Carmen LaBerge
All right, our friend Bill English is here. Bill, good morning.
Bill English
Hey, good morning, Carmen.
Carmen LaBerge
A picture is worth a thousand sheets.
Bill English
I don’t even know what that means.
Carmen LaBerge
I heard you say that. America has a shoplifting problem. And so in a particular CVS in Washington, DC, there’s no longer rolls of toilet paper, a thousand sheets. There are pictures roll. Of rolls of toilet paper. If you want a roll of toilet paper, you then have to ask an employee to go get the toilet paper from the back because they’re no longer putting toilet paper on the shelves because it’s all being stolen.
Bill English
It’s no longer enough to squeeze the Sherman. Now they have to take the Sherman.
Carmen LaBerge
Is that right? Here’s my question, Bill. What’s preventing them now that we all know that it’s back there behind that door, that’s a swinging door and is not locked, back there where the restrooms are. What’s preventing people from just walking into the storage area of the CVS and getting what they want? The shoplifting issue is big.
Bill English
Yeah, probably not much. And what’s keeping retail going in light of the shoplifting is that it’s still profitable for the corporations. But eventually, if the shoplifting becomes too much, results in too much loss, these stores are just going to really start shutting down, and we’ll buy everything through Amazon, right? I mean, I do 99% of my shopping through Amazon anyway, so I rarely visit a retail store anymore. But yeah, there’s nothing to stop them from going in the back and getting their own chairman.
Carmen LaBerge
A shoplifting suspect called 911 as he fled the store, complaining that people were chasing him. I’m just saying, it’s I know. I was in a store just the… I’m telling you, I was in a store just the other day, and I was in an aisle where there was an employee stocking shelves for Christmas. Right. I heard, and obviously this other employee heard, we heard the person at the front go out the front door saying, Sir, please wait, please wait. You have to pay for that. The employee that was in the aisle where I was said, under her breath, but loud enough for me to hear, you’re not supposed to follow him.
Bill English
No. It’s a safety issue, right? It’s a safety issue because we’ve had people, like there was an employee at Home Depot that tried to stop a shoplifter and was shot and killed. And so the companies instruct their employees, don’t, because some of them, a minority of them, obviously, but some of them are going to harm you, hurt you, or maybe even kill you. And they just prefer to keep their employees alive, which really begs the question of what’s really going on here, right?
Carmen LaBerge
Yes, that’s what I think we should talk about. What is really going on here? Why are people not paying for the things that other people are… I mean, companies are not just providing things for you free of charge. They’re a company. They’re trying to make money for their They’re bottom line. They’re not only employing people, they’re also generating income for investors. I mean, there’s a lot going on here where people have arrived at the place where they just imagine that everything to them is free. That’s, first of all, not how things work. There’s a moral issue, obviously, at work here, where we don’t understand that everything we want does not just automatically belong to us.
Bill English
Well, there Okay, so two parts, if you ask me. One is that there’s an increasing bondage to sin, right? And that bondage to sin is illustrated in Ephesians 4:28. Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer but must work doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need. And in that verse, you have a person who is in bondage to stealing, moving to complete freedom from stealing because they’re now giving to others who are in need. There’s a movement of out of bondage into freedom. Just in Ephesians 4:28. The other thing, though, is that now the majority of Americans have realized that they can get free stuff from the government without having to pay for it, obviously, because it’s free. A majority of Americans are now getting something free from the government, and I think that attitude is spilling over into retail. Because I get free stuff from the government, I really deserve to get free stuff from anybody who has what I think I need or want. I’m just going to go take it because it belongs to me to begin with. And so you have bondage to sin, and then you have a bondage to, maybe I can call it a false belief or a lie, that I deserve to get things for free without working, which is the antithesis of what the Bible says about us working and actually earning our own keep, so to speak.
Carmen LaBerge
All right. We’re going to probably circle back around to this in the future. Here’s what I anticipate happening, Bill. I have been to enough Central American countries to know what it looks like to walk up to the front of a store, and there are bars across the front of the store, and you don’t get to go in. The employee on the other side of the bar goes and gets for you what they have behind those bars that you want, and they bring it forward, and you pay for it, and that’s when you get it. I think that The roaming around that we have been privileged to do in large commercial spaces where everything is accessible to us on open shelves, I think that experience is going to change. Well, it is changing in some places, but it’s going to increasingly change. We are becoming more like other places in the world where people are not governed by the same set of values views that many Americans have been governed by over the course of time, because people are no longer restrained by the gospel, no longer restrained by living into the Ten Commandments, to use an example, not because we’re obligated to, but because we are free to, and we do so joyfully.
Carmen LaBerge
We need revival.
Bill English
Yes, we do. That needs to be. Absolutely.
Carmen LaBerge
We need revival. All right, we’re going to take a very brief break, and we’re going to talk about people making Christmas lists. What is on your Christmas wish list? Who is on your Christmas card or gift list? Then what does it look like to manage expectations and resources as we approach the holidays? There’s a lot going on in the world, and people are doing ridiculous, extravagant things, and some of that we should talk about as well on the other end of the spending spectrum. We’re talking with our friend Bill English from Bibleandbusiness. Com. You’re listening to Mornings with Carmen.
Speaker 3
Thanks so much for listening to Mornings with Carmen Le Berge. Hey, I’m Susie Larson. Hey, if you enjoy what you’re listening to here, would you consider subscribing to other great Faith Radio podcasts like mine. Search Susie Larson Live at myfaithradio. Com or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hit subscribe and have a great day.
