(L-R): Danielle Sylvester, Pastor Tim Chappell, and Jerry Anderson hold up one of their signs which got their church, New Beginnings Baptist Church, in trouble. Photo taken on Tuesday, July 26, 2011, in Lake Orion, Mich. (The Oakland Press/Jose Juarez)

Free Food.

That’s a sign you see occasionally in front of the New Beginnings Baptist Church that sits astride Lapeer Road in Oakland County’s Orion Township.

While the needy appreciate the notice, some of the more fortunate apparently do not.

The church has been ticketed.

So much for five loaves and two fish. Thank God there were no code enforcement officers when Jesus fed the 5,000. Jesus probably exceeded seating capacity in that solitary place near Bethsaida, too.

Does anyone in the township offices have any common sense?

The sole reason for the Free Food sign is to feed the hungry. The reason that people are hungry is that the economy around here is still anorexic.

Gone are many of the well paying jobs in the automotive sector that kept people comfortably in the middle class. Pay these days is lower or non-existent, medical deductibles are rising while coverage plummets and what used to be sirloin is now Hamburger Helper at best.

Free Food fills stomachs and a growing need. Handing out tickets to a church in violation of a sign ordinance is an obscenity.

The only valid reason to force the church to take down the sign is that nobody needs free food any longer.

Chew on that for reality, Orion Township.