December 3, 2008
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So remember a couple of days ago when I telling you about how my work raises money for under privileged families in my area? Well, it turns out its to benefit people through the Salvation Army. Maybe I'm naive, but I have always generally had a positive opinion about the Salvation Army, as they do seem to do so good. Well, maybe I'm just a little bit too dim to see it, but they are a Christian organization. With the word salvation in the title, maybe I was just didn't realize that it was a Christian organization. Still, as you might imagine, Christian organizations always scare me as they always seem to be anti gay. Well, I was reading a message board last night and saw that supposedly, the Salvation Army does not believe in salvation for gays. For example, it said that they will take in homeless people but will give you the boot if they find out you are gay. Now I don't like to always trust or believe everything I see on the internet, so I decided to do some of my own research by seeking out the Salvation Army's website. Here is what they have to say about homosexuality:
Homosexuality
The Salvation Army holds a positive view of human sexuality. Where a man and a woman love each other, sexual intimacy is understood as a gift of God to be enjoyed within the context of heterosexual marriage. However, in the Christian view, sexual intimacy is not essential to a healthy, full, and rich life. Apart from marriage, the scriptural standard is celibacy.
Sexual attraction to the same sex is a matter of profound complexity. Whatever the causes may be, attempts to deny its reality or to marginalize those of a same-sex orientation have not been helpful. The Salvation Army does not consider same-sex orientation blameworthy in itself. Homosexual conduct, like heterosexual conduct, requires individual responsibility and must be guided by the light of scriptural teaching.
Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex. The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage.
Likewise, there is no scriptural support for demeaning or mistreating anyone for reason of his or her sexual orientation. The Salvation Army opposes any such abuse.
In keeping with these convictions, the services of The Salvation Army are available to all who qualify, without regard to sexual orientation. The fellowship of Salvation Army worship is open to all sincere seekers of faith in Christ, and membership in The Salvation Army church body is open to all who confess Christ as Savior and who accept and abide by The Salvation Army's doctrine and discipline.
Scriptures: Genesis 2:23-24; Leviticus 18:22; Mark 2:16-17; Romans 1:26-27; Romans 5:8; I Corinthians 6:9-11; I Corinthians 13; Galatians 6:1-2; I Thessalonians 4:1-8; I Thessalonians 5:14-15; I Timothy 1:15-16; Jude 7
This leads me to believe that the message board was indeed probably correct. After all, it says above that flat out say that if you are gay, you should practice celibacy. Not very tolerant at all. And since I stole this directly from their website, I have to believe it is true.
So what do I do? Should I stop supporting them? I know some people would say that not supporting them would be punishing those in need as it is not their fault that the Salvation Army believes the way it believes. On the other hand their are plenty of non gay hating charities that I can support. The Salvation Army is local and does a lot of work with my employer. This puts me in a conflict of interest, I mean, I really want to help people but not at the cost of supporting a group that discriminates and also probably brainwashes people into discriminating against gays.
Comments (3)
I've known for years that the Salvation Army is homobigoted, but they do present a dilemma. On the one hand, I don't want to support a homobigoted organization, but on the other hand they do a tremendous amount of good. It's like the Boy Scouts. I was a Boy Scout and learned an enormous amount through them that I couldn't have learned elsewhere. But they won't allow gay boys to be members (or atheists, either). Where do you draw the line? While it might be possible to find equivalent alternatives to the Salvation Army, I know of no equivalent alternative to the Boy Scouts. Ironically, the Girl Scouts don't have a problem with lesbians--kind of like the Bible.
Well at work I usually give a $1 so the company meets it 100% participation...BUT I hate being asked for money when corporations make millions and pay us very little. So it is a touchy subject with me. There are however many orginazations that are gay friendly and US's Bono and American Idol are 2 that I usually support. I just atarted a website http://www.thegaygospel.ning.com and it is growing but on the site there are a few ministries I think are inclusive to gay men and women. It is amazing that the traditional church has such bigoted views against gays because they allow divorced men and women to marry and live in adultry, but we can't express our love and live a christian life. It's stupid.
correction U2's Bono
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