Re: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God

You're right, Alice. It isn't about religion, per say. It's about
the Human Imagination.
We humans go about living in Make Believe Worlds. Take our great
nation, the United States of America. Our imagination has put
together a nation of free people, living in peace and in the desire to
spread our wonderful, free life to all people of the Earth. We have
created documents, histories, folk tales, and tangible proof that we
are the most benevolent people ever to trod the planet. And we ignore
all which goes against that backdrop. We make excuses for the
violence, the bombings and murders of hundreds of thousands of people
whose only crime is that they are not one of us.
We even invent reasons why many of our own people protest our
wonderful nation, and spread lies about our beloved nation's actions.
We created Santa Claus, and other Fairies and Elves, who go about
giving gifts and granting wishes. And yes, we imagined a Great and
Perfect God, who comes with different names, to each culture. With no
proof other than our own say so, we created a history of this God.
And we go about living our lives in the belief that this all good God
is directing us. We point to the good deeds of some of the Faithful,
ignoring all of the generations of suffering brought about by other
people of our Faith, in their efforts to "convert" other nations, or
to use God to control their subjects, or to justify their own cruel
desires.
And we imagined that some of us are better than others. We built
upon this belief and established the Pecking Order, the Class System.
For much of our history, the very powerful were few in number, so they
invented myths that they were appointed by God to rule over the
masses. They enlisted the services of other people, through bribes
and favors, to keep the masses in place.
And the masses invented differences among themselves. In our present
world, we have created the Lower Class, the Working Class, the Middle
Class and the Upper Class. We decided that the way to determine each
person's place in this Pecking Order was to measure their material
wealth and the control it gave them over others.
I could go on, but enough is enough. It's all Fluff! We imagined it
all, and made it happen.
There is no God, no Santa Claus, no Tooth Fairy or Easter Rabbit.
There is no superior People. There are only People. There is only
one Earth upon which we can live. It is not a perfect planet. It
moans and groans and causes tidal waves and winds that blow down
forests. And it is not a perfect life. The big eat the little, the
strong defeat the weak, in this dog eat dog world.
We are frightened to admit that we are adrift in an unknowable
universe, on a speck of grit that could be blasted out of existence by
another wandering speck of grit. In my opinion, our only hope for the
continuance of our species and our world, as we know it, is to
confront our imaginary world and discard that which is imaginary, and
live with our planet, instead of trying to make it something it is
not.
But perhaps that is nothing more than my own wild imagination at work.

