Red Kettle Alert

This Christmas season, as you are out and about on your errands, take note of the various red kettles provided by the Salvation Army at the entrances to malls, supermarkets, and other stores and always remember to ignore them. It's important to always remember that the Salvation Army is not a charity, it is a church - and a particularly loathsome one at that.

If you believe, as I do, that a) charity is love, and if we can agree that b) all love should be unconditional, then c) the Salvation Army fails on both counts. They like to stress the help they give the poor and less fortunate, but usually fail to mention that every bit of the help they do give comes with a heaping helping of fire and brimstone, usually via a sermon.

They are homophobic and misogynistic*, and consider themselves a military organization for a reason; during the debate in Canada over allowing same-sex marriage in this country it was the Salvation Army who lead the charge against it, by aggressively lobbying many Members of Parliament - lobbying that in many instances could have been considered harassment. There were also numerous high-profile lawsuits against the Salvation Army in Ontario in the late 1980s/early 1990s over their refusal to employ and assist unwed mothers.

I have been consistently thwarted in terms of charitable giving by the dearth of secular charities; I would gladly sponsor a child in a developing country if only I could be sure that my pennies a day weren't spent robbing them of their religion, culture and language, beating or molesting them or in some other way inculcating them with the dangerous hypocrisies of modern Christianity. I would gladly support a soup kitchen if only I could find one that didn't ladle Old Testament judgement along with its soup; similarly, many food banks run out of church basements also find ways to pick and choose who is worthy of their largesse - by choosing to only support families, for instance, and not single men - men who may or may not be gay.

As much as I am loath to support the United Way (since too many of the funds they raise go toward management rather than helping people) I'd rather see them reap the benefits of Christmas cheer than allowing the Christian soldiers to move onward even one step further.

*They are also racist, requiring proof of citizenship from children before they'll distribute toys to them... Because that's what Jesus would have done, I'm sure. Thanks to my Facebook friend Cheryl Young Cohen for this little tidbit!
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