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Salvation Army Falls Into Darkness
I stopped by the Hobby Lobby shortly before Christmas to pick up a few artsy-crafty supplies. As I exited my vehicle and scanned the entryways, I noticed the Salvation Army bell ringer at one. I immediately chose the other entrance, unlike any prior year. And. I observed that almost every other customer was making the same choice. This is a sign of the much larger self-inflicted damage to a once truly noble organization. This saddens me greatly, but the deadwood, the tree gone bad, must be ruthlessly pruned if it is ever to recover and again bear good fruit.
Several Ricochet members have already written about the sad tidings from the Salvation Army. The U.S. national, and likely international, leadership has been successfully infiltrated and turned to the heresy of “anti-racism.” This heresy stands the Christian scriptural commandment against the sin of partiality on its head. Now, Salvation Army members are instructed that sin is a virtue, that we are to be partial against white skin and favor black skin as virtuous in assumed victimhood.
When called on it, the U.S. national commander of the Salvation Army hid the truth and dissembled rather than confessing his sin, repenting, and showing he was taking concrete steps to purify the Salvation Army as a church and a charitable organization.
In recent weeks, Color Us United and its president, Kenny Xu, have engaged in a campaign to discredit The Salvation Army and dissuade the public from supporting our work. They have done so for the purpose of furthering their own political agenda, at the expense of The Salvation Army’s reputation and the service we provide to more than 30 million people in need each year.
Citing a few sentences from a voluntary discussion guide on racism that was issued by The Salvation Army’s International Headquarters in London and later withdrawn, Color Us United has suggested that The Salvation Army asked donors to apologize for the color of their skin, that The Salvation Army endorses and teaches Critical Race Theory, and that The Salvation Army believes America is an inherently racist country. These claims are false, and they distort The Salvation Army’s mission for the benefit of Color Us United’s ideological and political gain.
As Color Us United’s president, Mr. Xu has also called for The Salvation Army to eliminate positions focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion. That’s not going to happen. The work of ensuring equal opportunity and treatment within The Salvation Army is far too important not to be intentional about it.
The Salvation Army’s Response
Let us be clear. We have never said that America is a racist country. We have never said that our donors should apologize for the color of their skin. And we have never endorsed a political or social ideology other than that found in the Bible.
The fact that any politically motivated group is working so hard to force a faith-based organization to conform to that group’s chosen ideology should give pause to all reasonable individuals. It’s wrong, and it’s reckless.
These attacks from Mr. Xu and Color Us United have the potential to significantly impact those who are hungry, families who are at risk of losing their homes, survivors of natural disasters, and more. For us, it’s always about people. But for Color Us United, it’s clearly about politics.
Of course the original document is still available through the Internet Archive Wayback Machine: “Let’s Talk about Racism.” In a shocking development, a document has been removed from the Internet archive. The original was on Amazon’s document system, so perhaps someone is now exerting behind-the-scenes leverage over the last bastion of full disclosure. However, Legal Insurrection downloaded a copy (as I have) and posted the archived document here. The “voluntary discussion guide” is pure poison. The SA statement is defiantly unrepentant and lies about what diversity, equality, and inclusion really is. DEI has burrowed into the heart of the Salvation Army. See “New DEI Directors Aim to Better Reflect the Kingdom of God in the West.” Nor is this primarily about Kenny Xu promoting his own organization, as Catholic League President Bill Donohue has leveled similar criticism: “Salvation Army Elites Turn Left.”
The Salvation Army elites have done a disservice to this great organization. They need to do more than withdraw this dreadful report: They need to make a public statement apologizing for the damage they have done to the status of the organization and a pledge never again to succumb to left-wing politics.
Searching on news stories about the 2021 red kettle campaign shows a common theme of significant shortfalls in projected donations, around 40% below SA leadership expectations. Beyond physical kettles receiving fewer dollars, there appears to be a response of fewer virtual red kettle buttons on formerly friendly websites. Salem Radio Network hosts, who had reliably competed on the virtual red kettle campaign, shifted to a charity directly helping the children of prisoners. I suspect this year will be very bad for the Salvation Army.
The U.S. national commander could and should eliminate the poisonous DEI office. He should publicly repent of leading his Christian organization, his church, away from the narrow path. Until he does so, there are plenty of other worthy organizations that still keep the faith, that refuse to conform to the spirit of the age. The Gospel Rescue Mission, which appears to be far more localized, came immediately to my mind, with its support of “the least, the last, the lost.” Check your local charitable works branch within your own faith.
Two years ago, I urged a turn from Chick-fil-A to the Salvation Army, using a buycott to redirect habitual spending from a less deserving organization to a more deserving one.
