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Indybay Feature

Where the Vultures Feed

by Dr Bruce Loisel (dbruceloisel [at] gmail.com)
How the Salvation Army Dupes the Public and Live Cushy Lives Off the Carrion of the Poor
vuly.jpg
“I went down where the vultures feed

I would've gone deeper, but there wasn't any need

Heard the tongues of angels and the tongues of men

Wasn't any difference to me.”

Bob Dylan - Dignity

In America, a place that elevates traditional religion to the level of the sanctified and renders it untouchable, unquestionable, and impervious to scrutiny, some organizations have used this to their great advantage. The Salvation Army is one of these organizations. America is a place in which affiliation with a Christian god immediately dismantles defensiveness. Pronouncing one is a Christian, whether it is Catholic or Protestant, Mormon or seventh day Adventist, give an institution or individual immediate credibility. Thus the pass the public gives to The Salvation Army. Being a religious organization moves others to the assumption that all persons of faith are honest, trustworthy and worthy of donating money and used items. The Salvation Army has benefited from this phenomenon for well over one-hundred years and for most of it’s existence, it has been a well-intended, missionary minded, a human rights advocate - focused on the alleviation of suffering.

Like many organizations that struggle to maintain their original identity, the Salvation Army has lost its course and evolved into a monolithic, selfishly convenient, vertical power hierarchy, with a meek and distant commonality with the poor they now profess to serve or the original mission they were once passionate. The Salvation Army is remarkable in the fact that for the no good reason other than they profess they are Christian faith based, they have been given a pass when it comes to any serious scrutiny.

According to an article published by the Third Age News Service (Wednesday, Sept. 24 1997), “the Salvation Army is America's most effective charity, says management guru Peter Drucker. Drucker gives the Salvation Army top marks for "clarity of mission, ability to innovate, measurable results, dedication and putting money to maximum use." No other charity "even comes close," he says, adding that the Army has shown it can work "with the poorest of the poor and the meanest of the mean." After working with The Salvation Army for nine years, I would wonder how a person with such organizational renown could make such extraordinarily absurd claims. As Christopher Hitchens would say, “extraordinary claims must be met with extraordinary evidence.” Unfortunately, regarding the Salvation Army, Druckers claims are not met with evidence.

Doing the Most Good?

Few are aware of the deliberately crafted public persona The Salvation Army feeds to the public. The image of humble Salvation Army Officers in uniform, doing God’s good and truthful work, funded through loving conservative mostly Christian leaning persons, most likely with some family roots in World War Two, focused exclusively on the most vulnerable and needy, the heart of their work is simply bullshit. From what I observed, this lie has been spread twelve times around the world while truth has yet to put its shoes on. Thus we have it, the slippery marketing of a Christian non-profit, packaging human misery to play on white and privileged guilt, in order to fund an this organization, who’s heart once beat only for those marginalized and poverty stricken, but now only beats for itself. Just like mother Theresa, who served many years as the marketing arm of the Catholic Church, and who unjustly received accolades for “Christian service,” who heisted money from unsuspecting persons by vomiting a dishonest and romanticized version of the Catholic Churches work in Calcutta, with any questioning bringing swift recrimination, chastisement and Vatican marketing executives produced lies, the Salvation Army is a fraud. Criticism of organizations that are perceived to be traditionally holy, sacred or a reification of god’s perfect plan labels one a popinjay.

So what’s behind the curtain? Ordained ministers, referred to as “Officers”, run the Salvation Army. Officers must have an AA degree, denounce and turn over worldly possessions to the organization, practice abstinence until marriage, abstain from drugs and alcohol, and agree to exclusively and heterosexually marry other officers. The Salvation Army operates in a hierarchical, military fashion; and these ordained men and women are the leaders of this organization. In return officers get all their worldly possessions given to them by the Salvation Army, similar to a quid pro quo, I’ll renounce worldly possession and The Salvation Army will replace those worldly possessions and lend you better worldly possessions. As an Officer, you’ll enjoy never missing a meal, always have a car to drive (maintenance, gas and insurance paid for in full), get a monthly stipend, employment for your kids, and you’ll never sleep unsheltered. In fact, some of the homes The Salvation Army officers live in are valued at well over a million dollars.

