An Ontario woman, Anita Krajnc, has been charged with mischief and is awaiting a hearing after being a Good Samaritan, at least in her eyes. You know Jesus' parable of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10-- religious types pass by an injured man in the ditch because they're in a hurry. A supposedly suspect Samaritan is the one who assists the poor schmo. Jesus tells this story in response to the question "who is my neighbour?" He offers the parable and then asks who has been neighbourly.
On a hot day in June the woman gave water to some pigs in a transport vehicle. She ended up in a confrontation with the truck driver who threatened to call police. Apparently she told him to call Jesus, which in my view is an excellent retort. How do you respond to that one? Well, the driver did call the police and she was charged. Go figure. Couldn't she simply have been cautioned? Is this worthy of tying up time in our overburdened courts?
I'm cautious about sticking my snout in this without more information but I often look at those trucks on the highway and cringe, although I try not to think of them when I'm swooning over my occasional breakfast of bacon and eggs. When Jesus told his parable he didn't specify who might be the recipients of our neighbourliness. Jesus had an unfortunate encounter with swine which resulted in a porcine avalanche, but he also said "and whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward." Could a pig qualify as a "little one?"
What do you think about Anita's actions? And how about invoking Jesus?
2 comments:
I don't understand this connection between feeding water to livestock on a hot day and the charge of 'mischief'. I agree that we have other higher priority cases on our court slates.
I did follow this story, because I would want to do the same thing. You hate to see any animal suffering, and even if they are about to enter the slaughterhouse, I would want to give them water. I'd be right there with those folks!
I, too, cringe when I see those trucks, crammed with pigs or cows. Although I am not a vegetarian(my wife is), I have vastly reduced my consumption of red meat to maybe once a month or so.
I'm glad to see there are caring people who are NOT resorting to violence to support their cause(and in this case, in my opinion, a worthy cause). There should not have been charges, and I imagine it will be dropped or she'll be given a discharge. The charge might actually have been a good thing - it put this story in the news, and perhaps people will start to think about factory farming, etc.
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