Here’s The Internal Document The Salvation Army Doesn’t Want You To See

‘Tis the season. In cities across the country, Salvation Army volunteers wearing red Santa hats and aprons are ringing bells and soliciting donations. But if you were already thinking twice before dropping your hard-earned coins into those little red coffers you may want to think a third time.

We have obtained SA internal documents that give lie to its propaganda campaign to win back LGBT donors and staff and confirm what we’ve suspected all along: The Christian charity discriminates against LGBT people, but it doesn’t want anyone to know about it.

Of course, this isn’t an entirely new revelation. But the documents underscore the tug of war within the Methodist organization between religious laws, which leadership believes requires discrimination when it comes to marriage and sex, and civil laws, which ban discrimination in hiring and in the workplace.

SA is no stranger to antigay scandals. Perhaps the most infamous occurred in 2012, when Andrew Craibe, media relations director for SA Australia, said gay people should be put to death. SA officials denounced the claim in the strongest possible terms, but each time a similar incident occurs, the organization goes into public relations crisis mode, arguing that the individual incidents do not reflect its larger stance.

One of the documents Queerty obtained is a memo regarding the SA’s official views on what it calls “LGBT issues,” by midwest Commissioner Paul Seiler. Dated February 21, 2014, the policy statement was emailed to officers in the Salvation Army’s Central Territory, which serves Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North & South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, and Indiana.

Subject line: “LGBT issues in light of equality of marriage laws.”

“This is not for public use,” the letter warns, “including social media of any sort.”

Salvation Army Denies Anti-Gay Myth, Claims ALL Are Welcome....

Via the Salvation Army: The Salvation Army believes in the love of Christ. We believe that we are all God's children. Therefore, the Salvation Army serves members all communities, including God's children from the LGBT community. Recent accusations have lead the public to believe that the Salvation Army does not serve the LGBT community. However, this is not true.

AHT: It looks like the Salvation Army is working on their "image" problem. Do you believe what they are saying? Before you answer, consider the following:

Police take in homeless family after Salvation Army shelter turns them away

Unable to convince a Salvation Army shelter to take in a Tennessee family on a sub-freezing night because of the age of one of their children, responding police officers pooled their own money and provided the family with shelter and groceries, reports WMC.

Tim Lejeune, his wife and three children — a daughter, 16, and sons 15, and 5 — are homeless and currently living out of their car in Johnson City, parking overnight in Walmart parking lots. Facing a bitter cold night, with the temperature dropping to 18 degrees, Lejeune took his family to the Johnson City Salvation Army shelter after seeing the white flag flying indicating a cold night and shelter available.

Upon arriving at the shelter, the family was told they couldn’t stay because their son is fifteen, and current Salvation Army policy does not allow them to host boys between the ages of 12 to 16.

“He said, ‘I’m sorry, your son, y’all can’t stay here, because of his age,’” Lejeune said. “I said, ‘Are you kidding me?’”

“They said he’s too old to stay on the women’s side, because of the women running around in their pajamas and they said he’s too young to stay on the men’s side in case some pervert wants to do ….. whatever,” Lejeune added.

The family met with Johnson City police officers who tried to persuade the Salvation Army to take the family in, but to no avail.

Unwilling to let the family sleep in their car that night, the officers pooled their own money, as well as money donated by 911 dispatchers, and took the family to the Johnson Inn. According to authorities, the clerk at the motel, seeing what the policemen were doing, comped the room for the family for the night. The police officers then took the money and bought the family dinner, groceries, leaving them with the leftover cash.

Johnson City Police Maj. Garry Younger said, “I’m very proud that we employ people with that fortitude that care about the citizens.”

Police identified the officers as AD McElroy, Justin Jenkins, Toma Sparks and Robert McCurry.

Salvation Army Captain Michael Cox said the organization has a longtime policy that prohibits boys ages 12 to 16 from staying at the shelter and says it has only been enforced one before.

“It was an unfortunate situation altogether, because we did not have the facilities to put that family in place,” Cox said of the situation. “We did offer further assistance and that was denied.”

Cox said the Salvation Army is now reviewing the policy.

The Lejeune family did return to the homeless shelter at a later date and has stayed there, but not due to a change in policy. The 15-year-old son, Dustin is currently staying at a mental health facility after having a breakdown, feeling he was responsible for the family’s plight.

The family is currently looking for schools for the children, work, and home where they can be reunited with their son.

Watch the video below from WMC:

WMC Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

The Salvation Army Should Apologize to LGBT People

The Salvation Army, like most American Christian denominations, is struggling with how to reconcile their religious doctrine with the growing acceptance of LGBT civil rights.

