My wife and I were leaving Publix today and there were three white male Salvation Army bell ringers. They were putting a lot of effort into their bell ringing. My wife commented that she had not given them anything this year, And I told her to not give them anything this year.
I told the three bell ringers that their organization had squandered 100 years of goodwill with their woke-ism.
The oldest of the three said to me in a confrontational tone, “Squandered?”
I said “Yes.” And we kept on walking towards the car.
Salvation Army has a solid founding in Christian service and evangelism. But they seem to think a social gospel is the answer.
That is sad.
I went to Publix a couple days ago and there were a couple SA bell ringers there and I told them that their rep these days is not good and they said they didn’t know what I was talking about and they were volunteers from the Kiwanas Club. I thought it was rather interesting.
I stood out in the cold ringing the bell. We were volunteers recruited from a local church. We never touched the money, and had no affiliation with the Salvation Army. I would relieve another volunteer, whom I most likely had never met, and be relieved in turn. I never got involved with the organization, except that I did donate to them annually, outside of my church or United Way. So don’t blame the bell ringers. My affection for the SA comes from a World War II combat vet who told me that in the Winter in Europe, the SA was on the front lines with free coffee and donuts, while the Red Cross was in the rear, and charged for donuts. That was enough for me.
Interesting. Yesterday I was leaving my Publix and there were 3 bell ringers- 1 white guy and 2 black women. I haven’t donated to them since I read their “manifesto”.
I actually stopped to talk- I wondered what their reaction might be. The women looked at me with confusion- “what are you talking about”? The guy knew. I said I’d trusted them and had been donating money and items for decades and wanted him to know why I wouldn’t be anymore and I wouldn’t be apologizing. I was calm and polite. His reaction was anger- he told me I was hurting people in need. I said no sir, your leadership is doing that, please tell them there are many of us that feel betrayed, mad and blindsided. He knows- he kinda shook his head with me - not angry anymore. Maybe unhappy though.