Reputation, whether it be factually based, fabricated, re-written by history, or never thoroughly investigated, has a trajectory, and it takes a some amount of time and energy to create and maintain, but when the luminous arc fades, propping it up creates the need for resources to shift from service and product delivery to marketing. Hark back to the moment in this article in which I called mother Theresa a liar and fraud. True or not (and it is actually fact) most people bristle with the notion of questioning an icon of god. And with this, this Salvation Army has done an exemplary job of being god’s right hand, or at least his left hand. A good reputation can carry a dying organization for years after its heyday and with a deft media campaign can extend public good will towards the organization for decades and reputation may have nothing to do with what is actually occurring. This is an account of the slide of the once great Salvation Army Social Services, which is coming to the end. The Salvation Army’s run is ending because the perception crafters can no longer spin this behind the times organizational disaster fast enough to keep up with reality and reason.

Private Donor Driven Dribble

The Salvation Army doesn’t miss any opportunity to project the image they are funded by public donors. This is why nearly every heart wrenching website page asks for donations. They surely would like to obscure the public in knowing that the vast majority of The Salvation Army’s money comes from government funding. I would estimate that in Southern California less than 10% of Social Services operating money came from private donations, and a number of programs, such as The Salvation Army Bell Shelter and Alegria, were operated with up to 98% with taxpayer dollars. Another funding obfuscation is that 13% of all funds designated for program operations, be it a private donation, foundation grants or tax payer sponsored government funding were funneled to a central office. I believe the 10% figure is based on the common business practice of tithing and (the remaining 3% were for “accounting fees.”) Without delving too deeply into the minutia of the deception, generally government contracts signed by non-profit designate 5-10% administrative costs for overhead. The problem is there are three administrative levels at the Salvation Army. The first are the officers, the second are the administrators of the various programs and the third is the line staff working directly with the clients. No program that I observed could run efficiently and/or effectively solely based on government funding, so there was a constant tension between the program directors and the Officer dominated administration [1].

Every Christmas like clockwork, the bell ringer’s emerge at the local supermarket soliciting donations. You may wish to note the majority of Bell Ringers are NOT officers, but actually are clients from various programs paid minimal amounts of money to solicit donations (with a smattering of mostly conservative religious volunteers). The Salvation Army Christmas Kettles are not a hefty source of income. In fact, it actually serves more as an advertisement for The Salvation Army. It’s a “feel-good moment that really doesn’t impact the bottom line in any meaningful way and create a lot of “good feelings” for the needy.

The Salvation Army on Gay Love

The Salvation Army firmly believes that homosexuality is an abomination against god. Although it does not currently overtly discriminate against the LBGTQ community in service provision or hiring, the bias is there and no truthful Salvationist will deny this. The Salvation Army organization believes, without an ounce of hesitation, that homosexuality is a sin and that god will ultimately punish these individuals. The Salvation Army did a worthy job of cleaning up the perception they were discriminating against gays and lesbians after their bigotry was illuminated by their refusal to sign contracts containing language requiring the provision of benefits to domestic partners in the early 2000’s. The Salvation Army lost two million dollars in funding in San Francisco for refusing to sign contracts containing equal benefits language and had to shut down several vital programs due to their stance against providing benefits (medical and dental) to what they perceived at the time to be promoting same sex unions. I’m unsure how a person can self-promote the notion they don’t discriminate against LGBTQ persons, and yet consider affection, love, making love and life commitments among this group as an abomination? It’s glossy sleight of hand and some straight out (no pun intended) lies. It’s tantamount to the paradoxical belief that one can, concurrently, believe this group is morally inferior, should never be able to express physical affection, romance, love and family, yet not hold a fully condescending opinion towards the LBGTQ person. Loving the sinner but hating the sin is utter bullshit, we don’t have that capacity as humans.