When founder William Booth started his ministry in 1852, he focused on the outcasts of society - thieves, prostitutes, drunkards, and the destitute. As the church grew, it spread internationally and retained its focus on serving the less fortunate - or at least some of them.

The evangelical church has come under fire for their history of blatant discrimination against LGBT people, but the group claims they are slowly changing their policies to be more inclusive. Change comes slowly to organized religion.

A small and short lived effort to draw attention to the Salvation Army's discriminatory policies was launched over a decade ago, but slowly petered out as the LGBT community shifted their focus to marriage equality and private sector employment protections. In 2010 I kicked the campaign back into gear with a short article that updated the Army's history of prejudice and inequality toward LGBT people.

In 2011, I rewrote the piece in a longer form and shared my own history of being turned away from a Salvation Army homeless shelter during a particularly rough period in my life. I told readers "Why You Shouldn't Donate to the Salvation Army Bell Ringers" if you care about LGBT people and encouraged folks to donate to other charities instead. The article went viral and I found myself dubbed "The Red Kettle Menace" in a New York Times story on Christmas Eve.

The real story, however, lies in what happened after Christmas.

They Feel Sorry

I met with Salvation Army Major George Hood and Communications Director Jennifer Byrd in January of 2012 to discuss our differences. We'd lobbed volleys at each other through various media sources for two years, but connecting in person was always something I'd wanted to do. You can't solve anything with a one-sided conversation.

Salvation Army Refuses Shelter to Transgender Woman

Jodielynn Wiley — a transgender woman from Paris, Texas (pictured above) — has filed a discrimination complaint against the Salvation Army-run Carr P. Collins Social Service Center in Dallas after the center allegedly refused to place Wiley into a 2-year housing program unless she had gender reassignment surgery.

The Dallas Voice reports:

Wiley said her counselor chimed in about there being a waiting list for the same program, but Wiley questioned that because two women who arrived at the shelter after she did had already been placed in the program.

“They then tried to say there’s a waiting list,” Wiley said.

Nell Gaither, president of Trans Pride Initiative, sat in on the meeting by phone. She said she explained to the women they were “requiring a special condition that they wouldn’t require of another person.”

Blake Fetterman, operations director at Carr P. Collins Social Service Center, said the complaint is a surprise because of the Salvation Army’s own nondiscrimination policy.

“What you describe is not in keeping with our nondiscrimination policies,” she said. “Clients receive services and placement with their self-identified gender.”

Dallas’ nondiscrimination ordinance forbids discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in employment, housing and public accommodations. According to The Dallas Voice, Fair Housing spokesman Calvin McAllister pledged to investigate Wiley’s complaint, though the parties involved have not yet been been notified of the investigation process.

However, John Wright of Lone Star Q notes:

Although this exception may come into play, I’d suggest Wiley’s complaint also faces another major obstacle: The Salvation Army is a religious organization, and religious organizations are exempt from Dallas’ nondiscrimination ordinance…

Even if the city of Dallas were to decide that the Salvation Army is not a religious organization, the Salvation Army likely would have an affirmative defense against Wiley’s complaint under Texas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act. And even if a Texas court were to rule that it doesn’t have an affirmative defense, the Salvation Army would face a maximum fine of $500.

In the meanwhile, Wiley is staying with another Dallas metroplex trans woman through Dallas Trans* Shared Housing Project.

A reminder to boycott the red buckets

The Salvation Army is one of the most recognized charities in the United States. Each holiday we see the bell ringers outside of businesses collecting change in pots while the bell ringer shivers in the cold. It’s a regular part of the shopping experience while we rush about to get the presents that we need.

When I was a child, I always asked my mom for change so that I could give it to the bell ringers and feel like I did something that made a difference. The difference people are making when they donate to the Salvation Army, though, is a difference for a very select population of people: heterosexual Christians. What a lot of people, myself included until recently, do not realize is that the SA is actively and institutionally homophobic and works against people in the LGBTQ community.

This inequality is built into the very structure of the SA. For this self styled “evangelical part of the universal Christian Church,” the homophobia is literally written into its handbook. For its position statement on LGBTQ individuals, ”The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life.” Telling people that they are not entitled to love another person because of their sexuality is degrading and inappropriate. You could argue that they are only staying true to their beliefs, but what if one of their beliefs was not to help African Americans? Or the disabled? Is it appropriate for a tax-exempt organization to discriminate against a certain population of minorities?

Mark Oppenheimer wrote a 2011 story for the New York Times solely about the SA turning away people because they are gay. While the SA has denied this, with their culture of discrimination and continued media reports, it’s a slim-to-none chance that people aren’t experiencing that discrimination when they look for help. We’ve also seen the SA threatening to leave New York City altogether in 2004 if they were “forced” to abide by the law of requiring health benefits for employees’ same-sex partners. In 2012, we heard SA media relations official Major Andrew Craibe imply on national radio that gays should be put to death. These aren’t isolated incidents; they’re just a small sampling of the SA’s continued dedication to only minister to heterosexuals.

