Imagine being 25 years old and having your car hit by a truck. Your car with the Bernie Sanders sticker on the back of it.
Imagine being 25 years old and suffering from chronic disease and having the tow truck driver inform you that no, he's not going to tow your car. He's going to let you sit on the side of the road because he's a Christian, and he's "drawn a line in the sand."
“He said, ‘I can’t tow you ... you’re a Bernie supporter,’” McWade recalled. “I was like, ‘Wait, are you serious? You’re kidding me.’”
Ken Shupe, a 51-year-old from Travelers Rest, South Carolina, was very serious. “I’m a conservative Christian, I’ve just drawn a line in the sand,” he said. “I’m not going to associate or conduct business with them.” (The incident was first reported by FOX Carolina 21.)
McWade was heading home to Travelers Rest on I-26 when a tractor trailer hit the front of her car, she said. Afterward, her car wouldn’t start, and a first responder moved it to the side of the interstate. The driver’s door was approximately two feet from the highway line, she recalled.
McWade said she collects disability payments and has psoriatic arthritis, impaired mobility, early stage Crohn’s disease, severe fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. (She sent HuffPost a picture of the disability tag, as well as a photo of her many medications.)
“I was in a little bit of a shock, and definitely a little scared,” she said.
Shupe showed up, saw the Sanders signs, and drove back to South Carolina without sticking around. McWade was “sitting there in a very safe area ... with her air conditioning on and her car locked, she was perfectly fine,” he said. He didn’t know she had disabilities, he said, but noted, “there’s a huge difference between being disabled and drawing disability.”
As a Christian, this is appalling to me. First, that he would put politics ahead of doing his job. And second, that he would sneer at her for being disabled, just like any good Fox News viewer does.
As the parent of a young adult with chronic disease, it infuriates me.
There is nothing remotely "Christian" about this man's choices. It's just flat-out bigotry, and it not only makes conservatives look like the horrible people they are, it makes Christians look awful too.
He has no right to claim that mantle. In fact, on this National Day of Prayer, he should open up the Bible he's so fond of thumping and consider what Jesus had to say:
“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
After the story was picked up by local news, Mr. Shupe's Facebook page took a beating. Who knows, perhaps I'll post this link over there too, just to remind him of what his priorities should be.
More generosity of spirit, less Bible-thumping, please, Mr. Shupe.