The Salvation Army has been outspoken in the past, but Andrew Craibe, a Salvation Army Media Relations Director, might have taken things a step too far. Appearing on Australian radio in 2012, hosted by journalist Serena Ryan, Craibe expressed the company's views on the LGBT community and gay parents and when asked whether gays should be put to death, his response was shocking.

"Ryan: According to the Salvation Army gay parents deserve death. How do you respond to that, as part of your doctrine?

Craibe: Well, that’s a part of our belief system.

Ryan: So they should die.

Craibe: You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief.

Ryan: You’re proposing in your doctrine that because these parents are gay, that they must die.

Craibe: Well...well...because that is part of our Christian doctrine

Ryan: But how is that Christian? Shouldn't it be about love?

Craibe: Well, the love that we would show is about that: consideration for all human beings to come to know salvation…

Ryan Or die?

Craibe: Well, yes.”

When The Salvation Army was initially confronted with government contract containing equal benefits ordinances from the County of Los Angeles they at first refused to sign, then, realizing this would devastate the organization financially, agreed to sign. Then James Dobson, the man who made the worship of the nuclear family legitimate, against all scriptural evidence, made it a sacred cow, committed an entire national broadcast to chastising The Salvation Army for agreeing to provide LBGTQ good health. The Salvation Army, then fearing donor rejection and a bad rap among evangelicals reversed its decision again. Then it realized that State and Federal contracts would also eventually contain equal benefits ordinance language and reversed its decision again. So now, after all that song and dance, as Colonel Alfred Van Cleef stated in a triumphant meeting, The Salvation Army “loves the gay.” The Salvation Army affirms that marriage is the voluntary and loving union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, this union being established by an authorized ceremony.

Obesity

While The Salvation Army attempted to block good health to the LBGTQ community, there was another health issue that Officers conveniently ignored, and that was that almost all of The Salvation Army Officers I came into contact with ranged between overweight and obese. Thin Salvation Army Officers were about as plentiful as blacks at an National Rifle Association Convention. If I were to venture as to why this gluttony occurred in disproportionately high rates among this relatively small group, I would suggest that humans are pleasure seeking, whether it be through drugs, reading, dancing, food, community, entertainment, alcohol, sex, pornography, family, conversation, and/or other pleasure inducing activities. Since The Salvation Army forbids most of these sans sex, family and reading, therefore last real legal fun for the Officers was food. I’d like to include sex as the other pleasurable activity among married officers, but it was clear to me that many were far too plump to hump. The Salvationist waits for his/her death and resurrection into God’s eternal kingdom, delaying gratification for a more eternal reward. The only other pleasure I observed among The Salvation Army Officers was how they gratuitously soaked in status.

The lust for status among Officers took many forms in The Salvation Army, and one particularly expensive variety was travel. The Salvation Army Officers, their families and youth groups took enormously expensive large group trips at the expense of government funds and donors. This is a fact. During the time I was with The Salvation Army I saw trips to Africa, Australia and New Zealand, as well as the 80 plus Canadian members of The Salvation Army Band touring the entire United States. There were other trips as well, but what made these remarkable is The Salvation Army regularly traveled in groups of over 100 persons. One quote I’ll never forget occurred when one of the leaders was asked what the 100 plus youth learned on their $100,000 plus trip to New Zealand; her response “they learned the spirit of god is alive and well down under.” Just a final note on this topic, all those band members who play at the Rose Parade don’t come from Pasadena, they come from all over the world – all expenses paid, by government and donor money. These and many more similar issues are possibly why the Salvation Army chooses to not release financial records to the public.

Because lust for status and the “Ruthian” appetite for food appeared to be the two wells of pleasure Officers drank from, this created a regional fascism in which Officers had to strictly adhere to the Divisional Commanders decrees. This was done to ensure that when the next position of status opened up they would be in line for consideration. I observed Officers jockeying for position and putting a smile on while their superior Officer tyrannically pounded his desk and humiliated them.