Donating to an organization that actively works against LGBTQ rights supports the belief that heterosexual people are worth more than LGBTQ people. For those that believe that people are all equal, tossing your coins into the red bucket is in direct contrast to that. For those that donate to the Salvation Army, you’re saying that it’s OK to discriminate and to turn needy people away because they are different than the majority. These aren’t the values that Christianity, America or common sense ascribe to. Instead of donating to SA, donate to the American Red Cross if you’re looking for a large organization. If you want something a little smaller, there are any number of local shelters that would be grateful for your support.

When shopping, remember how you choose to spend (and donate) your money shows support for that organization; just make sure you’re supporting the right cause. Skip the red buckets and support an inclusive, non-discriminatory organization that truly wants to help everyone that comes through its doors.

Why You Shouldn’t Donate To The Salvation Army

It’s that time of year again –  big red buckets everywhere and the ubiquitous bell-ringers. It’s pretty easy to throw a handful of change or maybe even a dollar or two in the bucket – it makes you feel good and helps the needy. Well, it you may not feel so good when you know that the Salvation Army might not be in it to help everyone.

The Salvation Army is not simply a charity: it is a religious sect. Their website gives this mission statement:

“The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination. (emphasis added).”

Without discrimination? Salvation Army Captain Mike Parker, of Mankato, MN, told a reporter that the organization doesn’t discriminate, either in hiring or helping. But some evidence shows otherwise. Stories about their stance on and treatment of LGBT individuals have driven donations down from last year. The kettle campaign has attracted some notes rather than donations, explaining that the group’s stance on homosexuality is to blame. One bell-ringer in Victoria, British Columbia even held up a sign reading, “If you support gay rights, please do not donate.”

One man tells of how he and his partner were turned away from a shelter unless they would  agree to break up and “leave the ‘sinful homosexual lifestyle’ behind.”  They refused and ended up sleeping on the streets. This video gives other examples:

Earlier this year, a Salvation Army media relations director said that gays should be put to death. On an Australian radio show, Major Andrew Craibe told the two gay hosts of the show that it was “… a part of our belief system.” The Salvation Army officially distanced itself from Caibe’s statements but one of the group’s books,  Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine, borrows heavily from Romans 1:18-32  and states:

“For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error … They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die — yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practise them.”

While the Salvation Army says that it is not their policy to discriminate in such a way, they do acknowledge that some “isolated incidents” may have occurred. The SA is a huge operation, they say, and it’s difficult to police all 60,000 employees and 3.5 million volunteers. But up until last year the SA website had a position statement on homosexuality reading, in part, that gay Christians should “embrace celibacy as a way of life.” Salvation Army Maj. George Hood, the organization’s national community relations secretary, said it was “… a theological statement not meant for an external audience and it was creating a lot of confusion.” He continues, “A relationship between same-sex individuals is a personal choice that people have the right to make but from a church viewpoint, we see that going against the will of God.”

This stance has caused the tension between the Salvation Army and the LGBT community. The Salvation Army has claimed that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identification will not be allowed in determining who can benefit from their services, non-clergy employment and volunteerism. It has required any incidents that break this edict be reported immediately. The reaction from the LGBT community is a wait-and-see attitude, as they continue their campaign against donations to the Salvation Army.

LGBT Parenting a death sentence with Salvation Army

Senior Salvation Army officials go on record that LGBT parents should be put to death, as the Bible instructs. Major Andrew Craibe, a Salvation Army Media Relations Director, went on public radio hosted by queer journalist Serena Ryan to discuss a recent call by LGBT parents for a boycott of the nonprofit for its anti-gay policies and beliefs.

Ryan questioned Craibe about Salvation Story: Salvationist Handbook of Doctrine , the manual used to train Salvation Army “soldiers” and members. Several chapters refer to the sin of homosexuality, including a section that cites Romans 1:18-32, which includes a admonition that homosexuals “deserved to die”:

Ryan: According to the Salvation Army, [gay parents] deserve death. How do you respond to that, as part of your doctrine?

Craibe: Well, that’s a part of our belief system.

Ryan: So they should die.

Craibe: You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief.

Ryan: You’re proposing in your doctrine that because these parents are gay, that they must die.

Craibe: Well, well, because that is part of our Christian doctrine –

Ryan: But how is that Christian? Shouldn’t it be about love?

Craibe: Well, the love that we would show is about that: consideration for all human beings to come to know salvation…

Ryan Or die…

Craibe: Well, yes.