Nov. 22, 2006 - 13:51 PST

GRATITUDE ? ? ?

Sometimes I wonder what our country's people are coming to. An article in Eugene's The Register-Guard of today by Woody Baird of The Associated Press is an illustration of the direction that some of us are headed. Quoted here in full:

COUPLE SELLS HOUSE GIVEN FREE BY CHURCH

Without ever moving in, the receipients take the money and leave

MEMPHIS, Tenn -- "A church that wanted to do something special for Hurricane Katrina victms gave a $75,000 house, free and clear, to a couple who said they were left homeless by the storm. But the couple turned around and sold the place without ever moving in, and went back to New Orleans."

" Take it up with God," an unrepentant Joshua Thompson told a TV reporter after it was learned that he and the woman he identified as his wife had flipped the home for $88,000."

"Church members said they feel their generosity was abused by scam artists. They are no longer even sure that that the couple were left homeless by Katrina or that they were a couple at all."

"They came in humble like they really needed a new start, and our hearts went out to them," said Jean Philllips, a real estate agent and member of the Temple of Deliverance Church of God in Christ. "They actually begged for the house."

"The church also was shocked by an ungrateful interview the couple gave with WHBQ-TV in Memphis."

"I really don't like this area," Dorothea Thompson said. "I really didn't, and I didn't know anybody, so that's why I didn't move in and I sold it."

"Thompson, reached at a New Orleans phone number on Tuesday, thanked the church for its generosity but said she saw nothing wrong in selling the three-bedrooom, two bath house."

"Do I have any legal problems ? What do you mean ? The house was given to me," she said. "I have the paper-work and everything."

"She refused further conmment and hung up."

"The church had decided that it would do something special for one Katrina displaced family, in addition to its other efforts to help evacuees. The church set up a committee to find the right family and conducted several dozen interviews."

"After the church settled on Thompson, real estate agent Phillips helped her pick out the house she wanted, and it was bought in Thompson's name. She took possession in February and sold it in September. Property transfer records for the re-sale list her as unmarried; the papers from the original sale list her as married."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Good grief, that's enough to gag a maggot, that someone would sink so low as to do something like that. As well she had the brass to "thank the church for its generosity."

The woman and man must have been super salespersons to convince church people that they were on the up and up. I sincerely hope they don't decide to become religious evangelicals, makes me shiver to think of them taking in a whole congregation and milking them for everything they have or ever will have.

And I wonder how this will affect the bilked congregation ? Will they go into back-biting mode ? Or will they take it as a lesson well learned and be more careful in their giving ?

Sort of a mental drive-by shooting, perhaps - - - that's for nothing, now try something !

Does any person or group deserve this kind of GRATITUDE ? ? ? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Blog