The Salvation Army Purge of Gays and Jews, and the New Apostolic Reformation
Bruce Wilson printable version print page     Bookmark and Share
Wed Dec 11, 2013 at 09:13:24 AM EST
"A few supervisors refused to hand out the forms that included questions on church affiliations. Some workers feared losing their jobs if they did not sign. They included Jews, Muslims and Hindus, gays and lesbians, atheists and even a lapsed Salvation Army member, employees said." -- New York Times, February 2, 2004, A Religious Renewal at the Salvation Army Raises the Threat of a Church-State Dispute

Almost every day at my local supermarket, I pass by a Salvation Army bell ringer who, by now, knows that I won't drop any money in his kettle. I feel bad about it. The bell ringer is probably down on his luck, and SA management would likely smile were he to bring in a fuller kettle. But I can't do it, because I just can't get the Salvation Army's purge of gays and Jews out of my head.

A government-funded purge of gays and Jews ? Yes - It was carried out in New York City in 2003, under President George W. Bush, by the government-funded NYC division of the Salvation Army; and though a subsequent court settlement reversed the faith and bigotry-based purge in New York State, the Obama presidential administration has opted to not challenge the new regime of government-funded faith based discrimination across America that initially arose under George W. Bush's watch.

It doesn't help that the acronym "SA" was once used, in pre-World War Two Germany, to refer to a Nazi paramilitary organization that in 1938 torched almost every synagogue and Jewish-owned business across Germany.

I'm not pushing the point at random. In 2005 Rabbi Eric Yoffie, then-leading the largest branch of American Judaism, told a synagogue audience estimated at 5,000,

"We cannot forget that when Hitler came to power in 1933, one of the first things that he did was ban gay organizations. Yes, we can disagree about gay marriage. But there is no excuse for hateful rhetoric that fuels the hellfires of anti-gay bigotry."

To sharpen this even more, consider - in 1922, in the front foyer of the Bavaria headquarters of Hitler's young Nazi Party was a table with pamphlets, written under the name of auto maker Henry Ford, translated into German.

One of the four volumes of Ford's pamphlet series, known as The International Jew (subtitle: "The World's Foremost Problem") contained long lists detailing incidents in an alleged war on Christmas supposedly being waged by American Jews.

Jews with lawyers, emphasized Ford's tract, were shutting down Christmas displays and driving prayer from schools - and, suggested the International Jew, they would do much more - and worse - should they achieve greater influence and power.

In effect, the "war on Christmas", as a political attack meme, was minted by virulent anti-Semites and helped inspire Hitler and the Holocaust.

After World War two, at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, former leader of the Hitler Youth Baldur von Schirach testified that Ford's anti-Jewish tract had played a key role in shaping Shirach's political views.

Let's be clear - the Salvation Army could hardly be more different from Ernst Rohm's SA. Indeed, apart from the common use of uniforms and an emphasis on discipline, there's very little in common between the two, except for this (and, it's a huge exception) - both exemplify radical intolerance (a radical disdain for pluralism), and an ethic of ideological supremacy.

And, both liked to keep tabs on their perceived ideological opponents:

[from 2004 New York ACLU lawsuit filed against the Salvation Army]  

"(Id.¶ 125). Salvation Army leaders conveyed similar anxiety regarding the religious affiliation of human resources staff at SSC. In March of 2003, Colonel Paul Kelly required the Director of Human Resources at the Divisional Headquarters, Maureen Schmidt, to contact SSC's HumanResources Director, plaintiff Margaret Geissman, in order to collect information on the religious affiliation of SSC Human Resources staff. (Id.¶ 126). After Geissman refused to compile the requested information, she was informed by Schmidt that "`they are going to find out about everyone eventually because they want more Christians, especially Salvationists employed at SSC.'" (Id.). Kelly also voiced concern that Geissman might be Jewish, but Schmidt informed him that she was not. (Id.¶ 127).

