Deacons come in all shapes in sizes, but they are all bound by one thing: their commitment to the church. Deacons are perhaps the most important role one can have in the church without actually being a minister or pastor. They lead community service projects, serve as counselors, and are generally model citizens. But sometimes those that we look towards for leadership are the ones in need of the most guidance.
Meet Bruce Windsor. Model citizen. Married 16 years, 4 kids, deacon in the church, even coaches soccer. Never been in trouble with the law and obviously a man of God, Bruce Windsor is the most unlikely candidate to be robbing banks in his spare time. But then again, we’re in a recession and Windsor owns a real estate company.
Back in February, Bruce must have been having a really rough time with all this recession stuff. I’m sure he’s more than aware the stealing is against the law, but I guess something cracked and he said to hell with the moral and legal reasons not to do it. Windsor grabbed a gun and a mask (how cliche) and headed down to Carolina First Bank in Grenville, South Carolina. You know how these robberies work, “put the money in the bag” and all that stuff. Well Windsor isn’t the sharpest cheddar in the fridge and so probably didn’t know banks have a way to let cops know when they’re being robbed without picking up the phone (and no I won’t tell you all our secrets).
Well of course cops arrived before he could even get the money. A 90 minute stand-off ensued in which Windsor did take hostages. He finally gave up and no one was hurt. Why did he need the money? As I pointed out earlier he owns a real estate company, and well, you know those guys were big fans of debt. In over his head he cracked and made the biggest mistake of his life.
What I can’t get over is how a supposed God-fearing Christian had no problem amassing large amounts of debt. Borrowing from a more spiritual personal finance blog, the Bible clearly states “Just as the rich rule the poor, so the borrower is servant to the lender” (Proverbs chapter 7). I’m not in the business of quoting scripture for financial lessons, but this guy was a DEACON IN THE CHURCH. I think he should be setting an example. Needless to say, he kind of broke a commandment too with the whole attempted robbery thing. Idiot.
This would be like the CEO of a speed camera company getting busted for going 103 mph, or a former Attorney General and Governor that persecuted prostitution getting busted for tapping a high-end hooker for $1,000 an hour, or a global warming advocate living in a home that consumes 20x the energy of a typical house*; but that stuff never happens.
Robberies are bad, but at least he didn’t kill anyone over the debts he owed. Some families weren’t so fortunate . Weaky #14 belongs to you Bruce Windsor, thanks for setting the example none of us should ever follow.
CEO Speeding Story Via Acklaim.com
*Interesting fact I learned on Snopes as well, George W Bush’s Crawford home is quite green.
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Yeah, I’m glad to hear that he didn’t kill anyone. An attempted robbery is something he can probably admit he was completely wrong about and live with. In time, it’ll still be his dumbest mistake ever, but just that. I mean, it’ll probably wreck his life what with jail and all, but at least he won’t have to live knowing that he killed someone else over his own debt.
What particularly gets me about those familicides is that the parents kill their children too. The children aren’t part of the debt. I’ve been suicidal, I can understand wanting to end it all and escape (though I think once you have kids, you give up that options). But the children aren’t in debt and they have a future. Their lives will be harder with foster care, etc, but they shouldn’t be so bad that they’re better off dead. It’s very sad.
Mrs. Micah’s last blog post..Doing What You Love Won’t Make You Rich