It’s that time of year again. Bell ringers in front of every store. You can’t get past them without the little bell deafening you and feeling a little guilty when you don’t give anything. Most people will fish around for a little change in their pockets to donate it to charity. Me too. “God bless you.” is what I usually hear when I make a donation. I don’t pay much attention to this anymore. So why won’t I donate this year?

Well, I’ve learned a few things. For one, the Salvation Army discriminates against Homosexuals (rescinding same sex partner benefits after quotes from people like AFA president Donald E. Wildom:

“We are absolutely shocked that an evangelical Christian organization would grant health benefits to same-sex partners,” Wildmon said. “Homosexual relationships are not legitimate in God’s eyes, and treating them as if they are by extending the benefits traditionally reserved for married couples is troubling.”

The threat by the AFA (American Families Association) to shift their “financial support from the Salvation Army to ministries that uphold Biblical standards in defining the family.” made it actually very easy for the Salvation Army to rescind their benefits.

And then, have you ever wondered what happens to the money that you donate to the Salvation Army? Well, needless to say a lot of money goes into church services. Yes, they do offer help to homeless people for example… by giving them a place to sleep and food. But not just out of the goodness of their hearts. No, you have attend church services in return. So you better be a Christian, because otherwise you’ll be screwed.

Did you also know that the Salvation Army evicted hundreds of low income women in NYC to sell their buildings for $100.000.000 each? That’s one hundred million dollars!! Not that it was a great life for those women anyway. They were not allowed to have male visitors and were strictly supervised on that.

Of course you can’t just throw out tenants, so the Salvation Army has argued that they are a religious organization and can do whatever they want. Their reason for selling the buildings have been that they are too costly to maintain. This is actually surprising. The Salvation Army is hardly pressed for money. They have received a $1.5 billion bequest from the estate of Joan Kroc… (whose husband founded McDonald’s by the way)… obviously by far the largest donation to charity in American history! Add to that government funding (yes, YOUR tax dollars) and donations from people like you every year, and you get a nice little sum of money to do good (…uhm for those who deserve it… )

The Salvation Army has a history of trying to discriminate based on religion and sexual preferences. They do ask their employees not to do so by signing a statement every year. However they will not hesitate to fire you if they find out that you are not Christian or that you are a Homosexual. Quite a double standard, don’t you think?

As far as my yearly donations are concerned… there are many ways to handle this. Not all charities are religious. I contribute to my community with financial gifts as well as working as a volunteer. If I adopt a family at christmas it doesn’t have to be through the Salvation Army, although I will admit that their Adopt a family program is at least one of those that really does benefit the family (by providing food, clothes and presents at christmas). But then those needy families might just have to attend church services in return for the help….

I agree it’s necessary to do good. There is a lot of poverty on our planet. People who can’t help themselves need our help. So do your homework when it comes to making a donation, and choose wisely. Make sure that it’s not just 10% of your money that goes to the poor, but 90%. And by all means make sure they get this help without having to go to church or convert to Christianity or some such thing.