They have embraced the Fundamentalists’ homophobia for decades . . . not stopping at their policy of no LGBT employees, but spreading their prejudice to individuals who “appear to be” gay. And they also discriminate with regard to the recipients of their charity. It’s time to send a clear message to them, that this prejudice is not acceptable. There are plenty of other charities to support, including Christian ones. Reward the good guys for being the good guys.
Dunno if this might have been better fodder for Great Debates or perhaps the Pit, but, shrug: I’m with you. I will not put a goddam penny in the S.A. bucket, and I won’t give their bell-ringers so much as a nod. They had a chance of being good and noble, and, instead, they chose to follow the path of fear and hatred.
(The more I think on’t, this would be a great Pit thread. So, for those of you of an imaginative bent, please envision my having used Pit-worthy language here…)
I have the displeasure of having to HELP Salvation Army employees (at work). I really wish I could pass on it, but I don’t have a choice. However, I do boycott them. And if you boycott the Salvation Army, it’s worth considering Hobby Lobby (for donating to anti-gay candidates and causes) and Chick Fil-A (whose founders recently came out–heh–and stated they didn’t like gay people).
Just because the US government does some bad things doesn’t mean that I don’t support the good things that it does. Same with the Salvation Army. I’ll continue to donate. Well, if I were in a position to donate.
Well, if they put on Santa suits and stand in front of a store entrance ringing a bell, they’ll get my donation too. Even if they do some things that I disapprove of, as long as they do enough that I do approve of they’ll get some money.
Not giving to the Salvation Army doesn’t hurt the Salvation Army per se; it hurts the people they help.
It’s like choosing a political candidate: voting for single issues is rather unwise.
Not if you donate to someone else who can take up the slack. And it does hurt the Salvation Army by giving them less money to skim off for their own homophobic pet projects.
Only insofar as giving money to the SA instead of Goodwill or Red Cross or Habitat for Humanity (etc) hurts the people helped by Goodwill or Red Cross or Habitat for Humanity–which is to say, not at all. We all pick our causes, there’s nothing wrong with that. Moreover, a failure to help is not the same as actively causing harm. I suppose it’s better to donate to the SA than not to donate at all, but I believe it’s demonstrably better to donate to Goodwill, Red Cross, or Habitat for Humanity than to SA.
If you think the SA does something remarkable that other charities don’t, and that thing outweighs the harm they cause to LGBT people around the country, I’m all ears. Or if it’s just that you prefer donating when it’s easy or when you’re actively solicited, that’s fine. Just own it. I know my mom donates to SA because she dislikes loose change and she likes the bell-ringing, but mostly she’s too lazy to investigate donating to more ethical organizations (even after I linked her the article in the OP 2 days ago)–and she has a gay daughter! (my sister) Oh well, I tried.
Whatever your reasons are for donating to SA, you should at least be honest with yourself about your motive for choosing to donate to them over other charities. They all accomplish worthy aims, but the others manage to do it without engaging in the large-scale promotion of bigotry. And that makes them more meritorious than SA, and thus more worthy of my cash.
Well, like I said above, if the other guys stood at store entrance, rang bells, and solicited donations, and were more good than evil, they’d get my donation. And I give to the United Way for the same reason everyone does: they’ve infiltrated everyone’s work environment and make automatic donations easy. So if you want to call me a lazy donor, then that’s okay; I admit it.
In certain respects, I’d say the SA deserves donations more than others because they’re making an effort to collect it.
Of course there’s a way to change things. If there were a *massive[i/] organized effort to boycott the SA in an effort to change some of its stances, then I’d refrain from donating to help that cause. But that’s not happening. My withholding funds won’t make it change, and will prevent someone from getting a little extra help.
So what are the good deeds the SA does with their donations? SA is a religion, so any money they take in is for that religion. If they do good deeds with the money, good for them, but it has never been clear to me what it is they do that is “good”, other than run thrift shops.
I often feel sorry for the bell-ringers standing out in the cold, and drop change in the bucket. Especially if they’re cheery sorts. I admit to being ignorant about their anti-LGBT stance. I volunteer at the loal YWCA, and Sally Army is a valuable resource in the community.
Is there any charity that’s totally undiscriminating, though?
I don’t mind donating to the Salvation Army Angel Tree. In fact, as far as charities go, this is one of the few ways of donating in which I am 100% certain that nobody in a suit is leaning back and taking it easy on my buck.
There’s simply no profit margin there.
But yea, discriminating against LGBT folk? Those same people who are disproportionately represented in the homeless and jobless segments that SA claims to be advocating for? Grrrrr… The revolt is coming, guys. There’s no room in America for this kind of nonsense. People are people.
When I first started driving and thus encountering those guys on my own (as opposed to being with a parent) a decided I would never donate to a charity that tried to get me to donate to them by making me feel sorry for the people soliciting the donation. Then later I read about the anti-gay stuff and I was glad I never gave them any money. And it’s not even like I read about it on some third party website. I was looking for something unrelated on the SA website and they say it right there.
To this day, 15 years later, I still walk by them and think “I’m not donating to you just because you want to make me feel bad by having some 75 year old guy in a wheelchair in 12 degree weather for 4 hours…you’re not going to make me feel bad about that”
Note that some bell-ringers are paid, so if you’re feeling compelled to give because you think they’re volunteering to do so, it’s not necessarily the case.
Also, people do complain, rightfully, about the outrageous salaries taken by executives of some charitable and non-profit organizations. My understanding is that SA soldiers and officers (they really do use military titles) get really miniscule salaries. So they do at least efficiently use the money that is contributed.
