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I’m Ringing and Singing
Last year, my friend Dave had the idea to get a couple of us guys out to be Salvation Army bell ringers at a local store. He was determined not to just sit there quietly but to play Christmas music from his boombox alternated with us singing live Christian-themed traditional Christmas carols throughout our shift. We wished shoppers a merry Christmas whether they donated or not, let little kids ring our bells when their parents made donations, helped shoppers get stuff to their cars, joked around, and tried to be the most animated bell ringers people were likely to see. (I suppose there might be some dancers and virtuoso singers and instrumentalists out there who would surpass us for energy and skill, but we didn’t do too badly for a couple of old guys.)
We had two nights scheduled this week, and I learned about the Salvation Army critical race theory stuff just a couple of days before. I was somewhat conflicted at first, and I did not comment on the conversations about the Salvation Army that were posted here. I finally concluded that the greater good would be to go out and spread the Joy of Christmas as best we could. I’m glad I did.
There were three of us singing the first night, and toward the end, the Salvation Army major who coordinates the local effort came out and joined us in the caroling. I could see that she was enjoying it as much as we were.
I believe that we did a lot more good out there than we would have had we reneged on our commitment and sent a disapproving letter to the local Salvation Army office.
We are going to schedule a Saturday afternoon gig at another store closer to Christmas. It’s going to be another store because the major did not have any Saturdays to give out there. I say that so you don’t think we were kicked out.
I believe that CRT and all the other “stuff” is not at the heart of the Salvation Army or the red-kettle drive. Don’t let the joy busters get you down. Is there not a cause? Indeed, there is.
Published in General
I think I’ll be keeping my wallet in my pocket, when I pass the kettle this year.
You are free to make whatever choice you make.
I will not support a Church that is being dishonest about what it is doing. The Salvation Army cannot be trusted. They are part of the Church of Woke.
Joel, I’m glad you found joy in what you did, and are free to choose to do so. But when any group wants me to apologize for being white they have lost me forever. I wasn’t a big giver. $20 to $25 spread over several shopping trips and kettles. So it is not a major change in my charitable donations. I’ll probably pull a third Angel tree ornament off the tree at church. But when a church defines sin by who you are, not what you’ve done, it’s lost its way.
I truly appreciate your spirit and enthusiasm. As I noted in my post, I am conflicted, because it is my impression that the SA is one of the most effective and compassionate charities. Yet, there is the CRT thing.
For reference, as a home brewer, I was often invited to give my beer away at various festivals. I used to play the flim flam man and had a large sign describing the beers on tap, and also stating “Today’s special, beautiful women get free beer!” And then i inform each woman who came up that she qualified because of her beauty. Oohh the primping and smiles that evoked. Eventually, Mrs Nohaaj joined me at these festivals, and added the requirement that “men must dance to get free beer”. In the early hours of a festival, we might get “happy hands”, by the end of the event, guys would say, “give me room, I’ve gotta DANCE!” We have great stories and always had more fun than anyone there.
Our local Salvation Army has always done an enormous amount of good on Cape Cod. I worked at their soup kitchen for a while. Actually, it was the Cape’s soup kitchen. A small group of people were looking for a Hyannis Main Street church basement to operate from. Every other church on Main Street and the surrounding side streets had turned down the group.
They often step up when the people who need help don’t fit neatly into the other charities’ lists of types of “clients” they want to help.
I will continue to give to the Salvation Army because the money stays with the local office.
Also, they have apparently pulled the offensive document.
The really sad thing is that the SA has always been the dominant charity that provides for men as well as women. It is so hard for men to find shelter, but SA made sure they had them.
Which is what makes the corruption so insidious and disturbing. The left has corrupted a good one here. And it’s loss will be felt.
When I was a teen, my bell choir played Christmas carols on real bells for the SA kettle, so I understand the difficulty.
