Go forth and nick something

Some obscure priest of the Church of England has grabbed the headlines by asserting that shoplifting is morally defensible. If you are in need, the argument goes, and society has failed you, you can feel morally justified in helping yourself to something without paying for it. This he opined on behalf of God was a better option than breaking into someone's house or mugging some little old lady at knife point. And presumably the bigger the organization the less the crime - stealing from a company trading in a high rent shopping mall is much less reprehensible than shoplifting lower down the High Street.
This moral relativism is not new to the church. My grandfather used to observe with some wry amusement that both sides in the First World War invoked the help of the same Christian God before going ahead and slaughtering each other. If you won the battle you could thank God for the victory; nobody stopped to explain why God abandoned the other side to defeat.
Some historians might trace the beginning of the decline of the church in Europe to moments like these. Now, almost a century later, the pews are empty and the leadership is woolly-headed. The only time anyone pays attention to the church is when someone comes up with a vaccuous idea.