Modesty

One of the well-crafted myths was that Salvation Army Officers and their families live modest lives; in fact they live very comfortable by American standards and sumptuously by the worlds standards. It’s true they cannot own personal possessions such as houses and cars, but these are provided at the expense of donors and tax payers. A typical package for a The Salvation Army officer couple living in America is over $120,000 annually. Excellent healthcare packages are also provided for Officers and their families. While soaking in the good life, the Salvation Army Officers provide an almost non-existent portion of direct services to those in need. Non-Salvationists provide the overwhelming amount of direct service. I recall in 2008 that in order to craft the impression that The Salvation Army Officers are more actively engaged in direct service to clients (which was at a R.I.T.Z. – “round it to zero ratio”), the Divisional Commander “smiling” Major Victor Leslie gave the edict that if the press covers a The Salvation Army event, an Officer must be present and conduct the interview, even if they provided no direct or even indirect service to the program or clients. I found this to be deliberately misleading at best and robbed those who did the rough work of sitting with addicts, comforting women and children victimized by the full frenzy and violence of sick bullying husbands, rape and molest victims, and providing housing for persons suffering with HIV and their families. These line workers were real people, saw and felt real pain, and sacrificed their naiveté to serve in a dark region of human degradation that is not soon forgotten and no doubt reemerges as repulsive dismal images into their thoughts at unexpected times.

Insular towards poverty and pain is an accurate description of The Salvation Army Officers. This obscenity was evidenced when the previous divisional commander, Col. Alfred Van Cleef complained mightily that a homeless man who I befriended named “Randy” was camping out in front of the Divisional Headquarters. He wanted him moved – and I assumed out of his sight – and I can only speculate Randy’s filthy presence somehow cut into the delight of his daily breakfast.

The Salvation Army intentionally misrepresents statistics in an attempt to exaggerate their scope of influence. An example of this was the annual Thanksgiving feeding of the “homeless”. This was a big media moment for The Salvation Army and so in order to exaggerate our numbers, we bussed in, at great expense, The Salvation Army clients who were already residing in Salvation Army facilities (not homeless) and who would have received food at their program. At the end of the day, if the media showed up, a great throng of people would be shown on the news receiving a lovely dinner with a few B and C list “celebrities.” This was a well-planned scheme to inflate The Salvation Army’s community impact and a sterling and underhanded dishonest propaganda moment for The Salvation Army. It was an ego-driven pissing contest that had nothing to do with doing the most good, but rather for a brief local news clip to see who can serve the most “homeless.”

I only met one Christian at The Salvation Army that seemed to make an effort at living out the commandments of the faith, and his name was Major (now Colonel) Steve Smith. Other than Major Smith, none of the Officers even remotely resembled the behavior of Christ. They were curmudgeons, arrogant, smug in their positions and yet always seeking more status. They were professional ass kissers, sycophants acquiescing to the Officers above them waiting their turn in line to inherit their own little Fiefdom.

Maintaining the Country Club

Probably the most disturbing event I witnessed at The Salvation Army and the most abashedly deceptive (besides when a dog bit off half of a woman’s ear at a The Salvation Army Kettle Kick-Off) was the closing of Harbor Light recovery Center in Los Angeles (LA Weekly, Oct. 5, 2009). In the article it was stated by The Salvation Army media jester Robert Brennan, “we don't run a profit organization," he said. "It's a matter of making sure the lights stay on and of providing a safe, nurturing environment." Brennan said the Salvation Army couldn’t afford to rehab the rehab center. This was utter bullshit and militant lie. The Salvation Army has vast holdings of land in Los Angeles and also has a 45-acre property multi/multi million-dollar property in Rancho Palos Verdes on a stunning bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean that serves as the Officer Training College. Interestingly, The Salvation Army could afford to keep and maintain the luscious, safe, and resort like environment at The Salvation Army Crestmont College but said to hell with a rehab center that had been opened to take in post WW-II alcoholics most likely suffering from PTSD.

