"I Give God 10 Percent. Why Should I Give you 18?"

I heard about this note given to a food server while listening to KFI radio today. Not cool. Don't use your alleged piety as an excuse not to tip. 

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Comments

[Doug T.]

The pastor, Alois Bell, claims she left the tip in cash on the table -- so she was charged twice for the tip. You can watch her interview here:

http://landing.newsinc.com/shared/video.html?freewheel=69016&sitesection=stltoday_spl_fea_sty&VID=24296562

Ironically, food seems to be a central focus of Bell's life and ministry. According to the Smoking Gun: "In addition to her fledgling ministry, Bell has authored three slim books--covering topics like fasting, prayer, and religious teaching--that are available for purchase through an online vanity press. One 28-page volume examines spiritual nourishment, complete with references to candy and junk food. The $10 paperback is titled 'Watch the Hand that Feeds You.' "

That article also includes a four-minute video example of Bell's preaching:

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/tipping-pastor-apologizes-687234

[jonnybardo]

Moral of the story: Even religious officials can be (especially?) douchey.

[Bill]

I've found Jesus Fish Honest Businessmen to be the crookedest of the crooks, but what else would you expect of someone low enough to use God as an advertising tool? Whether or not they actually believe.

[Bill]

Which is a non sequitur. Sorry. I think what I was trying to say, in my caffeine-deprived way, was this: My experience is there are Christians and Christians, but people who go around spouting God this and God that all day are all too often up to no good. Bad behavior by one of them is only to be expected.

[jonnybardo]

Bill, I tend to agree with the great Alan Watts that very few people actually deeply believe in God, and that those that preach loudest are those that fear deep down that there is no God. In other words:

"Who you trying to convince?!"

[Gary]

Because she revealed the note from the customer questioning the tip, the waitress was fired.

[Angelo]

I can answer his question this way: "Pastor, you should give me 18 percent, or whatever you're comfortable with, because as a server, I don't make a great hourly wage and I try hard to please my customers in the hopes that they will supplement my earnings with a tip. As for giving 10% to God----no, I don't believe you've done that. Chances are, you've given 10% to someone telling you they represent God somehow---and asked you to give THEM money. Pastor, that doesn't equate to you giving a cent to God----it's another person who now has that money, not God. God doesn't need any money.

[Michael Brent]

I hate too burst anyone's balloon regarding Christians. I do understand they are the only group of people its still OK to trash in our oh so sensitive politically correct world, but this was after all, a female preacher.
Having lived in Reno,Nevada for years and having known many a waitress "in the biblical sense", most waitresses will tell you that most women are lousy tippers.
Its a woman thing, not a Christian thing.
Sorry.

[Michael Brent]

At least she didn't call the server an infidel and threaten to cut her head off.
But then that would just be a cultural misunderstanding.

[jonnybardo]

Michael, the person signed their receipt "pastor" and thus was self-identifying as a pastor (and Christian), not a woman.

So you could argue that her gender had more to do with her attitude than her religion, but her own justification is religious.

[Angelo]

I still don't really understand it all----and I've now seen it on the news, here, other internet sites----I don't know if it had anything at all to do with religion. I think the root of it is that the Pastor resented an automatic tip and also resented that it was 18%. That's what led to her bringing up tithing of 10% and probably she felt identifying herself as a Pastor would lend credibility. I feel bad for the server for losing her job----but I think it was a really high risk thing to do----using social media and the world wide web, to out someone----and show their name. I can't blame her employer for wanting to distance themselves from it. If she had blocked out the name, it would be free speech without consequences (hopefully). By exposing someone----she should have known it could cause major trouble. It demonstrated a "bad 'tude."

[Shawn]

I don't know but it does seem like the percentage of tipping is going up. It was 10 percent when I was a young man. I think this was a scam to get attention by the preacher, but the Applebee's employee deserved to get canned for posting it.

I think the employee did post the name on purpose though because everyone would have called it ANOTHER scam, as the several other so called messages on tip receipts turned out to be. No one notices if the name is blacked out.