Carmen LaBerge
All right, maybe you already know this, but Neiman Marcus has released their fantasy gifts for the holidays 2023. Let me just go and tell you, if you are in a position to shop from the Neiman Marcus fantasy gift catalog, you need to make a contribution to Faith Radio. That is what I am going to say about that. If you think that an Indonesian yachting treasure seizure hunt for $485,000 is a legit gift, then you ought to be supporting Faith Radio. There’s so many things that are just ludicrous out there, and I don’t even My brain can’t even really comprehend what is happening in terms of what people are spending, supposedly, at least on gifts. Talk with us about gift giving, preparation, not over giving at Christmas. Now’s the time, Bill. We got to get on this now because once the music starts, it’s like we can’t control ourselves and we just spend like crazy.
Bill English
Oh, my heavens. The older I get, I’m 62 now, the older I get, the less interested I am in the gift-giving part of Christmas and the more interested I am in the worship and the praise and the adoration of Jesus Christ, who came and was literally born into a pile of straw and dirt and all the rest of it as a metaphor to walking with us in the muck and mire of our lives. I just view it as a very meaningful but personal holiday. Now, my kids are grown, both my daughters in Scottsdale, my son’s in Louisville, and we just don’t spend that much on Christmas anymore. There is something to be said for giving a meaningful gift as opposed to many gifts. People may want to think about that. No matter what the age is, maybe just give one or two very meaningful gifts, as opposed to seven or eight or 10 gifts that in a month from now are not going to be used. How many parents do we know, and you probably had this in your home and we did in ours, we would get the kids something for Christmas, and within a month, it was packed away in the closet, never to be used again, never to be played with again.
Bill English
You may want to think about something that’s more meaningful rather than something that’s just thrilling at the moment.
Carmen LaBerge
That’s good. Give one meaningful gift instead of a pile of non-meaningless gifts. Give a shared experience instead of something. Do something together with someone and have a shared experience. Make a memory instead of giving someone some physical thing. What do you think about that as an idea?
Bill English
Yeah, I like it. Like you and your husband could do this Olympic Games in Paris for $210,000, right?
Carmen LaBerge
There’s a memory for you. Wait a second. My name is actually in the Neiman Marcus fantasy the gift catalog this year. I don’t know if you scrolled down far enough to know that there’s something called the One of One. It’s the Cadillac Carmen Celestic.
Bill English
Oh, yes, I saw that.
Carmen LaBerge
It’s just under a million dollars. It’s a one-of-a-kind vehicle that takes driving to the next level, and it already has my name on it.
Bill English
This is a sign from the Lord, if you ask me.
Carmen LaBerge
Oh, my goodness. Bill, what is the of a biblical worldview for a Christian business ownership? I’m drawing this from bibleinbusiness. Com.
Bill English
Yeah, real quick. I defined the center of a biblical worldview for a Christian who owns a business. As this, Christian business owners live with an eternal perspective derived from their covenantal relationship with God and has lived out through biblical stewardship. Then I divide biblical stewardship as purposefully disadvantages oneself to advantage the Kingdom of God. That’s what I am moving Bible and business towards, all my writing is towards. It’s all going to be tethered to those two statements. Those two statements will be the core of pretty much everything I’m doing moving forward.
Carmen LaBerge
All right. What is the eternal perspective on this situation? What does the Bible command that I think, do, and believe in this situation? If a certain decision is made, who’s going to be advanced or disadvantaged by the decision and what temptations to sin exist in this situation? I just just really so good. In terms of the questions that are provoked, in terms of how we evaluate what is in front of us in so many ways. So thank you for… It’s a very brief post, but, man, it’s so rich. It’s so worthy. It made me think of the four-way test in Rotary. Is it the truth? Is it fair to all concerned? Will it build goodwill and better friendships? Will it be beneficial to all concerned? I feel like if we could have a grid, if we could a grid as parents, if we could have a grid as business owners, if we could have a grid as people on social media that we ran everything through. Let’s get ourselves a good grid. I think that’s what I hear you saying. You’re going to run everything through this particular grid.
Bill English
Yes, you are exactly right.
Carmen LaBerge
That’s so good. Bill, as always, thank you so much. We have been asking today what on the pie buffet, what on the Thanksgiving pie buffet has your attention Let’s get the answer to that question.
Bill English
Oh, pies? Blueberry. Warned up with vanilla ice cream.
Carmen LaBerge
Nice. The side item of choice, your favorite Thanksgiving side item.
Bill English
Oh, my. I really like when Cathy, Mrs. English, makes those beans with the mushroom.
Carmen LaBerge
Like the green bean casserole?
Bill English
Yeah, and then puts the French- The little onions.
Carmen LaBerge
On top.
Bill English
It’s good.
Carmen LaBerge
The green bean casserole. My guess is she only makes it once or maybe twice a year. Yeah, right? It’s not a… It doesn’t happen with any frequency. Okay, well, tell Mrs. English that hooray in advance for the green bean casserole, and thank you for your time today. We give thanks for you.
Bill English
Well, thank you very much. It’s always, always, always an honor and a privilege to be on Faith Radio with you.
Carmen LaBerge
It’s so much fun. Check it out, that Cadillac page. I don’t want you to miss that in case you’re shopping.
Bill English
Yeah, I’ll just pull up my wallet.
Carmen LaBerge
Yeah, it’s crazy. Thanks, Bill. We really appreciate it.