An Applebee’s waitress who posted a receipt with a note from a pastor complaining about the automatic gratuity added to the bill on the Internet was fired on Wednesday after the pastor complained to her manager.
Chelsea Welch, the waitress, wrote in an email to Yahoo News that the pastor (who has since been identified as Alois Bell) told Welch’s manager at the St. Louis-area Applebee’s that the ensuing firestorm had “ruined” her reputation.
“I give God 10%,” Bell wrote on the receipt, scratching out the automatic tip and scribbling in an emphatic “0” where the additional tip would be. “Why do you get 18?” (There were more than eight people in Bell’s party, triggering the auto-tip.)
Gosh, I wonder what Jesus Christ must be thinking of this woman. Probably something long the lines of “Did this idiot not pay attention to a single word I said? Did she seriously skip over the entirety of Matthew? Especially Matthew 25:31-46?!”
Oh, but it gets better!
“[It was] a lapse in my character and judgment,” Bell told the Smoking Gun, adding she did not expect her easily recognizable signature would be, as her friend informed her, “all over Yahoo. You went viral!”
“My heart is really broken,” Bell added. “I’ve brought embarrassment to my church and ministry.”
Not “My heart is broken because this young woman lost her job,” but because she embarrassed her church and ministry.
Yes, Mrs. Bell, your horrid and uncivil God-bothering is a gross embarrassment to your church - far, far more so than your waitress’ behavior was to her place of employment. But, at the end of the day, you’re a vile, horrible person who still has her job and a steady paycheck, while your waitress - who did absolutely nothing but post a completely innocuous photo online - does not.
And you’re the one preaching at people to be “good” and “moral?” Give me a break.