The LA Weekly article continued, “And, while the anonymous source claimed the shutdown of Harbor Light only occurred because of the recent emergence of a new, profit-oriented national senior leadership, Brennan says the decision to pull the plug on Harbor Light was made locally by the Southern California division headquarters, which he says enjoys a significant amount of autonomy from the national office. He also dismissed accusations of inordinate perks for the local senior leadership. "I can tell you that many of these people are highly trained and give of themselves immensely -- they get nowhere near the full-fledged compensation of private companies," Brennan said. "If [Southern California Division Commander] Victor Leslie was the CEO of a company this size he'd be making a million dollars a year. He has a law degree and an MBA." This is true, he does have a law degree and MBA, but Smilin’ Vic as a CEO is a laughable overstatement bordering on absurd. I found him to be a power hungry, incompetent, condescending buffoon. Contrary to the assertion by Mr. Brennan that Smilin’ Vic could have been a Captain of industry; he’s never passed the California bar, and never practiced law a day in his life. I knew Robert Brennin, and it saddens me that he was smart enough to know he should be ashamed of himself for telling a lie that he fully knew he was telling, as it slipped from his lips.

Brennan said the Salvation Army was currently preparing to move the current remaining residents of Harbor Light to other regional residential facilities, including one at Grand Avenue near USC that was formerly called Harmony Hall and which will be renamed Harmony Harbor. This was another lie. Many of The clients were exited onto the street, as it would be impossible to take the large number of residents and place them at the much smaller Harmony Harbor. This was a clever play on word, as if The Salvation Army was simply moving clients to another renovated program, but it wasn’t physically possible.

Brennan drones on, "we've spent several million dollars," Brennan said of the Grand Avenue site, "refurbishing a new building that will be in a location that will offer less temptation to clients." Brennen managed three lies in one sentence, impressive. Lie 1: The Salvation Army spend millions of taxpayer dollars, this renovation was paid for by government grant money; lie 2: Harmony Harbor was not a new building, it was built in the 1920’s; lie 3: Grand Avenue was undeniably a drug infested neighborhood that offered no geographic relief for the drug and alcohol addicted.

Religious organizations should never be given a pass because the indisputable fact is that religious people are no more moral, more insightful or trustworthy than non-religious persons. Certainly religion doesn’t insulate folks from being purely and thoroughly mad.

The obvious examples of depravity and psychopathology and the mixture of both are as follows: The Roman Catholic pedophile priests and the ghastly unforgivable reassignment catastrophe, the Catholic Church’s alignment with the Nazi’s, Jimmy Swaggert, the Westborough Baptist Church, John Ashcroft (his odd draping of a statues TaTa’s is a notable concern as it relates to his mental state) [2], Ted Haggard, the Mormon Churches recent stance on gay love, the smug pint-sized hog Infectato Jerry Farwell, the Salem Witch trials, Katherine Kuhlman, Bennie Hinn, Lot from the Bible [3]…God is love.

Last Thoughts

So there are really only two decent points to this article: The first is that generous good people should direct their donations to vetted, good organizations that make ALL their financial dealings public and easily accessible. Donors should not assume that if an organization purports that god is on their side, high service delivery and ethical standards will naturally follow. The second is my hope this article illuminates the strange climate and culture of self-servant hood The Salvation Army has become. Here is an organization that provides a cushy life for their members, who believe, without reservation, they will be moving on to some sort of eternal heaven and yet portray themselves as long-suffering servants of Christ. Sometimes in life collective perception of an organization doesn’t match reality - but don't forget, god is love and also a good marketing tool.





[1] Most NGO’s operate with a mix of government and private funding. My opinion is the optimal ratio is about 60% government and 40% private funding.

