You know, when I hear that companies like Target and Nordstrom’s are engaged in a War Against Christians for sins such as using the words “December 25″ instead of “Christmas” on a web page describing shipping deadlines, I find myself to be just a little bit skeptical. But then I actually go to Target and find out the shocking truth.
Sure, today in my local Target there were three aisles of Christmas merchandise stocked two months in advance, compared to just one for tomorrow’s Halloween. Sure, they already had Christmas stationery with Star of Bethlehem motifs stocked at the end of the aisles in a premium display location. Sure, along with my receipt I received a separate piece of paper telling me to “make a donation to the Salvation Army,” a Christian organization that already builds centers of religious worship, proselytizes the people it feeds, and uses tax dollars to engage in sexual and religious discrimination in hiring.
Yes, yes, yes, all that. But the checkout guy didn’t wish me a “Merry Christmas” as I walked out of the store with my face paint and scotch tape. Arrogant Christian-hater!
I never heard of salvation army “building centers of religious worship” or that other stuff either. The court case document alleges people were fired for refusing to sign a statement disclosing religious information about their church membership they say has no bearing on their jobs. I don’t know. Does JUF hire anyone who isn’t Jewish? What about the Islamic charities? They’re all run by the Islamic Brotherhood which is far from apolitical. Can they be sued if they don’t hire Jews?
The government does indeed have a history of working with religious organizations going back at least to the Clinton adminstration. That was part of welfare reform. The plain fact is the government doesn’t have enough money to do everything it wants to do or that needs to be done, so the language was about ‘partnering’ with community organizations. This meant mostly referrals to agencies, since the govoeevnment has the computer data base to determine eleigibility–access to info about social security payments, wages, etc and can verify income. Several occasions there was some bureaucratic foulup and someone who we thought should have been getting benefits for some reason did not get them. The only thing we could do was to refer them to a food pantry in a church basement.
Other times churches have social work forced on them–as with many inner city churches who find the number of people pounding on their doors looking for help far outweighs their meager resources–this type of church welcomes government assistance and considers the government to be the one responsible for providing for these enormous needs. I know of one church that provides office space for a government funded caseworker. All the churches that provide food have a sermon first. They say religion is their reason for existing and they will provide religion with the food.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot…blessed Samhain.
I’ve seen those Salvation Army worship centers – big churches all paid for by people who think that they’re giving money to help poor people. The luxuriant grounds of the one just north of Atlanta, I passed by and wondered, how many red cauldrons went into that?
No, this sounds like the southern territory headquarters. Look at the website for it.
http://www.uss.salvationarmy.org/uss/www_uss.nsf
It’s not set up like a church website with pictures of the staff, the pastors, podcasts of sermons. They describe all the social service they provide. My understanding was Salvation Army was started by Methodists as a social service outlet for Jesus’ injunction in Matthew to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the imprisoned, and I suspect it was started right around prohibition and had some of the old Temperance Union fire in it. In this neck of the woods they have thrift shops (3 huge shops within 20 miles of me, competing with at least 3 Uniques) and they take donated stuff which they will pick up in trucks. I know I have seen some people shopping there with vouchers for winter coats.
Folks, you can say what you wish about the Salvation Army, but, for my books, they are about the ONLY religious organization out there that will help the poor, the homeless, those in disaster areas,etc. without asking any questions such as “what church do you belong to”, or charging money (like the Red Cross…those bastards…). The “Sallies” have come to my aid more than once in my life, when nobody else would. So, even if you find their religion off-putting, please kick down a buck or two when they have the bell-ringers out in front of the Wal-Mart, the Post Office, or whatever, this Christmas. They do good things…and there aren’t too many organizations out there anymore that do. I know I will.