Schmidt asked Geissman to name the homosexuals working at SSC, but Geissman refused to comply. (Id.¶ 128)."

In the late 1930s, German Jews lost their jobs because of new legislation prohibiting them from working in certain professions. A decade ago in New York City - which boasts the biggest Jewish population outside of Israel, the daughter of a Nobel Prize-winning German-Jewish father - who had fled Hitler's Reich and subsequent Nazi-engineered Holocaust of Europe's Jews - lost her long-time job with the Salvation Army, for refusing to sign what amounted to a loyalty oath, to Salvation Army's Christian supremacist ideology.

As New York City's The Jewish Week reported in a November 11, 2005 story, Wanted: True Believers Only,

"Anne Lown, a Jewish woman from Boston, had worked nearly 25 years for the Salvation Army's children's services arm in New York when she was thrust into the world of faith-based initiatives. Lown, associate director of the local Salvation Army's government-funded Social Services for Children, was one of 18 employees to leave or be dismissed in 2003-04 for allegedly refusing to sign forms swearing loyalty to the group's Christian principles. The employees (among them Jews, Catholics, Evangelical and mainline Protestants, and one ordained Lutheran minister) said they also rejected the army's demands beginning in 2003 for details about what churches they had attended over the past 10 years. They would not permit the army to contact ministers of these churches for information on them. And one manager said she refused a request from her superiors to identify gay workers on her staff. "The whole time I was there no one had asked me about my own religion," said Lown, a soft-spoken woman with a master's degree in social work from Smith College. "There was never any kind of litmus test." Lown's father, Dr. Bernard Lown, won the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize. He had fled Lithuania during World War II to escape the Nazis. Many of her family members, she noted, had died in the Holocaust."

Anne Lown was among a group of former Salvation Army employees who in 2004 filed a lawsuit against the Salvation Army, for the dismissals. Six years later, a legal settlement was reached, as reported in a February 16, 2010 story from the New York Nonprofit Press [also see this ACLU press release]:

"It has been six years since the Salvation Army Greater New York Division's Social Services for Children unit was torn apart by an abrupt change of leadership and charges that the organization was engaging in religious cleansing.   Yesterday, a lawsuit filed by 18 former and current employees against the Salvation Army, as well as the government agencies with which it contracted, was settled -- at least in part.  The Government defendants in the case agreed to a system for monitoring social service organizations receiving government funds to ensure that they do not force people in need of services to engage in religious activities, such as worship or religious instruction. The procedures and standards will also ensure that recipients of social services are not discriminated against because of their religious beliefs."

But the 2010 settlement of the Lown v. Salvation Army case only covered New York State, and the Obama Administration has chosen to not challenge (openly at least) the de-facto regime of government-funded faith-based discrimination now in force across America.

This is no minor issue, either - several billion dollars in federal and state government funding now flows to religious organizations each year, via the federal Faith Based Initiative, neo-voucher funding for religious schools, and other mechanisms - with minimal oversight or regulation.

Thus, the irony could hardly be sharper or more toxic - even as virulently anti-LGBT, religious supremacist neo-fundamentalist nonprofit groups such as Focus on the Family, the Family Research Council, and the American Family Association ramp up their perennial late-Fall clamor about an alleged attack on Christmas and widespread "war" on Christianity, government-funded discrimination in the name of the faith - discrimination against LGBTI citizens, Jews, Muslims, atheists, and other targeted groups -  is in most legal jurisdictions in the United States, now deemed lawful.  

As for the Salvation Army, there's more to be said. In 2008,  I made my first entry in what I had planned as a series covering the spread of New Apostolic Reformation ideas and influence in the Salvation Army.

My story mentioned that NAR prophets Stacey and Wesley Campbell serve on the Board of Reference of the Salvation Army's "War College", which teaches NAR ideology to young SA recruits.