The fast-food restaurant chain has thrived on the wallets of Bible-believing Christians who responded to the secular supremacist left’s boycott with a buycott that crushed and exposed the real economic weakness of the radical left. Now, however, the non-Truett family president and COO has attacked the core customer base to score social credit with his business elite peers, funding luxury beliefs at the direct expense of the least, the last, the poorest among us. Every Bible-believing Christian, and everyone of goodwill, should respond with a new kind of buycott. Starting this Friday, and running until Christmas Day, the Nativity of Christ, don’t be chikin, give to the Salvation Army.
I now urge the same in response to darkness falling on the Salvation Army, hoping it will see the light this winter.
Published in Group Writing
Bunch of dumbasses.
What did the Salvation Army expect to gain by going down that path?
Screw ’em.
They probably figured that they’d rake in money from the Left/Woke, ignoring that the Left/Woke don’t donate to places like SA to start with, as they think the government should be performing those tasks.
What’s left? Education, media, athletics, churches, military; it’s noteworthy to name a single entity that hasn’t fallen under the spell of “wokeism”.
The WSJ editorial speculates the SA leadership is seeking corporate sponsorship rather than small donations from the unwashed masses.
Sounds like a bad bet to me.
This page at Legal Insurrection has a download link. I’d link it direct but I’d rather they get the traffic.
While I don’t take the Salvation Army to be part of the house of God as described in 1 Tim 3:15, I nevertheless grieve at this report. How the mighty have fallen!
It’s really tragic. I would never have believed this could happen. In these days, surprises abound.
I sent a hand-written letter to the address where I normally sent my checks to the SA. It said, in summary, don’t ever ask me for so much as a dime again. Save your stamps. That was when I first heard about this nonsense.
Never heard back. Never got a phone call. They stand by their actions; I stand by mine.
I’m down to supporting Fisher House, so please don’t tell me they’ve caved to the times.
I got it and edited accordingly, noting the stunning development with the Internet Archive take down.
I knew this had happened as soon as I saw the original story a couple of months ago. I’ve seen the same scenario repeated throughout New England. The nonprofits either sell out to the big donors, including the government, or they fold up.
I ran a couple of nonprofits–it’s a world I know well. What I saw, and the reason I quit, was exhausted leadership. It takes as much time to account for the $5 donation as for the $500,000. Add the ridiculously complicated employment laws and then the liabilities–it’s just impossible to function.
I wrote a long letter to the Massachusetts secretary of the commonwealth, William Galvin, and told him so. I said, “You are driving out of the nonprofit world the very people–busy people with jobs and families–that you need to be there because they are the ones with the empathy that is so important.”
I was and remain a fan of GW’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative. It was a good idea and an antidote. I don’t know what’s become of it.
Everyone suffers, the poor most of all. It isn’t right.
I live in a flood area so I regularly see the various charities in action. The Salvation Army was at one time a world class practice what they preach helping people organization. I have noticed that changing over the last 3 to 5 years.
Yes, I was a little alarmed but didn’t follow up. What happened there? I hope nobody reached into the Wayback Machine and adjusted something.
The elite leadership of large organizations and corporations follow the Woke leadings of their peers. Until the lose the trust of their grassroots. It takes time.
All the more reason to not put money in their kettles.
Now I’m going to regret contributing to the Internet Archive a few weeks ago. I’ve been using their stash of old, uncopyrighted local history books for many years, so finally decided to start contributing once in a while.
Is the Internet Archive facilitating after-the-fact editing? That’s unacceptable.
I had Salvation Army on Auto Donate from my employer for 20 years. I guess I need to turn it off and increase my local donations to local charities.
The Devil gets his due: First leading leadership into error and then depriving the remaining righteous of resources to fund good work. A win win for evil.
I saw someone note that this story was entirely told in conservative media. I don’t how accurate that is. The commenter was pointing out that if the Salvation Army is taking this big of a hit that conservative media might have some reach and power.
I’ve checked the public communications of the UK branch, the Australian branch, the New Zealand branch, and the Canada & Bermuda branch (yup, they’re administered jointly). Only the US branch has gone on the record with these twisted priorities. All the other branches are sticking to their primary mission.
Sorry, what’s all this about the Internet Archive?
Why would they do that? Big Corporations have basically accepted accepted Wokism and corrupt deals from China? The masses think Communism and racism are bad. I’d go with the masses were I the SA.
This is usually the sign of decadence creeping (or galloping) into leadership. They are looking, first, to make revenues more stable, and, then, escalating the receipts from these sources year over year. This is usually justified by some grand vision or plan which requires capital investment not local expenditures. And the persons managing these strategic operations are clearly more valuable than local workers and retaining their skill over the course of the strategy (for a price) becomes paramount. Kettles do not large edifices erect.
I suspect the large gifts from the Krocks helped set the tone.
Almost every other customer or almost all customers?
Sorry, I can’t see the difference. For me “every other customer” equals “all customers minus me,” so I am confused about the distinction you are drawing.
Today when we went to Publix there was no bell ringer. Do they stop after Christmas?
I was thinking of definition 2.