I am very conflicted too and appreciate you posting your thoughts. Looks like they are either back tracking or going underground with CRT: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/salvation-army-ditches-pulls-controversial-racism-guide-amid-public-outcry
The weeds have been sown among the wheat, haven’t they? Matthew 13:24- 30
We have to fight the war on Christmas every year, now this?
eff the salvation army. Turncoats.
I have often heard, but have no proof, that a preponderance of charitable donations are made by Conservatives/Republicans, and less so, by Liberals/Democrats. The theory always was, that Republicans saw it as their responsibility to be charitable, and Democrats saw that as a government function. I wonder how this will play out for the Salvation Army. They have politicized charitable giving. In general, it would seem that this publication of CRT would dissuade Conservatives from supporting the Army, and should motivate the left. If I am right, and donations are down this year, will anyone connect the dots and say this should be attributed to CRT turning off Conservatives, or will they claim omicron did that? Likewise, if donations are up, my theory goes bust, and I claim, there is just so much cash and inflation, that everybody got more donations. See I win either way!
Yes. I hope people who are swearing them off know that. At a minimum it shows the organization is not resistant to negative feedback.
Starve the SA. Do good through other means. No local homeless needs a national organization when the comfort they need is local. Find those local organizations — the ones that actually do good in your community.
Send a message to the SA and to everyone threatened with woke takeover — or lose the fight.
I think you did a great deal of good with your singing. I’m less confident about the donations.
Mere repudiation means nothing. It’s Fabianism. It will be back, and it will take over. If orgs leaning in toward the woke nonsense are not made to feel PAIN, they have no incentive to correct their lean — just to fix the PR.
If I were to give to the SA, I’d consider tossing verses on forgiveness and generational sin into the pot with the donation. So much has been said about repentance (even that not actually required, which is repugnant), but no one is teaching forgiveness. Maybe we could start that half of the conversation.
Yes. With a mealy mouthed non apology. They got caught is all. They have not apologized for what they said, they denied they said it.
Lying is lying is lying.
I will not apologize for being white or for being a man. I will continue to judge human beings based upon the content of their character not the color of their skin. Salvation army called me racist because I want to be color blind and how I treat other human beings. That is clear in black-and-white and then the gaslight with saying they didn’t say what they said in black-and-white. Thet did not even say that’s not what we meant. They just denied it.
No. They get nothing, And I hope that the response from big donors is huge draw is huge drop offs and the amount of money that they’re getting. Only then maybe they will get the message that they have what’s satan in the door door to run their organization. CRT is evil. It is meant to divide us and turn us against each other and supporting it stands against everything that Jesus Christ-taught.
O’Sullivan’s First Law: All organizations that are not actually right-wing will over time become left-wing.
Humbug!
I think this is an excellent example of how public pressure can cause organizations to change. The Right needs to keep that in mind
This wokeism is like a contagious disease that affects people whose immune systems against leftism are only slightly compromised. After the major symptoms subside, the patient regains some of his senses and feebly seeks to backtrack, making weak excuses. After the disease runs its inevitable course and the patient is fully recovered, he often has little memory of the affliction and seeks to put it out of his mind. He often moves on as if nothing has happened.
-from the American Journal of Insidious Diseases.
Pulling the document doesn’t mean that what’s stated in that document is not part of the organization’s policy.
It also doesn’t mean they haven’t rethought the approach. I suspect deep down inside someone at the top feels it was spot on, but the bottom line is that in a world where hardly anyone ever reconsiders anything, they did so. And yes, considering the good works performed, it wouldn’t stop me from tossing a few bucks into the kettle. Why punish the needy downstream because of this?
Let them get money from people they think matter. It’s clearly not me.
I’m not buying their Potemkin climb down, and even if I did, I still want this to be seen as a very expensive mistake.
Other orgs should see the price for this malicious dabbling in racist nonsense.
As for punishing the needy, why not vote for more welfare? Withholding your vote from socialists is also punishing the needy.
Or maybe that’s not how any of this works.
Not only that, but some organizations that actually are right-wing will over time become left-wing, especially if they suffer enough beatings.
And then stand four square against conservatives. Like the Weekly Standard