What I had planned to cover in the future was the fact that back in 2002, prior to the SA's purge of gays, Jews, Muslims, and other minorities from the Salvation Army's New York City division, writings from top New Apostolic Reformation leader C. Peter Wagner were published, alongside writing from top Salvation Army leaders, in the SA's publication Journal of Aggressive Christianity.

In effect, top Salvation Army leadership had endorsed Wagner and his recently announced NAR movement - which at the time was even more controversial than now.

The Salvation Army's relationship with Wagner's New Apostolic Reformation is especially problematic given the leading role NAR apostles and prophets have played in creating Uganda's "kill the gays" bill and in inciting anti-LGBT hostility in both America and Uganda.

When Uganda's Anti Homosexuality Bill - created with the help of NAR apostle Julius Oyet (who has been part of the "International Transformation Network" ministry team of C. Peter Wagner's close NAR colleague Ed Silvoso) - was introduced in Uganda's parliament in late 2009, amidst international attention and condemnation, Wagner issued a statement, in Charisma magazine (which at them time was owned and edited by two apostles in the International Coalition of Apostles that Wagner had presided over for most of the decade), criticizing the Anti Homosexuality Bill.

But the most virulently anti-LGBT leaders in Wagner's apostolic and and prophetic associations, including Lou Engle, continued to travel to Uganda and meet with their organizational NAR counterparts who were leading the vanguard of Uganda's mounting war on LGBT rights, and those Ugandan NAR leaders also continued to travel to the United States, to meet with their American (anti-LGBT) NAR colleagues as well.

In effect, Wagner's criticism of the Uganda Anti Homosexuality Bill appears to have been little more than a public relations stunt and does not seem to have represented any substantial softening of NAR anti-LGBTI eliminationist doctrine or policy.

The same month, in 2009, that C. Peter Wagner had issued his Charisma statement on the Uganda Anti Homosexuality Bill, Purpose Driven Life author Rick Warren - chosen to give a prayer at president Barack Obama's first inauguration in early 2009, issued a globally-distributed press release in which Warren stated that he was not "conspiring" with C. Peter Wagner to "rid the world of homosexuals".  

Wagner, who was Warren's sole adviser for Richard Duane Warren's Doctorate of Ministry dissertation from Fuller Theological Seminary, has identified Rick Warren's "Purpose Driven" ministry efforts, in Africa and elsewhere, as "stage one" of societal "transformation".    

   




Display:
"As for the Salvation Army, there's more to be said. In 2008, I made my first entry in what I had planned as a series covering the spread of New Apostolic Reformation ideas and influence in the Salvation Army."

After that teaser, I was expecting the remainder of the article to explain why that series never was written. Not enough material? Other more pressing duties? The Salvation Army has made me very uneasy in recent years, but a number of my friends think that the service ministries they accomplish outweigh their anti-LGBTI activities. I'd love to have more solid material on why they shouldn't be supported.

by MLouise on Wed Dec 11, 2013 at 11:54:25 AM EST

"Not enough material?" -- I consider the Lown v. Salvation Army case (no question of documentation there) to be quite significant in itself. Don't you ? And, are you untroubled by the new regime of government-funded faith-based discrimination ? I know that I am.

The question, for me, is not about whether the Salvation Army does some good. I'm sure it does. But it also seems  hostile to diversity and pluralism - values that I, for one, hold dear and without which, I would maintain, our world would be even more filled with conflict, violence, and suffering than it is now.

Stories of questionable Salvation Army practices surface with dismal regularity. I haven't been collecting them because, quite frankly, few people seem to care.

But if you want more, you could look to this list of grievances from LGBT website Queerty (warning - sexually suggestive advertising on site).

