Salvation Army

Right-wing Christians are getting pissed about the flack that the Salvation Army has been getting over their discrimination of GLBT people. In the Twin Cities, a group called Celebration Army attempted to raise funds with buckets and bells for Open Arms of Minnesota. Open Arms provides meals for people living with HIV/AIDS. The Salvation Army sued on copyright infringement grounds and Celebration Army volunteered to back down.

A website called GayDC called for a boycott of Safeway and Giant Food because they allow Salvation Army bell-ringers. As an alternative to the Salvation Army, GayDC added this banner to their website: "This holiday season, all proceeds as a result of shopping at Target thru GayDC.Net links until December 31, 2004 will be donated to Food and Friends!"

Food and Friends "prepares, packages and delivers meals and groceries to nearly 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and other life-challenging illnesses such as breast, lung and colon cancer throughout Washington, DC and 14 counties of Maryland and Virginia."

Concerned Women for America, a radical anti-gay Christian fringe group based in Washington, DC, voiced their outrage over the Celebration Army, and several other boycott's of the Salvation Army.

Robert Knight, director of Concerned Women for America's Culture and Family Institute had this to say: "Needy families are not even on the radar screen of these homosexual activist groups, who are more interested in promoting acceptance of sodomy than in the Salvation Army's ongoing charity efforts to keep poor people fed and clothed."

He must have missed this part about the Celebration Army "funds would go to Open Arms of Minnesota to provide meals to those with HIV-AIDS," or perhaps he missed "Food and Friends prepares, packages and delivers meals and groceries to nearly 1,000 people living with HIV/AIDS and other life-challenging illnesses such as breast, lung and colon cancer."

Knight is more concerned with the sexual activity of others than he is in helping those with life-challeging illnesses. Doesn't sound very Christian to me.