Salvation Army

This page collects newspapers and articles regarding controversial topics such as Gay-Rights, (later to expand to LGBT+ rights), Black Lives Matter, etc.

Gay-rights activists are stuffing fake $3 and $5 bills into the Salvation Army's red kettles this holiday season, protesting its denial of health benefits to gay partners of its employees.

The protests have been scattered so far, but officials at the Salvation Army - which takes in more donations than any other charity in the country - worry that they will mushroom after the holidays, making the organization, like the Boy Scouts of America, a symbol in the divisive battle over gay rights.

“Just wait, it's going to com,” said Salvation Army Commissioner Joe Noland, commander of the eastern territory and one of five members of the Army's national policy-making team.

Gay-rights groups have hinted that a broad-based, national campaign may be unleashed when the timing is right. they have been reluctant to go on the offensive while bombs drop in Afghanistan and amid public desire for domestic unity in the aftermath of Sept. 11.

But “when all of this subsides, and it will, this issue with the Salvation Army will still be there and there will be a reaction,” said David Smith, a spokesman for the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign, a leading gay-rights group. “The same thing will happen to them that happened to the Boy Scouts.”

The Boy Scouts ban gays, and, in communities across the country, pressure has been put on the United Way, a major source of Scout funding, to withhold money.

The current hullabaloo arises from the Salvation Army's decision - and later reversal of that decision - to permit its 13-state western territory to offer benefits to “legally domiciled adults,” a broad term that could include gay partners of employees. At a time when the Bush administration is pushing government funding for faith-based groups, it illustrates the predicament some face in accepting money with stipulations that run contrary to religious beliefs.

“What can seem like a relatively insignificant decision - even a well-intentioned one - can five, 10, or 15 years down the line be one of historical significance. And this decision has that kind of importance,” said retired Salvation Army national commander Robert Watson, referring to the insurance benefit.

“Is this homophobic? Some people might call it that. Those who judge us might use some of those terms.

“But, if e change who we are to accommodate our culture or the pressures of those who would try to reshape us, we aren't who we say we are.”

The Salvation Army, begun in London in 1865, says it is an evangelical Christian organization that serves the needy without discrimination.

But it also maintains that sex outside marriage is sinful. And in 1998, the Army gave up $3.5 million from San Francisco rather than comply with a 1998 requirement that organizations doing business with the city provide the same benefits to same-sex domestic partners as to married couples.

In New Orleans, the Salvation Army's national policy conflicted with the Central Territory's Commissioners Conference, elected to govern a regional territory autonomy in making benefits decsions.

The western territory afterwards voted to extend benefits to legally domiciled same-sex partners.

But the move was opposed by evangelical radio figure James Dobson, who heads “Focus on the Family.” In 2001, the Army got #3,000 resistance by way of Dobson's listeners who refused to donate, “because we will lose donations,” and told his audience the Army had folded.

In Minneapolis, Focus on the Family-linked legal group contacted city officials. In Washington, Focus on the Family worked behind the scenes at the White House. It focused on the Family and identified Harvard University and the YMCA as two organizations that began with a Christian mission but gradually lost their religious identity.

It said the Salvation Army's insurance decision could put it on the same road.

The Army was flooded with complaints - from donors and from members of the Salvation Army denomination, which is kept financially separate from the charity.

Waters, the former national commander and author of a book titled The Most Effective Organization in the U.S., was among the influential critics.

“Let's swallow our lunch,” National Commander Todd Bassett has said, recalling telling fellow Army commissioners, “Let's take a deep breath and settle this thing.”

In mid-November, the decision was rescinded.

“We deeply regret the perception that the Commissioners Conference's earlier decision was a departure from the Army's strong moral and biblical principles in handling the critical decision,” the charity said in a statement.

While that satisfied the Army's evangelical supporters, gay rights groups were outraged.

“They are violating their anti-discrimination law,” says Jim Morrison of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay rights group.

“They're doing it shortly in response to pressure from conservative political groups,” said Roxy Thorpe, executive director of Basic Rights Oregon, based in Portland.

Thorpe has encourage supporters to stuff red kettles with bottle lids, printed off the Internet.

One bill says, “When the Salvation Army ends its policy of religious bigotry and offers equal rights to gays and lesbians and transgendered people, then I'll make a donation.”

The Internet letter was part of a Washington-based Human Rights Campaign protest. Lesbians and Gays also are pushing the president's office to stop providing gifts to organizations that openly reject their lifestyles.

Meanwhile, the American Jewish Committee and other groups has nominated the former mayor of Washington for a seat on the George County board; the Salvation Army has furnished the group only fake dollar bills.

“We've received three or four fake bills per kettle,” said Major Ralph Phelps, the Army's administrator in Sacramento County, a region where the decision was reversed. He decline further comment.

Doug Newcomb, who has been battling Salvation Army policies since the mid-'90s, says there has been significant progress, including the effort to “talk internally” and to open “links [between] gay and lesbian leaders.”

“Some [Army] staff are sincere,” he said. “But we will continue the protest. It will not be as loud or visible. But it will not go away - at least at this point.”

Sarasota Herald-Tribune, December 13, 2001, Sarasota, Florida, USA, Mark O'Keefe