By Kevin McGary
Image: Jamie McCaffrey via Flickr
What once was a principles-focused Salvation
Army has become an ideologically "woke" army,
marching to the regressive whims of culture.
For generations, the Salvation Army embodied
charity, compassion, and the hope of salvation to a broken world. Over
the years, I've embraced the opportunity to volunteer for the Salvation Army by
serving meals to the poor and needy and by gleefully ringing the Christmas bell
for Red Kettle donations. I loved the many acts of broad and nonstop
charity and goodwill the Salvation Army extended to all of humanity, as it was
a reminder of the Gospel mission. The Salvation Army had honorable
principles and stood reliably strong as an institution in my
mind. Until now.
Salvation Army documents reveal that the
organization has gone woke. Instead of appreciating all
people groups and continuing on an unbiased and uncompromising mission to serve
all people compassionately, the Salvation Army now thinks it's somehow okay
to view people through the lens of "race." Somewhere
deep in its leadership, the Army saw the enemy and embraced it.
Race consideration and connotations are an obvious
outcome of Critical Race Theory (CRT), or adjunct theology (Liberation
Theology, for instance). Viewing people by race or class is
wholly antithetical to any organization committed to providing compassionate
and unbiased services to any and all people or groups in need. Woke
schemes see everything about human culture in one paradigm:
"oppressors vs. oppressed" or
"victimizers vs. victims." Without exception,
the oppressors and victimizers are "White" by
definition. These notions are completely made up and explicitly
racist. In their own words, they invoke superiority by ascribing
guilt and shame to some and by demanding that certain people apologize based
solely on the amount of melanin in their skin. The
"whiter," the guiltier.
So now the Salvation Army has joined in the calls for
this kind of color quilting. They demand that Whites apologize to
Blacks for being "racist. And White Christians need to repent
and offer sincere apologies to Blacks for being antagonistic to Black
people/culture/values/interests, etc.
Setting Blacks against Whites undermines the entire
mission of the Salvation Army. Creating enemy groups based upon race
is the direct opposite of love and charity. Becoming woke contradicts
both the holistic Gospel of Christianity and the Army's motto of "doing
the most good."
Gone is the Salvation Army zealously pursuing its mission
to do whatever it could to fulfill the Gospel of Jesus Christ by meeting the
human needs in His name without discrimination! By incorporating
wokeness in its agenda, the Salvation Army now says it aims to meet human needs
based on the criteria and motivations of current culture and, specifically, the
gospel of CRT. This cultural gospel views all humanity through a
lens of guilt, shame, blame, aggrievement, unforgiveness, offense, and
limitless other evils. The Salvation Army's original mission stood
tall, but the cultural drift now underlying the Army is built upon the rot of
cultural fragmentation and decay.
Every Black Life Matters (EBLM) calls on the Salvation
Army to reconnect with its original principled mission and reject cultural
ideology's drift. We encourage all of you at the Salvation Army to
return to the purity and simplicity of the Gospel message and vital mission and
commit the Army's leadership to a spiritual revival. Supporters and
donors need to hear a sincere apology for this recent gross lapse of
judgment. Nothing less will do. Public relations attempts
at platitudes and obfuscations will only signify your evasion of
responsibility. Take responsibility for this horrible policy error,
learn from it, recommit to the purity of the Gospel of your mission, and move
the Salvation Army forward once again!
We want to embrace and forgive you, but we cannot and
will not embrace a culturally woke, racist organization more concerned with
socially preening and virtue-signaling than about meeting the needs
of all peoples. EBLM offers to help you remain true to
your mission and calling while maintaining your principles within the
marketplace and culture. You can do both successfully without
compromising. Stand for the Gospel truth, and I will happily support
the Army again!
_______________
Author Kevin McGary, president and founder of
Every Black Life Matters, is an entrepreneur, author, and public
speaker. Kevin serves as chairman of the Frederick Douglass
Foundation of California and is an executive with the Douglass Leadership
Institute and the Northstar Leadership PAC. As a professional, Kevin
has worked the past 35 years in information technology, specializing in the
arenas of cyber-security, enterprise applications, application development
automation, and enterprise job scheduling/utilities. Kevin leads a
collection of proactive individuals committed to developing innovative and new
approaches to today's socio-political issues, and with the assistance of
elected officials and myriad of community activists, he lectures and provides
workshops about today's most perplexing social issues.
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2021/12/woke_salvation_army_surrendered_without_a_fight.html