[2] His odd attraction, repulsion or concern that others might suffer sinful thoughts when viewing a marble statues breast is beyond comprehension? The $8,000 dollar drapes were indeed ordered by someone in the attorney general's office, who delivered the request to the Justice Management Division and asserted it was the attorney general's desire. It was reported that it was done for "aesthetic purposes" — the though is that it would look better when staging events in the Great Hall. Both statues were installed in the 1930s when the building was finished, according to the Justice Department. The female statue that represents the Spirit of Justice. The 10- to 12-foot statue has its arms raised and a toga draped over its body, but a single breast is completely exposed. The other statue, of a man with a cloth covering his midsection, is called the Majesty of Law.

[3] Lot, if you may have forgotten, offered to give his virgin daughters to the rioting masses to rape rather than the “angels” that showed up at his door intending to destroy the city. Lot of course was one of only 10 righteous men in Gomorrah, but in an apparent moment of excessive use of force, the god of peace turned his wife into a pillar a salt for looking back at the city of exit). So virgin gang rape is preferable to gay Angel gang rape, and making statues out of humans for glancing in the wrong direction is a right and just consequence.
by Yasmin Sahara
"Doug (Bruce) Loisel was living in Southern California at the time and working as director of social services for The Salvation Army of Los Angeles County. He stepped down soon after the arrest.

Loisel was let go shortly after the Sentinel reported on a complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Loisel of molesting a 16-year-old girl, who was a former student at a community college where he was a teacher."
How dare you. This occured in 2008 and the fact is that I have no felony or misdeamors regarding this incident - it's been expunged from the record. The charges against me were nonesense and I'm not on the registered sex offendor list (go ahead and check). The person involved in this then tried to sue me in civil court and did not get a penny from me. I find it disgusting that you would annonomously attempt to discredit me, everything stated about TSA is true and most likely you are aware of that. Why don't you not be a coward and let me know who you are so I can address you directly. You are cowardly gutter scum.
by J Thorpe
Almost everything you said is false. Even the structure and requirements of officers is nonsense. They are the only charity worldwide to donate 100% of donations to the cause and are bigger contibuters to helping with slavery issues than all world governments combined. I am not a member as I am not a Christian but that doesn't mean I will accept all this sensationalist propaganda from some Ill informed nutcase.
by Bruce Loisel (dbruceloisel [at] gmail.com)
Mr. or Ms. J Thorpe, you are unfortunately mistaken. The Salvation Army states that approximately 85% of their income goes to direct service, not 100%. My description of the officers is totally accurate, as is the entire article. Please feel free to fact check prior to responding in the future. A brief FYI...I may be a nutcase, but I am not ill informed.
by Robert Norse
"The Starvation Army: Twelve reasons to reject the Salvation Army" at
A grocery list of concerns: http://libcom.org/library/starvation-army-twelve-reasons-reject-salvation-army

In song: "Song and struggle: 'Preacher and Slave'" at http://peoplesworld.org/song-and-struggle-preacher-and-slave/

More specific allegations of homophobic behavior and reactionary political action: http://bilerico.lgbtqnation.com/2011/11/why_you_shouldnt_donate_to_the_salvation_army_bell.php

Jack London's Take on the Salvation Army: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_People_of_the_Abyss/Chapter_11
by Robert Norse
Perhaps Mr. Loisel and his critics could more specifically detail their sense of the worth (or worthlessness) of The Salvation Army in Santa Cruz and Monterey Counties?

by Bruce Loisel (DBruceLoisel [at] gmail.com)
Here are the services listed on The Salvation Army Santa Cruz Corps Community Center website. When I called them the nice lady told me they have a six month waiting list for shelter but they give out MRE Rations. I guess that must be part of their Food and Nutrition Programs.

Website: http://santacruz.salvationarmy.org/
Services Offered:
Disaster Services
Emergency Shelter
Food & Nutrition Programs
Seasonal Services
Casework Services
Emergency Shelter
Worship Services - Children's / Teen
Worship Services - Church
Christian Education
Men's Ministries
Music & Arts Programs
Worship Services - Sunday School
Women's Ministries
Worship Services - Young Adult
Worship Services - Youth Ministries
Character Building Programs
Residential Camping Activities


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