Salvation army gay people
Salvos back away from anti-gay comments
The Salvation Army in Australia is distancing itself from a statement by its international parent organisation that homosexuality is "an unacceptable urge".
The gay people has criticised the church's online declaration.
Church spokesman Major Bruce Harmer says its Australian arm believes the statement needs to be changed.
He has denied the Salvation Army is homophobic and has appealed to the gay community not make judgements on the declaration.
"If you had a bad taxi driver, you wouldn't group all taxi drivers the similar as well," he said.
"At the moment the international statement is our expression, but we are functional behind the scenes."
He says the church's position on homosexuality is being debated internally and the Australian arm believes it needs to be changed.
Major Harmer says the Salvos propose services to all who are in need, regardless of sexual orientation.
"The Salvation Army has worked for many years with same-sex attracted and lesbian people through their treatment centres and welfare
Several years ago, I began bypassing the Salvation Army bell-ringers and stopped putting money in the ubiquitous red Christmas kettle, a holiday fixture in 2, stores and street corners across Canada.
Yes, the Salvation Army helps the destitute by running food banks and offering emergency relief, addiction rehab, and clothing and shelter for people in need — and it’s been doing so in Canada since But it also has a long history of discriminating against the LGBTQ2 community.
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Like many conservative organizations, the Salvation Army adheres to a theology that considers gay sex sinful. It has denounced marriage equality as a threat to religious independence, vigorously fought against policies extending health benefits to same-sex partners and referred gay individuals to conversion therapy. In , it campaigned to retain the criminalization of homosexuality in New Zealand. It eventually apologized 20 years later.
One of the most disturbing incidents was a Australian radio interview with a media spokesperson who said he agreed wit
A few years help, we were asked about the current relationship between our communities and the Salvation Army. As you know, the Army organised the infamous petition against homosexual law reform in the s, an act which damaged relations for many years, so that many male lover people still perceive unable to contribute to the SA’s fundraising efforts. So the Board wrote to them. After considerable discussion, the following joint declaration was written in
RAINBOW WELLINGTON AND THE SALVATION ARMY REACH A RAPPROCHEMENT:
A SIGNIFICANT STEP FORWARD
“A very significant step forward and an important building block for the future”, is how Tony Simpson, Chair of the Wellington based gay, womxn loving womxn and related groups human rights organisation Rainbow Wellington, and Campbell Roberts, chief of The Salvation Army’s Social Policy and Parliamentary Unit, described jointly issued statements of the two groups made public today.
For the past year, both groups have been considering future perspectives on their relationship.
“This initially arose” says Simpson, “because our board was discussing the role of
Between the Salvation Army's bell-ringing Santas and thrift-store empire, people often forget that the international organization "is actually a Christian church organization with many conservative tenets and a military-style structure," says Zach Ford at Think Progress. And recently, Maj. Andrew Craibe, the media relations officer for Australia's southern territory, reminded us of that fact by agreeing on-air with two gay radio hosts that the Salvation Army believes gay people "should die." The group quickly scrambled to clarify Craibe's remark — after all, the Salvation Army's mission is to "preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination" — but this is hardly the Salvation Army's first run-in with the gay community. Here, a observe at the influential charity's challenging history with homosexuality and same-sex attracted rights:
Former Methodist minister William Booth founds the Salvation Army in London, giving his religious mission a military structure and trappings, including its own flag, military-style uniforms, hymns, and ranks