It's fairly normal these days: a waitress is stiffed on her tip and the customer writes some snide message on the bill. The waitress takes a photo of it and uploads it to the Internet where it takes on a life of its own.
This was essentially how it played out recently when a waitress identified only as Chelsea, uploaded a photo of a receipt that a fellow waitress had been given. On that receipt, it was written "I only give God 10%, why do you get 18?" The diner had writer "pastor" over her nearly illegible signature.
Nearly Illegible. Within a few hours of the receipt being posted, Internet hunters had tracked down the name of the pastor, Alois Bell.
Alois Bell is the 37-year old pastor of Truth in the World Deliverance Ministries Church located in a rented storefront in St. Louis, Missouri. Once she learned that the receipt was on the Internet she became enraged and decided to make matters worse: She called Applebee's and demanded that the waitress that she had wronged be fired for the public humiliation that she was now suffering. She was successful. At least in getting the girl fired. She actually made things worse for herself.
Her actions were initially those of a cheap and hypocritical person that mistakenly believes that being a 'pastor' gives her some entitlement to behave like a spoiled child. Her reaction to the receipt going viral was purely satanic in her quest for vengeance.
Ms.Bell may only have a small congregation of 15 members but that is 14 more members than she needs. What she needs is to spend more time listening to preaching; she is far from qualified to minister to anyone. Her actions are those of a person that is lacking in both strength of character and sound judgement.
While she has apologized to her congregation for her lapse in character and judgement, it's not enough. There are some moral failings that are deep enough that they more accurately describe the true sense of a person than others. This is one such case. This showed a woman that is proud, egotistical, cheap and mean. It showed her for who she truly is in her soul instead of the false persona that she normally shows to the world. Until she repairs that she lacks the moral core needed to guide others.
What Ms. Bell should have done was call the restaurant and ask to speak with the waitress. Better yet, she should have visited and apologized in person. She should have owned up to her mistake and tried to make it right. Instead, like a child, she attempted to hide the mistake and insisted someone else be punished for what she herself was responsible for starting.
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