The United Church of God, an International Acronym [UCGia], is moving its Home Office [HO] to Denton, Texas [TX]. The story goes that they picked up a very nice property at a bargain price, so what's not to like?
Word is out on the grapevine that the fabulous new facility has been sold to the membership minus a few choice bits of information. The remainder of this posting is edited and excerpted from one of the Yahoo newsgroups (reposted in full here).
***
Two or three miles from the property...
Safety-Kleen Systems, Inc., Denton, TX (TXD077603371): Safety-Kleen is a recycling center that specializes in the recovery and recycling of spent solvents and associated wastes. A Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Permit No. HW-50163 was issued for the facility on August 9, 1994. The permit authorizes the facility to accept and process a wide array of hazardous wastes with no disposal on-site. On September 22, October 1, and October 6, 1998, 6EN-HT staff concluded a Compliance Evaluation Inspection (CEI) at Safety-Kleen. On November 12, 1999, EPA conducted a follow-up CEI and noted the following violations: (1) Treatment and/or storage of hazardous waste without a permit in the day tanks,the debris sorting table, and the fluid recycling service unit, and (2) Failure to control air emissions for containers under subpart CC. On March 28, 2000, EPA issued an Administrative Order assessing a civil penalty of $1,617,908.00 plus injunctive relief.
When some of the COE members had been there to visit they were taken in the front way so they did not see these things [the waste center, and a nearby trailer park that houses registered sex offenders] they just saw the pretty parts. So these folks feel they have discovered why the property was so cheap, and are concerned about the location being much less than the desirable one that was presented in the videos and the United News. Most in the GCE do not yet even know about this...
Among the nasties said to be emitted from the factory: toluene and ethyl benzene. Sounds an idyllic locale.
***
So, if all this is true, it's obviously very relevant to the purchase decision. Has UCG gone past the point of no return with the property? Maybe it's time for the members whose tithes are bankrolling the move to phone, fax or email the HO with a few pertinent questions.
56 comments:
"Brethren, let's all take our hymn books, rise, cough and breeeeeeathe.
Great !
Keep all of the toxic waste in one place!
Lussenheide
UCG has withdrawn their efforts to procure this property. Announement was made to congregations (at least one) on Sabbath, July 28, 2007.
Gavin, here's the link for Denton, TX Safety Kleen site:
UCG HQ Toxic Waste Dump
Copper Creek Rd. Facility
Kinda sounds and smells like the NJ
Turnpike on a good day... :-)
Yes, I can confirm that there has been more than one congregation where this was announced. It turns out that the registered sex offender info on a local sheriff's site was outdated and no longer correct. The Safety Kleen facility being in such close proximity made them decide to withdraw efforts however.
Toxic waste or toxic faith, what's the difference? I wonder how the trailer park fit in on this choice of property?
Yes! I figured out how the trailer park figures into this!!!
It's a home for the widows and orphans! How Christ like they are!
Kscribe.
Kscribe:
The mobile home was the ministerial retirement center but you had to have 50 years in the church to get in.
ROTFL!!!!
Are you sure KSCRIBE didn't create this script for the new UCG Home Orfice? Reality truly is funnier than fiction!
I accidentally moved into an apartment years ago that was over a hill from a northern California refinery. You couldn't see it from the property. It wasn't long until I started getting vertigo that the doctor couldn't explain. As soon as I moved away the vertigo went away. And oh yeah, there were these mysterious brown drops that would appear on the car finish each day. Spent a fortune in car washes.
Forget your "outdated" information.
Right after their deity Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, and the idolized GTA, the UCG ministry themselves could be registered as sex offenders.
As both a former employee of Safety-Kleen Corp., and a former member of WCG, ICG & UCG, and a current environmental specialist with a certification in hazardous materials management, plus being an expert witness for the EPA/US Justice Dept. I can tell you there is no harm in living in that area.
As a former employee of Safety Kleen, did you have personal knowledge of the Denton facility?
Did you testify against your former employer Safety Kleen in an EPA/ governmental action?
"No harm" - Then do you expect us to believe there is ZERO probability of risk from contaminants in that area?
I believe you Steve, but why are you a former person of so many organizations? Where did you finally land?