The LGBT community is most sensitized to this issue but it's far from the only impacted constituency.

by Bruce Wilson on Wed Dec 11, 2013 at 12:19:39 PM EST
Parent

On the contrary, I am deeply troubled by all that your article reveals, and I thank you for the links. What I was trying to ask was why you were diverted from your project of writing a series of articles on the SA. You mentioned your intention twice, so I was anticipating some explanation in the remainder of the article as to why you changed your mind. I certainly didn't mean to sound indifferent to the problem with the hypothetical examples that I gave.

One of the problems in the area where I live is that in some ways the Salvation Army appears to be the "least worst" of the available service agencies. Where to turn for services that don't include proselytizing and discrimination can be a real challenge. I can easily explain why I refuse to support the Water Street Rescue Mission. I was looking for more concrete examples to give for why I won't support the Salvation Army either. I apologize for creating a misunderstanding.

by MLouise on Wed Dec 11, 2013 at 01:01:14 PM EST
Parent

To answer your various questions - first, as you've suggested, it's also not clear to me that the Salvation Army is the worst out of the range of government-funded religious charities, though it's very significant of course because it's so big (which is exactly why the NAR is seeking ideological influence in the organization)

But there's a comprehensive critical survey of potentially distasteful aspects of the Salvation Army to be found here: http://wrongkindofgreen.org/2013/03/18/the-starvation-army-12-rea sons-to-reject-the-salvation-army/ ( "
The Starvation Army: 12 Reasons to Reject the Salvation Army " ) It's many thousands of words, and footnoted - though it's hard to check up on, say, an issue of the SA's "War Cry" from 1995. As the article begins,

"Salvation Army founder William Booth spent years evangelising before he realised that he would never achieve his goal of banishing the `three As' of "Alcohol, Atheism and Anarchy" from England's underclass if he did not first keep them from starving. The Salvation Army's social work efforts can be directly linked to Booth's failure to convert the poor through more conventional means.(1)

A former pawnbroker, Booth was aware that poverty largely stemmed from the structure of society that he was in. However the social system that created conditions of poverty and inequality was not to be improved or replaced via social revolution. Instead Booth hoped to promote a "kinder, gentler" form of industrial capitalism, one with the "Christian values" of hard work, abstinence and charity. Booth characterised the revolutionary Christianity of the Diggers and Levellers as "utopian" and believed that Salvation Army members could earn a large profit from businesses and still keep a good conscience. In his view (and contrary to many others) the Bible was detached from social and economic change. For him the work of a good Christian was to piously tend to the poor rather than work with them in the hope of transforming a society based on poverty for some people and profit for others."

Looking back on my original goal of going more into the SA, in retrospect I think I'd rather cover the Salvation Army as one in a range of evangelical charities, because there are some receiving government funds that are arguably much worse offenders than the SA (some are international, while one domestic charity on my personal short list of horribles would be Teen Challenge).

The Salvation Army is an enormous organization (even bigger since the 2004 Joan Kroc donation of over $1 billion to the SA) and seems to show a fair degree of decentralization - with ideological variation among its various local "commanders". Some seem less consumed by culture war issues, others make the sporadic scandalous statements periodically picked up by LGBT media.

I'd agree that, in the end, the "least worse" heuristic is often the most practical. So unfortunately - unless you launch the mammoth undertaking of starting your own charity - the SA might indeed be the "least worst" option in your area.

I just noticed that the Huffington Post has an article (whose author was unaware of the Ann Lown v. Salvation Army case) which details some history on the SA's campaigning against gay rights over the last decade and a half ( see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zinnia-jones/the-salvation-armys-hi sto_b_4422938.html ).

In addition, Americablog's John Avarosis has a very useful look at the various nondiscrimination policies of the Salvation Army - its national policy, and then the policies of its four U.S. subdivisions. They're mutually contradictory, all over the map (see: http://americablog.com/2013/12/salvation-army-really-include-gays -nondiscrimination-policy-much.html )

( Also see this report, from a Philadelphia human rights activist, with anecdotal reports of the sorts of local abuses one might well expect in a huge, decentralized charity - http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/12/21/the-sal vation-army-it-gets-worse )

John Avarosis of Americablog states categorically that there have been cases of LGBT people turned away by the SA but I tend to think that's less than typical. And, I'm not convinced that the New Apostolic Reformation has yet ideologically gobbled up the SA's top leadership despite the worrisome trend lines.

