The Salvation Army says white donors should 'repent for their racist ideologies'
A Salvation Army released a guide, "Let's Talk About Racism," in April that is meant to provide "internal dialogue" on racism within the charity's organization. The guide was created by the Salvation Army International Social Justice Commission.
According to the guide, "White culture" has challenges it needs to overcome, including "denial of racism," "defensiveness about race," and suggests for "White Americans" to "stop trying to be 'colorblind.'"
Chad Prather had this to say about the Salvation Army on Tuesday's episode of The Chad Prather Show.
"Folks, There was a time not so long ago when the Salvation Army was all about helping people out. You'd see them there at the Walmart, ringing their bell and asking for donations, and you'd make a beeline for the other door if you didn't have any spare change. But just the other day, it came out that the Salvation Army is now in the business of calling white people on the carpet about their privilege, their contribution to systemic racism by dint of merely being alive, and their need to atone for it. Their new literature states that white donors should – and I quote – "lament, repent, and apologize for biases or racist ideologies held and actions committed."
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Salvation Army responds to critics of woke messaging, withdraws anti-racism guide for 'appropriate review'
The Salvation Army published a lengthy response late last week after numerous reports indicated the Christian charity organization had embraced woke corporate messaging.
What is the background?
The controversy surrounds two internal Salvation Army documents, a guidebook titled "Let's Talk About Racism" and another called the "Study Guide on Racism."
The National Review reported:
In a guidebook titled "Let's Talk About Racism," the organization calls Christians to reflect on and rectify their contributions to the social inequities and prejudicial systems that have harmed minorities. Citing its "International Position Statement on Racism," the organization writes that it "acknowledges with regret, that Salvationists have sometimes shared in the sins of racism and conformed to economic, organisational and social pressures that perpetuate racism."
An accompanying document created by the Salvation Army's International Social Justice Commission, called the "Study Guide on Racism," claims that white people are responsible for "unconscious bias," an idea promulgated by critical-race-theory advocate Ibram X. Kendi. Kendi argues that white people's legacy of racism is irredeemable, and that the only remedy is reverse discrimination as a matter of retributive justice to level the societal playing field.
In the "Let's Talk About Racism" document, the Salvation Army implores white donors to "lament, repent and apologize for biases or racist ideologies held and actions committed," and urges them to adopt "a posture of ... anti-racism," another moniker made famous by Kendi.
"In the absence of making anti-racist choices, we (un) consciously uphold aspects of White supremacy, White-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society," the document states.
Meanwhile, the "Study Guide on Racism" states that white people are guilty "unconscious bias" and "unwittingly perpetuate racial division," and declares that, "We must stop denying the existence of individual and systemic/institutional racism. They exist, and are still at work to keep White Americans in power."
TheBlaze further reported:
In the guide, the Salvation Army makes use of a litany of woke terms to articulate their message, including "anti-racist," "colonizer," "domestic terrorism," "fascism," "institutional racism," "microaggressions," "systemic racism," and "whiteness."
As TheBlaze noted, the woke messaging forced some Christians to stop donating to the organization.
What did the Salvation Army say?
The Salvation Army released a statement flatly denying accusations the Christian organization is now peddling ideals of critical race theory and other woke messaging.
"[S]ome individuals and groups have recently attempted to mislabel our organization to serve their own agendas. They have claimed that we believe our donors should apologize for their skin color, that The Salvation Army believes America is an inherently racist society, and that we have abandoned our Christian faith for one ideology or another," the statement explained.
"Those claims are simply false, and they distort the very goal of our work," the statement added.
Responding to the core of the criticism — the "Let's Talk About Racism" study guide — the Salvation Army claimed it was issued to members as a "voluntary resource."
But despite claiming critics of the study guide "have chosen to ignore" attempts by the Salvation Army to provide "accurate information" about the guide, the statement said the Salvation Army has "now withdrawn the guide for appropriate review."
The statement, however, did not specify which specific parts of the study guide require clarification, nor did the statement address the "Study Guide on Racism."
Salvation Army goes woke with new anti-racist message, asks white donors to apologize for their 'unconscious bias'
The Salvation Army — a massively popular Christian charity known for raising money through red collection boxes around the holidays — is now pushing "anti-racist" and critical race theory ideology onto donors.
What are the details?
This year, in addition to requesting monetary contribution towards the global mission, the organization is calling on donors to reckon with their deep-seated attitudes of racism, the National Review reports.
In a guidebook titled, "Let's Talk About Racism," the charity asks donors to consider the ways in which they have "consciously or unconsciously" supported prejudicial systems that inflict harm on racial minorities, adding that it "acknowledges with regret, that Salvationists have sometimes shared in the sins of racism and conformed to economic, organizational and social pressures that perpetuate racism."
Elsewhere in the document, the charity calls on white donors to "lament, repent and apologize for biases or racist ideologies held and actions committed."
Going forward, the Salvation Army says it hopes white donors will recognize their own contributions to racism and adopt "a posture of ... anti-racism," an ideological practice made popular by progressive author Ibram X. Kendi.
"In the absence of making anti-racist choices, we (un) consciously uphold aspects of White supremacy, White-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society," the document states.
What else?
The charity reiterates its viewpoints in another document created by the Salvation Army's International Social Justice Commission, called the "Study Guide on Racism."
In that document, the Salvation Army plainly claims that racism is obvious and evident in nearly all facets of western society, and argues, "We must stop denying the existence of individual and systemic/institutional racism. They exist, and are still at work to keep White Americans in power."
White people are in fact guilty of "unconscious bias" and "unwittingly perpetuate racial division" even when they don't demonstrate overtly racist behavior.
"For instance, devout Christians who naively use racial epithets or a well-intentioned Sunday School curriculum that only uses white photography and imagery," the organization writes.
In the guide, the Salvation Army makes use of a litany of woke terms to articulate their message, including "anti-racist," "colonizer," "domestic terrorism," "fascism," "institutional racism," "microaggressions," "systemic racism," and "whiteness."
Anything else?
The organization's support for progressive "anti-racist" teaching has drawn the ire from some of its conservative donors, according to Newsweek.
One of those former donors is Christian apologist and radio talk show host Greg Koukl, who reportedly called out the charity's progressive drift in a Facebook post earlier this month.
"In my estimation, CRT is a Trojan horse taking in well-intentioned Christian enterprises that — because they care about justice and oppose oppression — naively promote the most serious threat to biblical Christianity I have seen in 50 years," the Stand to Reason founder stated in the post.
The Daily Signal, too, slammed the organization last month for imposing "radical wokeness" among Christians.
In response to questions from Newsweek, however, a spokesperson for the Salvation Army denied that its position on addressing racism has changed.
"Our beliefs have always been rooted in scripture, and they still are. That includes our complete rejection of racism, which is in stark contrast to the biblical principle that we're all created in the image of God. We believe that, as God loves us all, so we should all love one another," the spokesperson said.
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