***** I believe you Steve, but why are you a former person of so many organizations? Where did you finally land? *********
In reality I'm a former member of only "one" (1) so-called organization. WCG-ICG-UCG-et el is basically the same load of crap just being marketed under a different brand label. My family and I left WCG when Tkach offically came out of the closet in 1995 with his changes. From there we went to ICG for a year until Ted did his "thing" (again). The after that we spent a few months attending UCG, but that was just the same old stuff, just a different day.
Where we are today is personal and irrelevant to this conversation.
***** As a former employee of Safety Kleen, did you have personal knowledge of the Denton facility? *****
Yes.
***** Did you testify against your former employer Safety Kleen in an EPA/ governmental action? *****
No. In other Superfund sites in the US.
**** "No harm" - Then do you expect us to believe there is ZERO probability of risk from contaminants in that area? *****
Do you believe there are "ZERO" risk from contaminants living where you reside? Where ever that may be?
I ended up on Beliefnet as Taoist, Buddhist, neo pagan if that helps:)
Safety-Kleen's paid a $1.3 million settlement to the state of California, which had charged the company with 89 alleged violations of the state's hazardous waste laws. In 1992 a Safety-Kleen internal inspection found that the company had exceeded its authorized waste storage capacity and was illegally storing three million gallons of hazardous waste fluids at its Puerto Rico facilities. The company was later fined $1.4 million by the U.S. EPA.
Since they violated the environmental law in these areas, were they willing to violate the law in other areas for profit?
In 2000 the company filed for Chapter 11, 1.6 billion dollars in debt. In 2001, Safety-Kleen had restated its results for 1997, 1998, and 1999. Overall, earnings had been falsely overstated by nearly $500 million. The CEO and other top executives were charged with accounting fraud. A lawsuit brought by a group of institutional investors against former officers has ended with a $200 million judgment and more than $84 million in settlements against the company's former auditor PriceWaterhouseCoopers and directors. Paul Humphreys, the former CFO of Safety-Kleen, has pleaded guilty in federal court to securities and bank fraud charges arising from a scheme to overstate earnings from 1998 through 2000. He faces up to 45 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines. The SEC found that two executives had engaged in fraud as part of the Safety-Kleen overstatements, they were fined by the commission and permanently barred from serving as officers or directors of a public company.
In the U.S., CERCLA imposes financial liability on persons who are responsible for the release of hazardous substances into the environment. The Company has identified 57 active federal or state-run CERCLA sites where the Company is a potentially responsible party.
Steve said...
...From there we went to ICG for a year until Ted did his "thing" (again).
Never trust a telebangelist....
As we all know, the hale and hearty lads of the UCG have the Holy Spirit of God leading them to make decisions. Even if they don't make the right decision, God will certainly bless them for the effort and make it turn out right.
We see this in the decision to hale the home office from... well some place in California, Southern and it appears that they were able to count the bullet holes in the building. Then they hied off to Cincinnati, Ohio or thereabouts near a very high crime area. At last, they have settled on Dallas / Fort Worth, Texas area, that buckle of the Bible Belt known to be friendly to religions with world renown.
That United was able to pull out after carefully counting the cost, being inspired by the Spirit and making an obvious consensus decision with its membership, is certainly testimony to the long term viability in this world and in the world to come.
As for the particulars of the decision making process, certainly the ways of the godly spirit led mind is way, way above that of the carnal as to be beyond understanding -- so there is no way anyone outside the elite of the UCG could be trusted to grasp the intricacies of governance that has led them to have three addresses in something like a decade.
As someone in the Radio Church of God once told us, three moves is as good as a burn.
Perhaps that the decision making process as being beyond the ken of mortal understanding is somewhat overstated: Perhaps it is more the case that the decision process is beyond belief.
Steve,
I found out Safety-Kleen employs about 90 employees at its Denton facility which began operations about 30 years ago.