So, it's a big, messy subject.

by Bruce Wilson on Thu Dec 12, 2013 at 07:40:50 AM EST
Parent

That's all very helpful and enlightening. I appreciate your taking the time to go into such detail. Wrapping one's head around such a "big, messy subject" is daunting!

by MLouise on Sat Dec 14, 2013 at 11:54:01 AM EST
Parent





When the faith-based-initiative program was introduced, some of us in the U.S. could see down the road the harm it would cause to this country.  When you introduce money as an incentive to carry out an agenda, people blinded by greed and selfishness will say and do irrational things, even the religiously devout.  Enter, "prosperity religion"!  Say and do what is expected of you to receive more funds, the more prosperous you become as an organization, the more prosperous the "flock" become.  It has already been talked about what happens when politics,religion and corporate interests join forces!  This is the reason why this alliance was named, "The Unholy Alliance".  What is really frightening is that more damage will be done to the citizens of this country before it is all over.  This is just my opinion.  

by optimistic on Fri Dec 13, 2013 at 11:51:45 PM EST


WWW Talk To Action


Cognitive Dissonance & Dominionism Denial
There is new research on why people are averse to hearing or learning about the views of ideological opponents. Based on evaluation of five......
By Frederick Clarkson (374 comments)
Will the Air Force Do Anything To Rein In Its Dynamic Duo of Gay-Bashing, Misogynistic Bloggers?
"I always get nervous when I see female pastors/chaplains. Here is why everyone should as well: "First, women are not called to be pastors,......
By Chris Rodda (195 comments)
The Legacy of Big Oil
The media is ablaze with the upcoming publication of David Grann's book, Killers of the Flower Moon. The shocking non fiction account of the......
By wilkyjr (110 comments)
Gimme That Old Time Dominionism Denial
Over the years, I have written a great deal here and in other venues about the explicitly theocratic movement called dominionism -- which has......
By Frederick Clarkson (101 comments)
History Advisor to Members of Congress Completely Twists Jefferson's Words to Support Muslim Ban
Pseudo-historian David Barton, best known for his misquoting of our country's founders to promote the notion that America was founded as a Christian nation,......
By Chris Rodda (113 comments)
"Christian Fighter Pilot" Calls First Lesbian Air Force Academy Commandant a Liar
In a new post on his "Christian Fighter Pilot" blog titled "BGen Kristin Goodwin and the USAFA Honor Code," Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan......
By Chris Rodda (144 comments)
Catholic Right Leader Unapologetic about Call for 'Death to Liberal Professors' -- UPDATED
Today, Donald Trump appointed C-FAM Executive Vice President Lisa Correnti to the US Delegation To UN Commission On Status Of Women. (C-FAM is a......
By Frederick Clarkson (126 comments)
Controlling Information
     Yesterday I listened to Russ Limbaugh.  Rush advised listeners it would be best that they not listen to CNN,MSNBC, ABC, CBS and......
By wilkyjr (118 comments)
Is Bannon Fifth-Columning the Pope?
In December 2016 I wrote about how White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who likes to flash his Catholic credentials when it comes to......
By Frank Cocozzelli (250 comments)
Ross Douthat's Hackery on the Seemingly Incongruous Alliance of Bannon & Burke
Conservative Catholic writer Ross Douthat has dissembled again. This time, in a February 15, 2017 New York Times op-ed titled The Trump Era's Catholic......
By Frank Cocozzelli (64 comments)
`So-Called Patriots' Attack The Rule Of Law
Every so often, right-wing commentator Pat Buchanan lurches out of the far-right fever swamp where he has resided for the past 50 years to......
By Rob Boston (161 comments)
Bad Faith from Focus on the Family
Here is one from the archives, Feb 12, 2011, that serves as a reminder of how deeply disingenuous people can be. Appeals to seek......
By Frederick Clarkson (176 comments)
The Legacy of George Wallace
"One need not accept any of those views to agree that they had appealed to real concerns of real people, not to mindless, unreasoning......
By wilkyjr (70 comments)
Betsy DeVos's Mudsill View of Public Education
My Talk to Action colleague Rachel Tabachnick has been doing yeoman's work in explaining Betsy DeVos's long-term strategy for decimating universal public education. If......
By Frank Cocozzelli (80 comments)
Prince and DeVos Families at Intersection of Radical Free Market Privatizers and Religious Right
This post from 2011 surfaces important information about President-Elect Trump's nominee for Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. -- FC Erik Prince, Brother of Betsy......
By Rachel Tabachnick (218 comments)

