Comments on: Virtual Panhandling in London

By: David

David — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 09:52:09 +0000

15# I am a Jehovahs Witness and am glad that you were able to learn more about our religion and our way of life.. and by the way do you live in Australia?

By: William

William — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:42:15 +0000

On occasion I do stop and have a chat with people collecting money for charity or spreading the word of god. Only the other week I got talking to a Jehovah’s Witnesses and learnt a lot about the religion and way of life.

Also I make a point to buy a Big Issue, a magazine where some of the profit goes towards the homeless person who sells it, and have a chat with the person who’s selling it (you’d be surprised one guy who selling it was a Doctor out of work).

By: KarmaBaby

KarmaBaby — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:05:38 +0000

It should accept credit cards.

By: JimR

JimR — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 14:59:58 +0000

Greg Allen, kudos. That part of organized religion I can support if preaching isn’t involved. I doubt many atheists show up for food though. There’s a certain feeling of obligation or indebtedness when begging for help that is unavoidable. We have secular “food banks” to feed the hungry here, so that someone in need doesn’t feel like a hypocrite when asking. There’s no need to “belong” to those groups. We just donate food or money.

By: Greg Allen

Greg Allen — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 04:17:13 +0000

Jägermeister,

I totally agree that private charities can never replace a government social safety net.

But, I don’t think Christian “welfare” (I call it compassionate aid) is the worst. Conservative Social Darwinism is far worse, IMHO.

My own church has a food pantry and we gave out something like 15,000 bags of groceries last year and are anticipating 20,000 this year. We’re not even that big of a church.

Because of the ruined economy Bush left us, our church faced the very hard decision this year to either cut pastor staff or cut the project. We cut the staff because we simply didn’t want to turn hungry people away.

We do absolutely no proselytizing with the pantry. None. If you are hungry, show up and we’ll give you food. That’s it. Nothing more. Seriously — we are devout Christians but we don’t do anything like you described.

I’m curious, do you belong to any group that helps people? (I’m not baiting you — I’m I’d really like to know about it.)

By: Faxon

Faxon — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 00:09:26 +0000

Here in the People’s State of Kalifornia, welfare and public housing come out of my tax dollars. So I never give money to charities

By: Jägermeister

Jägermeister — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:26:35 +0000

#6 – Greg Allen – Wow.

Helping the poor is now “pan handling.”

It’s sad when you’ve got a society where the people at the bottom aren’t taken care of by its government. Christian organized “helping” is the worst social welfare system there is. Here… have some soup… and we’ll cram Jesus down your throat as a bonus! Just give enough help to get them hooked on Jesus.

By: bill

bill — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:52:45 +0000

Eat the RICH!

By: sargasso

sargasso — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:26:21 +0000

A new, cynical low point for the charity industry. Holographic beggars. I hope they accept virtual money.

By: Dale

Dale — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:43:11 +0000

Unless you want more of these kiosks of guilt you should vote with your money, don’t give to them. I hope this bad idea doesn’t cause backlash to the organizations that get suckered into buying them. And I’d be willing to bet it was thought up by a big marketing company that can’t wait to show successful results to Coke, GM, Budweiser. Tie this in with what Google has on you and your geo-located phone and it is just like Minority Report.

By: Greg Allen

Greg Allen — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:37:55 +0000

Wow.

Helping the poor is now “pan handling.”

I suppose you’d deny health care to Tiny Tim Cratchit, as well, and call it “family values.”

By: JimR

JimR — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:37:04 +0000

#1, re: “Wow, cool at least you get something in return for your change.”

amodedoma, what is it that you are getting that you wouldn’t normally get?

By: Analyst

Analyst — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:10:03 +0000

that looks expensive

By: Dr Dodd

Dr Dodd — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 17:05:26 +0000

How ever are you going to fleece the white guilt crowd with this? There’s not a little black baby with flies buzzing around its face in sight.

This is no way to effectively use guilt as a way to pry silver coins from tightfisted liberals.

By: B.Dog

B.Dog — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 16:45:12 +0000

Maybe I can get a tragic avatar from the PETA site.