W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1966) writer
I purchased one of our luxury items – firewood. The others being books and CDs. The guy who delivered the firewood said the price was $5 more than what I was quoted the day I ordered it. I told him I would call the place and tell them, but he asked me not to, he didn’t care about his tip.
I didn’t argue, which is not my nature and I gave him his tip anyway, because while we disagreed completely about religion, he was still a nice guy. The conversation started because he was telling god to bless the family and me, then he used an example about homosexuals should not be together because of what the Bible says.
I had to point out to him the hypocrisy of the Bible on this topic. I showed the delivery man an article from the 2004 Los Angeles Times opinion piece titled “Holy Terror.” Even before I could show him the direct quote from the newspaper on Leviticus 20:13 that says homosexuals should be killed: “if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death,” he dismissed the article as the writer’s interpretation. I said it was a direct quote from the Bible, but he had never seen it. He couldn’t believe that the Bible could contradict itself from the Ten Commandments. I attempted to show him other quotes called out by the newspaper that the Bible also instructs us to murder people who work on the Sabbath (which is what he was doing), along with adulterers and children who curse their parents.
He had his beliefs and nothing I said was going to change his mind. I wished him well and thanked him for stacking the wood.