When the Denton facility was once inspected by the EPA, it issued an administrative fine for over $1.6 million dollars and slapped Safety-Kleen with an injunction. Then they filed bankruptcy:
Safety-Kleen: Denton, Texas (TXD077603371). Safety-Kleen is a recycling center that specializes in the recovery and recycling of spent solvents and associated hazardous waste due to their ignitability and/or toxicity. A permit, No. HW-50163, was issued for the facility on August 9, 1994. The permit authorizes the facility to accept and process a wide array of hazardous wastes with no disposal on-site. On September 22, October 1, and October 6, 1998, EPA Region 6 concluded a Compliance Evaluation Inspection (CEI) at Safety-Kleen. On November 12, 1999, EPA conducted a follow-up CEI and noted the following violations: (1) treatment and/or storage of hazardous waste without a permit in the day tanks, the debris sorting table, and the fluid recycling service unit, and (2) failure to control air emissions for containers under subpart CC.
On March 28, 2000, EPA issued the Denton facility an Administrative Order assessing a civil penalty of $1,617,908 plus injunctive relief. Some traffic ticket!
According to the EPA Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) figures www.epa.gov/tri for 2000 (to take just one historical sample) Safety-Kleen Corporation more than doubled its toxic emissions, reporting total air emissions of 11,965 lbs. in 2000, up from a total of 4,290 lbs. in 1999.
What are those dangers? Science is linking so-called “acceptable exposures” of toxins that Safety-Kleen is spewing into our air with public health problems such as birth defects, autoimmune diseases, and chronic conditions in children such as attention deficit disorder and childhood cancers. Legal emissions levels are not necessarily safe levels. The public has also been concerned about several accidental chemical fires at the facility.
And dangers are not posed only by the toxic air emissions around the plant. Tank farms at the Denton facility store flammable and explosive hazardous wastes as well as PCBs (polychorinated biphenyls), the same type of toxic chemicals that poisoned the water and fish of New York’s Hudson River. It is Safety-Kleen Denton’s responsibility to keep its dangerous emissions of toluene, napthalene, ethylbenzene, methyl isobutyl ketone, and xylene within safety guidelines.
Stan
Safety-Kleen is a recycling center that specializes in the recovery and recycling of spent solvents and associated wastes.
Seriously now -- isn't this a bit like what a church is supposed to be? Recovering wasted lives, and turning them into something good and functional?
This past week, the Duwamish River came up as a topic on the TV Series, The 4400, as being polluted. Not too far away, there is a Superfund site in Auburn which has soil you can light with a match and it burns. Those of us living nearby are quite familiar with toxins, particularly those from Tacoma. Then there was the Weyerhaueser spill in Southwest Washington which spewed a cloud of gas along Long Beach.
There's a standing joke: How do you know if the fish you caught in the Duwamish is fit to eat? Answer: Throw it on the grill and if it ignites and explodes, there's a chance you might not want to eat it.
Perhaps United will change its mind and choose Three Mile Island....
Wow - Safety-Kleen sounds about as toxic as the comments in this thread!
NEWS FLASH!
It is reported that the leaders of the UCG have been seen consorting with Real Estate Agents and previewing "bargain basement" property to buy at the following locations:
* The "Trinity Site" at White Sands New Mexico near Alamagordo New Mexico
* Area 51
* Bikini Island
* Bhopal India
* Chernobyl
* Yucca Mountain, Nevada
Lussenheide
Maybe it's time for the members whose tithes are bankrolling the move to phone, fax or email the HO with a few pertinent questions.
Oh, Gavin, Gavin, Gavin. You're at it again. Trying so hard to continue to promote accountability.
While it is such an honorable, reasonable and useful endeavor to attempt to invoke various attempts to encourage people to take responsibility and ownership of their lives, assets and leadership, it is as futile as explaining quantum physics to your cat. He may purr and meow at all the right moments as if he's getting it, but he's only manipulating you so you will feed and entertain him. After 18 years we've sort of figured that out about our cat.
And after over four decades with the church of gods, we've sort of figured that out about them too.
Maybe it's time for the members whose tithes are bankrolling the move to phone, fax or email the HO with a few pertinent questions.
Only two really effective methods left here:
1) forget the phone, fax or email. Useless. Only an angry mob showing up in person will do it. Otherwise, these guys are like the unjust judge who fears not God nor man -- and this case a persistent widow isn't even going to get a hearing. Vastly superior force is the only thing they will respond to.
2) Take the tithes and do something really useful with them and hire lawyers to sue United out of existence.
