Stealing

Today I am a victim of crime!

Unlike "accidental" incidents that might seem like stealing (e.g. someone in the office uses your coffee mug!), I was recently the victim of REAL CRIME!

On 9-18, 7 days after Patriot Day, I woke up, left for teaching (Tarpon Springs/Clearwater campuses of St. Petersburg College) and noticed that someone had actually stolen the celtic cross that sits near my front porch!

How could anyone steal a cross of Christ?

Well, short of feeling a little bit like the Bishop in Victor Hugo's Les Miserables (the one who had valuable silver utensils, etc. stolen from him!), I was quite unnerved!

Was this a "hate-crime?"

Was I being "targeted" just for being a Christian?! Will the cross turn up in some dumpster after a satanic ceremony had been performed on it? (the Tampa Bay Times, a free local newspaper had recently reported a series of animal cruelty cases in which dead cats were found, decapitated heads only, in front of newspaper stands!). After all, I even know of one incident in S. Korea in which a satanic cult had been broken up. The perpetrators? Practicing satanists in the U.S. Army! (their battalion commander, a staunch Catholic, had made sure that religious-hate acts would not exist under her reign!)

OR, was this just a petty crime?

Did someone really just want the cross to decorate his/her yard with?

(the price of the actual cross was only $10 or so and bought near the Lawn care section of a St. Petersburg, FL-area Lowe's Home Improvement store--in 2007! I guess the stealing of a cross is something that a fellow U.S. citizen could somehow "justify" to himself/herself, perhaps as a symbolic act, a hate-crime maybe? More than likely, just someone who likes to steal for the pleasure of doing something wrong! St. Augustine, prior to his conversion, apparently delighted in simply stealing fruit!)

Well, whether it was a satanic hate crime, a local drunk bar-hopper returning from a Tampa Bay Rays-Boston Red Sox game, or just someone who likes to steal, I am still QUITE unsettled!

First the cross stolen, and then what should I expect next? Hate crimes are anonymous, and yes, I have been a victim before (e.g. receiving racially-motivated graffiti in college on my dorm room marker wipe-board due to my strong racially-progressive and affirmative action viewpoints!).

CHRIST-FOR-ALL! Rob J. King (victim of Christian discrimination or just a Red Sox fan annoyed that the Tampa Bay Rays are in first place? By the way, if you read this, please return the cross and it will likely reduce your time in purgatory! I just prayed a Hail Mary for your eternal salvation . . . :-)