In the interest of fairness and balance, I delved into the recent claims about the Salvation Army and their purported statements about white privilege and race. Here is their full response:
The Salvation Army's Response to False Claims on the Topic of Racism
Nov 25, 2021
As the country celebrates Thanksgiving today, it is a welcome reminder of the things we are grateful for—and for the power of service on behalf of those who are less fortunate.
The Salvation Army mission statement clearly outlines our service: to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination. That service, and our beliefs, are based solely on the Bible and that has not, and will not, change.
Though we remain committed to serving everyone in need—regardless of their beliefs, their backgrounds, or their lifestyle—recently some individuals and groups have attempted to mislabel our organization to serve their own agenda(s). They have made outrageous claims that we believe our donors should apologize for their own racism, that The Salvation Army believes America is an inherently racist society, and that our organization has abandoned its beliefs for one ideology or another. In fact, an online petition is asking supporters to “stand against the insertion of politically charged racial ideologies into The Salvation Army’s good work.”
Those claims are false, and they distort the very goal of our work.
The truth is that The Salvation Army believes that racism is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity, and we are called to work toward a world where all people are loved, accepted, and valued. Our positional statement on racism makes this clear. These beliefs are important because we know that racism exists, and we are therefore determined to do everything the Bible asks us to do to overcome it.
The Salvation Army has occasionally published study guides on various complex topics, including race, to help foster positive conversations and reflection among Salvationists. The hope is that by openly discussing these issues, we can encourage a more thoughtful organization that is better positioned to serve those in need. These guides are solely designed for internal use. No one is being told how to think. Period.
The very purpose of conversation is to share differing points of view and to hear from people with different experiences. Discussion is not indoctrination. It’s what reasonable people do. It’s how we learn and we grow. Thankfully, not everyone thinks the same way – it’s what makes us unique in the eyes of our Creator. Yet some have taken the fact that we have invited such conversations about race among our members as an opportunity to push their own agenda. In doing so, they have sought to shut down conversation, not foster it.
We at The Salvation Army remain undeterred in our mission because we are confident in the power of the gospel, and because millions of vulnerable Americans need our help. We remain deeply grateful for the support of a generous public—people from all walks of life and from all parts of the country—who help us meet human need wherever it exists. Ours is a message of love, even for those who disagree or attack us. That is the model set by Christ that we strive to follow every day. God bless you, and happy Thanksgiving.
EDIT & UPDATE: Digging further, I found that the SA also has this statement on race at their website, in PDF form:
In the original post's link, there's another link that leads to a PDF (https://s3.amazonaws.com/cache.salvationarmy.org/e0c074e3-39db-4b09-a6ea-aa5bdb6ecaa6_Let%2527s%2520Talk%2520About...%2520Racism%2520COMPLETE%2520SET.pdf) from the Salvation Army titled "Let's Talk About Racism" and on page 3 there's this:
• Move from the flawed human idea of race and culture into God’s design and purpose for us to live as a unified, diverse and equitable people.
• Lament, repent and apologize for biases or racist ideologies held and actions committed.
I read the report. I don’t see where it says white people should apologise but the tenets of CRT are throughout the report. For example, the CRT beliefs that race is a social construct, that there are no biological differences between the races, that the dominant race of the country are unaware of their unconscious racism, these statements are linked with references such as dangers of ‘aryan supremacy’, talks about the dominant ethnicity perpetuating injustice by having privileges, empowerment and benefits, references slavery using only white on black. These are all tenets of CRT.
It doesn’t specifically say white people must apologise, although absolutely it’s implied throughout the document.