But if you think about it, it's really wasted effort to do either. The most reasonable course is to depart. If you want to recreate the insanity of Armstrongism, you can do it with your own time and money and not give it to people who don't listen to you. Go hire hungry hirelings who have itching ears and will give you your money's worth.
"It is reported that the leaders of the UCG have been seen consorting with Real Estate Agents and previewing "bargain basement" property to buy..."
Area 51
ROFL
More "Bible Betty" sightings?
(You forgot Pahrump, Nevada)
b²
While outside observers like us may regard this development as significant, the UCG will weather all with ease.
To the UCG, this is not a chink in their armour but rather an opportunity to demonstrate perseverance and dedication.
And, of course, people like us just don't get it.
Cash will continue to flow, UCG members will continue to sing "all is well with my soul", another spot in East Texas will be found and we can expect to hear of UCG luminaries at the Dallas Cowboys football games. Maybe they will even get access to a private box again.
-- Neo
Well have to give them credit for rethinking it. I can't remember HWA or JT ever rethinking some idea they came up with.
How about the brainstorm to Grace Internationale Communion?
Arise, the damned of the earth,
Arise, prisoners of hunger,
Reason thunders in its crater,
It is the eruption of the end!
Let's make a blank slate of the past,
COG slaves, arise, arise!
The world is going to change from its base,
We are nothing, let's be everything!
There are no supreme saviors,
Neither Caesar, nor Pastor.
Producers, let's save ourselves!
Let's decree a common defense
So that the thief returns his plunder,
To pull the mind from the prison cell
Let us blow upon our furnace ourselves,
Strike the iron while it is hot!
The COG represses and their law cheats,
The tithes bleed the unfortunate
No responsibility is imposed on the rich
The rights of the poor is a hollow phrase
Enough of languishing in custody,
Equality needs other laws!
No rights without duty, it says,
Equally, no duties without rights.
Hideous, in their glory,
Pastor Generals of the mines and rail.
Never have they done anything else,
But steal from others' work.
In the safes of this group
What we created is melted together!
In decreeing that they give it back
The people want nothing but their due.
The Pastors intoxicate us with their literal fumes,
Peace among ourselves, war to the tyrants!
Laborers, peasants, we are
The great party of workers
The earth belongs only to humans
The idle are going to live elsewhere
How much they Feast on our flesh
But if the ravens and vultures
Disappear one of these days
The Sun will shine forever!
anda thanka you Mr. Lenin for thata rousing song fora the proletariat...
Goda Bless America!
Questeruk said...
Wow - Safety-Kleen sounds about as toxic as the comments in this thread!
Ya, but "Steve" assures us that there is no harm living in that area. Don't you accept his reassurance? What more do you need!?
I for one feel comforted, and my confidence has been restored in Safety Kleen thanks to Steve's blurb. Hey, the name says it all man! SAFETY KLEEN
I for one feel comforted, and my confidence has been restored in Safety Kleen thanks to Steve's blurb. Hey, the name says it all man! SAFETY KLEEN
Yeah, the same confidence of the cleanliness of the coal-fire plant in Arkansas - White Bluff!
"Hey, the name says it all man! SAFETY KLEEN"
It looks like dirty oil wasn't the only thing they were busy cleaning - how out cleaning out the BANK ACCOUNTS?
What's that song? "Smoke gets in your eyes"?
The news is out. Pollution from China is landing on the West Coast of the United States. Over 30% of the dirty air in Los Angeles and San Francisco comes from China.
So Texas, even near a toxic waste facility may be better than say, having the Home Office in Seattle, where the residents are obviously the victims of Kung Fume.
Now here's the deal: United is salivating over India's masses of which 500 million speak passable English. They have visions of salvation for half a billion tithe payers and there are at least two people in India ready to make the move to the UCG. This portends great things for the future as United tears down their barns to build even bigger ones because they don't have enough room to hold their fortunes [and we all know what Jesus said about that].
So here's the deal: United should just go ahead and spare themselves another move down the road in future by finding cheap land upwind from China's pollution!
Of course a belligerent Pakistan with Nukes waiting in the wings might be problematic for the nervous, but heck, have a little faith -- the size of a mustard seed -- and condiments will be overflowing in no time.
