The Last Crusade: Arby's Metrocenter
Well, it’s been quite a long time since I’ve posted. That’s always a scary thing for me because it makes me curious as to what I’ve been doing with the thoughts and emotions that have undoubtedly occupied my heart and mind during that time. Anyway, I figure it’s a good time to let out some of those observations, and a recent e-mail I received at work has given me the appropriate topic. A friend forwarded me this message last week—not as another link of an e-mail chain or in order to spread this sort of propaganda but out of a concern that this sort of story might be circulating mainstream and causing a lot of hurt. He was right to be concerned because I’ve since learned that this e-mail has permeated the Jackson region and is being read by many Christian churchgoers. In fact, I actually located the below text on the Snopes website, so now individuals around the nation have the opportunity to comment on our Southern Christian ethics…and most of them are completely appalled, as they should be. You can read it for yourself if you’d like. I’ve removed all personal identifications and replaced them with my comments [in brackets].

Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2006 22:53:33 EDT
I just wanted to take a moment to let you all know about a situation that took place today: [My husband] and I had met for lunch at Arby's on Highway 80 by Metrocenter (I know...not the greatest place for lunch). As we began to walk in the front door I noticed a homeless man (early to late 60's) sitting on an old paint bucket.

He wasn't asking anyone for money or food, he was just enjoying the shade. He looked at us and said "Hello, how are you." I got to thinking about the pocket bible that Dr. [Theologian] gave us a few weeks in Sunday school. For some reason I remembered seeing it on my front seat before I got out of the car, so I turned around and went back to my car and got the Bible. As I was there I remembered that I didn't eat my snacks from school that morning either, so I grabbed those too. As I walked towards the door I made my way to the man and I handed him the Bible and food. I have never in my life seen someone so appreciative and grateful for so a small gift.

[My husband] and I placed our order, went to sit down and began to eat. I could see out the window by the cars, a man in an SUV pulled up and was handing the guy some money and as this was happening the owner ([Bob]) ran out the door of the kitchen and then outside and threw the homeless man to the ground and proceeded to kick him. Everyone that could see what was happening was in total shock (as anyone would be)--you could hear a gasp across the whole eating area. He yelled at the man and then walked back inside. At this point there were tears in my eyes. I yelled "Excuse me, what is your problem?" He said "Mam?" as though nothing had happened. A woman behind me piped up and said "That was just cruel." I told him "that was plain ruthless". He said "If you knew how much business this man has cost everyone to lose around here you would have done it too." I said "No Sir, what you just did to that man lost you business, we will NEVER eat here again." Everyone agreed and told him this was their final visit to Arby's also. He ended with saying "That's fine, I have plenty of business."

To end the story, a policeman drove up about 5-10 min later and I met him outside and explained everything that had happened. [My husband] and I tried to find the man so that we could buy him some lunch and hopefully give him a way to talk to that policeman. We could not find him, he must have been long gone.

We wonder why some people don't believe in God. This man was given a Bible by a total stranger and in a matter of 10 minutes was shoved to the ground by another. If you were lost and confused about a relationship with Christ, wouldn't something like this put all sorts of doubt in your mind? Like, how could God create such crude people if he really loves us?

I urge you to boycott Arby's. The owner is [Bob] ([physical description of Bob goes here]) until all of this gets sorted out. He is the owner of the Arby's on Highway 80 and the Arby's in Pearl. Also, I urge you to be in prayer for the man that was mistreated so badly. He may not have been the greatest person in the world, the cleanest person, the wealthiest person...but haven't we all been told...we never know how God is going to come back?

**PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!

In Christ,
[Mr. and Mrs. Former Arby’s Patrons]

It has been brought to my attention that this man, [Bob], also owns the Arby's at 804 Lake Harbor Drive, Ridgeland, and probably still owns the Arby's in Vicksburg.Might as well boycott them all!!!!!!!!!!


As you can see, there is a lot that could be said of this e-mail. Without sounding as biting as the bloggers at Snopes.com, I would like to bring up two aspects. For starters, there’s the question of what actually happened at Arby’s that day. I have been a patron of this particular Arby’s location for nearly six years and have had countless exchanges with the owner in question, “Bob.” The writer’s portrayal of him in the e-mail disturbingly clashes with everything in my experience with him. In the neighborhood of the Metrocenter Mall in West Jackson, businesses are prone to move out of the area because of crime rates and lack of revenue. Arby’s is one of the area’s few establishments that has managed to not only operate a successful business but a rather impressive one. The restaurant itself is spotless, the environment is friendly, and it’s the only fast food establishment that I know of that filters soft classical music through its sound system. By the way, these characteristics have occurred under Bob’s leadership and are not true of all Arby’s restaurants. Hence, my first instinct about the e-mail is that it is either fictional or somewhat embellished. (Look again at how the writing simply stacks the tables of “good” and “evil.” We have a pleasant and hospitable homeless man, a pair of Bible-toting Sunday school goers, and a generous act of gift-giving…albeit, leftover snacks…contrasted with a cruel, insensitive, and violent villain of a restaurant owner. It’s the same allegorical stuff Pilgrim’s Progress is made of.)

So, there’s that aspect of my response, which is admittedly a more personal one since I think highly of this particular Arby’s. But having accepted that this is a forwarded e-mail message with all sorts of questionable claims about the nature of truth in Jackson, MS, let’s assume for a moment that the e-mail is entirely true. Because there lies the most disturbing quality of its composition.

Here we have the Christian church, a community of believers and Christ-followers who are banding together to…stop criminal activity in West Jackson? I doubt it. Most of them won’t be going there. To…protect and care for the homeless? Definitely not. We don’t even know where the homeless character in this story disappears to, and we’re not really concerned with finding him or others like him. To…spread the good news of Christ’s love and mercy? Well, maybe to that one homeless guy to whom we gave a mini-Bible, but we’re not sure if he can read anyway. The answer is…we’re banding together to put a restaurant owner out of business. What a substantive goal for Christ followers.

If that restaurant owner hates homeless people, but I hate the restaurant owner, I’m the same as him. And though I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this e-mail propagates a mindset of “hate” in our community, I would say that it does not propagate love and mercy. A boycott can often be an effective thing; however, the only reason that one should participate in a boycott is to bring about change in that thing that is being boycotted. In this situation, we have no change that we are fighting for. The e-mail vaguely explains that we will boycott “until all this gets sorted out.” Who’s checking up on that? And what are we sorting out? If the owner of Arby’s is a villain, he will not be changed by our avoiding him. If he’s not a villain, then we’re inflicting unnecessary damage on a regular human being who is, just like us, flawed.

This reasoning begs yet another question. What if the restaurant owner is actually a Christ follower like us? What if he simply lashed out without thinking and regrets this action? In this case, we are seeking to wound a brother who needs our forgiveness. Meanwhile, as cyberspace continues to inhale this message, more and more individuals are exposed to the unlove and unmercy that ironically consume the Christian organism of our community.

If you’re thinking that this is a call to become tolerant of or apathetic toward wrongdoing in our community, please don’t miss the greater point. It is a call to become deliberately loving, intentionally merciful, and uncomfortably proactive toward the godliness and the ungodliness that surrounds us. In fact, I believe it is the call of Christ.