Respect for Others? or Political Correctness?
The term "political correctness" as used by Conservatives and Republicans has often puzzled me: what exactly do they mean by it? After reading Chip Berlin's piece here-- http://www.talk2action.org/story/2016/7/21/04356/9417 I thought about what he explained......
MTOLincoln (253 comments)
Fear
What I'm feeling now is fear.  I swear that it seems my nightmares are coming true with this new "president".  I'm also frustrated because so many people are not connecting all the dots! I've......
ArchaeoBob (107 comments)
"America - love it or LEAVE!"
I've been hearing that and similar sentiments fairly frequently in the last few days - far FAR more often than ever before.  Hearing about "consequences for burning the flag (actions) from Trump is chilling!......
ArchaeoBob (211 comments)
"Faked!" Meme
Keep your eyes and ears open for a possible move to try to discredit the people openly opposing Trump and the bigots, especially people who have experienced terrorism from the "Right"  (Christian Terrorism is......
ArchaeoBob (165 comments)
More aggressive proselytizing
My wife told me today of an experience she had this last week, where she was proselytized by a McDonald's employee while in the store. ......
ArchaeoBob (163 comments)
See if you recognize names on this list
This comes from the local newspaper, which was conservative before and took a hard right turn after it was sold. Hint: Sarah Palin's name is on it!  (It's also connected to Trump.) ......
ArchaeoBob (169 comments)
Unions: A Labor Day Discussion
This is a revision of an article which I posted on my personal board and also on Dailykos. I had an interesting discussion on a discussion board concerning Unions. I tried to piece it......
Xulon (156 comments)
Extremely obnoxious protesters at WitchsFest NYC: connected to NAR?
In July of this year, some extremely loud, obnoxious Christian-identified protesters showed up at WitchsFest, an annual Pagan street fair here in NYC.  Here's an account of the protest by Pagan writer Heather Greene......
Diane Vera (130 comments)
Capitalism and the Attack on the Imago Dei
I joined this site today, having been linked here by Crooksandliars' Blog Roundup. I thought I'd put up something I put up previously on my Wordpress blog and also at the DailyKos. As will......
Xulon (329 comments)
History of attitudes towards poverty and the churches.
Jesus is said to have stated that "The Poor will always be with you" and some Christians have used that to refuse to try to help the poor, because "they will always be with......
ArchaeoBob (148 comments)
Alternate economy medical treatment
Dogemperor wrote several times about the alternate economy structure that dominionists have built.  Well, it's actually made the news.  Pretty good article, although it doesn't get into how bad people could be (have been)......
ArchaeoBob (90 comments)
Evidence violence is more common than believed
Think I've been making things up about experiencing Christian Terrorism or exaggerating, or that it was an isolated incident?  I suggest you read this article (linked below in body), which is about our great......
ArchaeoBob (214 comments)

More Diaries...




All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments, posts, stories, and all other content are owned by the authors. Everything else © 2005 Talk to Action, LLC.