I'm so happy I could be helpful.
Let us now enjoy
a musical interlude in honor of United's move to Texas!
Of course, we'd like to get them in the vicinity of Dallas....
When they get settled
there, they'll be overjoyed to tune into godly soft rock from KLUV!
Anonymous mentioned possible tithe farming in India. That reminds me of a meeting not too long ago of a group of Hindus that were looking to build a temple in close proximity to the Presbyterian Church I attend. The purpose of the meeting was to ask us if they could use our parking lot for overflow...anyway someone asked a question of them, I can't really remember how it went...BUT the answer was and I quote, "Yes, we are idol worshipers."
I had a coughing fit.
Nothing can quite prepare you for that statement I think.
Douglas Becker said...
Let us now enjoy...
Thanks.
I was really enjoying those when (suddenly) my XP system froze, the Linux box coughed up a series of daemon messages and the pager went into alarm mode.
Yikes! We've broken the Internet!
b²
Please note that the "news item" is from The Onion. I hope you all know what that means.
And by the way, scan the banner crawling at the bottom of the video!
Yikes! And I thought it was the stupendous, colossal, earth shaking, record-breaking web traffic and Restored literature downloads at the RCG.org that broke the Internet!
Lussenheide said...
NEWS FLASH!
It is reported that the leaders of the UCG have been seen consorting with Real Estate Agents and previewing "bargain basement" property to buy at the following locations:
Perhaps they were watching one too many get rich quick TV commericials about "distressed properties"?
Flip that property! With that many organic compounds in the soil it might just flip itself with a good lit match.
Douglas Becker said...
....it is as futile as explaining quantum physics to your cat. He may purr and meow at all the right moments as if he's getting it, but he's only manipulating you so you will feed and entertain him. After 18 years we've sort of figured that out about our cat.
And after over four decades with the church of gods, we've sort of figured that out about them too.
You obviously have never played with Schrödinger's cat.
My cat defies gravity and knows instantly when I am working on computers so that she can rub against me and short circuit fragile microcircuits with her amazing electromagnetic properties.
Cats enjoy bringing civilization to its knees.
Try this musical interlude on for size:
DALLAS
Since nearly everything in the UCG is retro, we though we'd host a "Welcome UCG" retro party at a little ranch nearby Murphy when they arrive:
DALLAS PARTY
Those UCG women can really shake their booty!
Have they considered Houston ? It has an even higher church density than Dallas. Could even challenge the Jesus Triangle - Dallas-Waco-Tyler - for the most killings of 'satan-influenced-children' by distraught Jesus-Moms.
To top it off, Houston has a suburb called Pasadena !
Or they
might move to Armadillo, Texas.
Some
of you are wondering how the Second Shame Church of Christ Recrucified came to
be in Armadillo, Texas in the old Armadillo Independent Chocolate Factory
[AICF]. Well, just click on this link....
Perhaps United will follow suit.
The Second Shame
Church of Christ Recrucified in Armadillo, Texas in the old Armadillo
Independent Chocolate Factory [AICF] has a familiar theme song.
this thread has gone stupid....
Douglas Becker said...
The Second Shame
Church of Christ Recrucified in Armadillo, Texas in the old Armadillo
Independent Chocolate Factory [AICF] has a familiar theme song.
I wouldn't say that this thread has gone bonkers,exactly.What Douglas points us to has some merit.Perhaps some people out there need to lighten up a little.
Some people out there just have no humour.
Yes, Douglas keep those links coming.
Seamus
Truthfully, the entire venue of the church of gods is weird and creepy.
The satire from ten years ago is still mostly applicable today without much change.
It's more disturbing than funny.
It was announced in church that Joel Meeker resigned from the council effective immediately and that Leon Walker who was voted off by the GCE this past May will take Joel's place and serve out Joel's remaining term. Then the process is that the GCE will either vote Leon Walker back in or vote for someone else.
Interesting development.
Interesting development
Ja, mein Herr...
b²
At least the "elders" didn't choose the oil swamps of Midland-Odessa, whew!!!
But am a firm believer in folks getting what they deserve, even "god's chosen".
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