-bloodlust “too many” evangelical Christians have for the Iraq War:

“God is pro-war!” the late Rev. Jerry Falwell blasphemously proclaimed. Before his fall from Xian grace, Pastor Ted Haggard used to joyfully shout “Massive warfare!” to his Nuremberg-size rallies of deluded Constantinians.

The Jesus Thieves have spread their anti-Jesus thinking to millions.

The writer of the above, Robert S. McElvaine, has written the book I linked to earlier, Grand Theft Jesus, which makes the fact clear that “too many” Christians have profaned Jesus, Scripture, and God in thought, word and deed. It is not “bigotry” to rail against this reality.

Link to article quoted above:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-s-mcelvaine/leading-christians-have_b_92661.html

Link to Grand Theft Jesus website with a book except:
http://www.grandtheftjesus.com/

Disclosure: I have absolutely nothing to do with this book and have no incentive of any kind to link to it, except that I sincerely hope Christians read it and actively and successfully marginalize Christian extremists who currently comprise “too many”.

I think it would be sufficient to have one statement from the diner to the effect that this event happened. He mentions everyone came by and shook his hand, why don’t we get a quote from one of those folks? I’d trust the dishwasher over anyone else in that scenario.

I, like others, get a kick out of the religious association folks are making. After watching I Am JesusLegend last night, this just makes me laugh a bit more than I did during that viewing. I thought Taladega Nights was bad at product placement…

Further, I’ve had a couple of similar experiences. While drinking a bit, enough to sing in the street while in college on the way to a little house party, I was approached by a group of about 5 guys obviously looking for a victim. Instead of panic, I invited them to the party I was walking to. I could judge these guys really were amateurs, not any hard core gang types, and took the chance that actually responding but in a bizarre way would be best. I’m sure it could have ended worse had I not been in front of an obviously large group of people about 50 yards away in front of a house… but still.

There’s a couple others, but I’ve bored you already. Nothing quite as awe inducing as this event, but similar. So the act is not implausible to me, just feel the story could easily have made itself more believable with one additional witness statement.

Furthermore, there has been some suggestion that this represents the “true” message of Jesus, and I do not dispute that charity to strangers and turning the other cheek are part of message Jesus preached.

But what about the other bits? Are they true too?

For example, Jesus was very negative about divorce and absolutely forbade remarriage (Matthew 5:32 “anyone who marries the divorced woman commits adultery.”) What about the belief that all prayers offered in full and complete sincerity are granted (Mark 11:23)? Or my personal favourite, albeit non-canonical (Thomas, 114):

Simon Peter said to them, “Make Mary leave us, for females are not worthy of life.”
Jesus said, “Look, I shall guide her to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every female who makes herself male will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”

Likewise, Mohammed said, “for those that cannot [fast] there is a penance ordained: the feeding of a poor man.” (2:183) But he also said: “Believers, retaliation is decreed for you in bloodshed: a free man for a free man, a slave for a slave, and a female for a female.” (2:178)

I won’t talk about Buddha because I know a lot less about Buddhism and our textual evidence for what Buddha actually said is even weaker than that for Mohammed and far weaker than that for Jesus, but I’m quite sure the main point survives: some things Buddha says would seem right and admirable, others variously silly or wicked.

So here is my question: what principle that is higher than the teachings of Jesus or Mohammed or Buddha are you applying when you tease out the “true” teachings from the “historical context” or “bad translation” or whatever else you might think is the cause of all the wrong-headedness in the teachings of your chosen spiritual guide?

And given that you are clearly using that principle as your primary guide, why bother with the ancient texts at all, which have about as much relevance to modern ethics as Aristotle does to modern physics?

We know stuff now (women and men have equal moral worth, slavery is wrong…) that those guys simply did not know. Given these vast lacuna in their moral knowledge, why are they anything more than an historical footnote in any debate on modern ethics? It isn’t as if we aren’t willing to discard what they say any time they disagree with us. So why continue to twist our ethical discussions around the framework they laid down, with its prudery and misogyny and improbability?

You can’t say we can’t do ethics effectively without them, because the very fact that you are willing to jettison the bits you don’t like means that you are actively and in my view quite successfully doing ethics without them.

So why bother with them at all?

He’s just a brave, observant, and compassionate person. Anyone as brave, observant, and compassionate as he is could have done the same.

He did it the right way, after the kid was already walking away and the situation diffused. Had the kid wanted to stab him, he would have already done so.

He was honest and treated the kid with decency, which goes a long way. Most kids like this are runaways from bad situations, homeless, lonely, hungry, and desperate. Not psychopaths.

The kid was alone, not with a gang. He doesn’t even have a partner in crime. He’s not trying to impress anyone or build a reputation. He’s at the end of his rope.

He didn’t even have a jacket.

I’ve just been mugged right outside my apartment today (at 2:30am), despite the fact that I was on high alert, and they knew that I’m aware of their presence, they still tore me down, kicked me, and try to take everything I have. I lucked out when a neighbour shouted out what’s going on, and I shouted back that I’m being robbed.

If this guy ends up having a couple of stab wounds, don’t forget to say “I told you so.”

Sorry if my heart doesn’t swell with pride over this moment of humanity.

Whats the proof we have that this actually happened? This guy’s word? Do you know how many narcissistic people there are out there that make shit up!

Yes, people do do things of unbelievable generosity, but generally those type of people don’t go to a radio station afterwards to brag about what they did. They tend to not talk about the deeds they’ve done. OTHER PEOPLE talk about what they’ve done. When have you ever seen someone do generous things and then brag about it?

I’m disappointed in NPR. They should have better sense. Even if this story is true, its not printable material till they verify it.

I should add a bit of background about our process because we are not a news organization—StoryCorps’ focus is about facilitating conversation and recording it posterity. We’re an oral history project. You don’t do StoryCorps to get on the radio, in fact, less than 1% of the interviews in our booths are ever produced for radio. So that should also provide some insight into Mr. Diaz’s intention in recording this story.

As an atheist I don’t have any problem with people finding spiritual and religious significance in this. In fact I think it’s a beautiful thing and wish more people would be inspired thusly. It’s true Jesus preached a faith in human nature so that one should be brave and turn the other cheek. Also that the meek would inherit the earth. All of which is true philosophically and in terms of basic evolutionary principles.

I’d call it optimal human behavior.

First, he was empathetic and compassionate, which is vital to the survival of any social species, even common dogs and wolves. Without empathy our evolutionary ancestors would never have shared meals, never organized into groups, never developed higher intelligence.

Secondly, he was smart and observant. He recognized this kid was desperate, and not a serial killer. He approached the situation intelligently, waiting until the threat was passed and the kid leaving, before offering kindness in a nonthreatening way. He was smart enough to realize the possibility for a better outcome and weigh the risk.

Third, he was brave. I don’t mean bravado. I mean the courage and clarity to stick to one’s convictions and do what he thought was right, while acknowledging life is unpredictable and dangerous sometimes, but you have to do the best you can. That’s real courage.