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Salvation Army responds to critics of woke messaging, backpedals by withdrawing anti-racism guide for 'appropriate review'
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Salvation Army responds to critics of woke messaging, backpedals by withdrawing anti-racism guide for 'appropriate review'

The Salvation Army published a lengthy response late last week after numerous reports indicated the Christian charity organization had embraced woke corporate messaging.

What is the background?

The controversy surrounds two internal Salvation Army documents, a guidebook titled "Let's Talk About Racism" and another called the "Study Guide on Racism."

The National Review reported:

In a guidebook titled "Let's Talk About Racism," the organization calls Christians to reflect on and rectify their contributions to the social inequities and prejudicial systems that have harmed minorities. Citing its "International Position Statement on Racism," the organization writes that it "acknowledges with regret, that Salvationists have sometimes shared in the sins of racism and conformed to economic, organisational and social pressures that perpetuate racism."

An accompanying document created by the Salvation Army's International Social Justice Commission, called the "Study Guide on Racism," claims that white people are responsible for "unconscious bias," an idea promulgated by critical-race-theory advocate Ibram X. Kendi. Kendi argues that white people's legacy of racism is irredeemable, and that the only remedy is reverse discrimination as a matter of retributive justice to level the societal playing field.

In the "Let's Talk About Racism" document, the Salvation Army implores white donors to "lament, repent and apologize for biases or racist ideologies held and actions committed," and urges them to adopt "a posture of ... anti-racism," another moniker made famous by Kendi.

"In the absence of making anti-racist choices, we (un) consciously uphold aspects of White supremacy, White-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society," the document states.

Meanwhile, the "Study Guide on Racism" states that white people are guilty "unconscious bias" and "unwittingly perpetuate racial division," and declares that, "We must stop denying the existence of individual and systemic/institutional racism. They exist, and are still at work to keep White Americans in power."

TheBlaze further reported:

In the guide, the Salvation Army makes use of a litany of woke terms to articulate their message, including "anti-racist," "colonizer," "domestic terrorism," "fascism," "institutional racism," "microaggressions," "systemic racism," and "whiteness."

As TheBlaze noted, the woke messaging forced some Christians to stop donating to the organization.

What did the Salvation Army say?

The Salvation Army released a statement flatly denying accusations the Christian organization is now peddling ideals of critical race theory and other woke messaging.

"[S]ome individuals and groups have recently attempted to mislabel our organization to serve their own agendas. They have claimed that we believe our donors should apologize for their skin color, that The Salvation Army believes America is an inherently racist society, and that we have abandoned our Christian faith for one ideology or another," the statement explained.

"Those claims are simply false, and they distort the very goal of our work," the statement added.

Responding to the core of the criticism — the "Let's Talk About Racism" study guide — the Salvation Army claimed it was issued to members as a "voluntary resource."

But despite claiming critics of the study guide "have chosen to ignore" attempts by the Salvation Army to provide "accurate information" about the guide, the statement said the Salvation Army has "now withdrawn the guide for appropriate review."

The statement, however, did not specify which specific parts of the study guide require clarification, nor did the statement address the "Study Guide on Racism."

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