Carl Jarvis


On 12/28/14, Charles Krugman <ckrugman@sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> and people wonder why I am an atheist.
> Chuck
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Carl Jarvis
> Sent: Sunday, December 28, 2014 8:24 PM
> To: Blind Democracy Discussion List
> Subject: Tom Atchison, hand in hand with God
>
> Okay, so a con artist is a con artist whether disguised as a Wall
> Street Broker or clothed as a pastor.
> But for some reason I'm more disgusted with scum like Tom Atchison,
> the self styled Holy Man. If anyone could change my thinking, and
> bring me to a belief in the Hereafter, it would be Tom Atchison.
> I see a barren rock in Hades. Tom Atchison lies bound to a stone
> slab. One by one, each individual he cheated and bullied during his
> greedy, self serving years on Earth, steps forward and spats upon his
> naked body. And where their spittle lands, the flesh blisters and a
> horrid open sore bubbles up. Tom Atchison screams with the pain, as
> another spit ball strikes.
> But of course there is no Hereafter. Tom Atchison has been living a
> wonderful life off the misery of others. Dressed and behaving in a
> way that elicits trust from the down trodden.
> Forcing the poor and downcast to work for room and board, in order for
> him to stash away a fortune. Yes, Tom Atchison, a true example of
> Capitalism at its finest.
>
> Carl Jarvis
>
>
>
> On 12/28/14, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@optonline.net> wrote:
>>
>> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> ________________________________________
>> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>>
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>>
>>
>> December 2, 2014 |
>> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people
>> by
>> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And
>> while
>> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian
>> charity,
>> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
>> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison,
>> has
>> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
>> concession
>> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay
>> Rays
>> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
>> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
>> alcoholics
>> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
>> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In
>> total
>> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
>> concessions
>> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
>> were staffed by homeless people.
>> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
>> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
>> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
>> being
>> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
>> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
>> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
>> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
>> they're given in return.
>> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
>> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
>> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
>> work
>> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
>> writing.
>> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
>> they're
>> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
>> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics
>> are
>> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
>> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
>> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
>> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
>> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
>> (which
>> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
>> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records
>> and
>> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
>> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
>> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
>> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
>> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
>> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
>> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
>> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody
>> on
>> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
>> problems.
>> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
>> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
>> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
>> 2012.
>> [5]
>>
>> See more stories tagged with:
>> Faith based charities [6]
>> ________________________________________
>> Source URL:
>> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>> Links:
>> [1] http://alternet.org
>> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
>> [3]
>> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
>> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
>> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
>> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
>> Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
>> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>>
>> Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
>> Home > Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>>
>> AlterNet [1] / By Cliff Weathers [2]
>>
>> Christian Pastor Finds Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> December 2, 2014 |
>> The CEO of a Tampa Bay area charity has been exploiting homeless people
>> by
>> forcing them to work without pay to earn their food and shelter. And
>> while
>> the homeless men aren't compensated for their labor, the Christian
>> charity,
>> New Beginnings of Tampa, often is.
>> According to the Tampa Bay Times [3], the charity's CEO, Tom Atchison,
>> has
>> been farming out his residents as indentured servants to work at
>> concession
>> stands at local events, including state fairs, NASCAR races, Tampa Bay
>> Rays
>> baseball games, Bucs football games and Lightning hockey games.
>> The paper says that the men - many of them recovering addicts and
>> alcoholics
>> - are often asked to work food and beer concessions. The money earned
>> working there, the Times reports, goes directly to New Beginnings. In
>> total
>> it earned $932,816 in such income last year. Center Plate, the
>> concessions
>> operator for Tropicana Field says it's unaware that its concession stands
>> were staffed by homeless people.
>> Compensating labor with only food and shelter is nothing new; homeless
>> charities, like the Salvation Army, have been doing it for many years.
>> However, this practice requires charities to show that the workers are
>> being
>> compensated with services that are equal to what they'd earn with the
>> federal minimum wage, which is $7.25 an hour. But by his own admission,
>> Atchison does not document hours worked. Labor activists and homeless
>> advocates say that the residents are providing far too much work for what
>> they're given in return.
>> "It needs to stop," Lee Hoffman, a former resident told the Times. "There
>> are a bunch of homeless people who are being exploited."
>> In addition to working on labor crews, Atchison has had homeless people
>> work
>> in telemarketing, construction, landscaping, moving, and even grant
>> writing.
>> If a homeless person wishes not to participate in the labor program,
>> they're
>> charged $600 a month for meals and rent.
>> And while New Beginnings refers to this labor as "work therapy" critics
>> are
>> calling it illegal. Even worse, New Beginnings is a faith-based public
>> charity that gets public money to fund its operations. Atchison, an
>> erstwhile Pentecostal pastor (the paper could not verify his doctorate in
>> theology) is vying for the contract to operate Hillsborough County's
>> homeless program. The paper says that contract in Hillsborough County
>> (which
>> includes Tampa) will be worth millions.
>> The Times investigation, which included digging through police records
>> and
>> court records, bank statements and interviews with current and former
>> residents and employees, paints a picture of a shady operation.
>> Atchison is accused of absconding with Social Security checks and food
>> stamps belonging to residents, even if they were for more than residents
>> owed to the program. A contractor is also accusing New Beginnings of
>> overbilling the State of Florida some $80,000.
>> In addition, while part of the mission of New Beginnings is to provide
>> counseling to its residents, the paper found that the charity has nobody
>> on
>> staff that's trained to tend to those with mental illness and addiction
>> problems.
>> The sports news site Deadspin reports that the Lightning NHL hockey
>> franchise honored Atchison last year as "a community hero [4]."
>> See the video (below) of Atchison discussing New Beginnings of Tampa in
>> 2012.
>> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless[5]
>> See more stories tagged with:
>> Faith based charities [6]
>>
>> Source URL:
>> http://www.alternet.org/homeless-people-forced-unpaid-labor-christian-pastor
>>
>> Links:
>> [1] http://alternet.org
>> [2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/cliff-weathers
>> [3]
>> http://www.tampabay.com/news/specials/tampa-homeless-program-uses-unpaid-des
>> titute-residents-as-steady-labor/2208350
>> [4] http://lightning.nhl.com/club/news.htm?id=656477
>> [5] mailto:corrections@alternet.org?Subject=Typo on Christian Pastor
>> Finds
>> Ingenious Way to Exploit the Homeless
>> [6] http://www.alternet.org/tags/faith-based-charities
>> [7] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Blind-Democracy mailing list
>> Blind-Democracy@octothorp.org
>> https://www.octothorp.org/mailman/listinfo/blind-democracy
>>
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