Under Pressure From LGBT Groups, Purveyor of Hate Chicken Severs Ties With Bigoted Paramilitary Cult

Social Justice Warriors are jubilantly proclaiming victory this week because a popular restaurant chain will no longer donate to a well-known charity. Their ultimate goal is to force all organizations, groups, businesses, and individuals to whole-heartedly adopt the SJW agenda or face destruction.

How did a religious charity transform into a cult of haters? The Salvation Army, in true Christian fashion, was organized to help the lowest of the low – the kind of people that “good Christians” were loath to associate with. They helped bums and drunks, or as we call them now, the homeless and chronic substance abusers. According to SJWs, The Salvation Army is a cult whose members dress up in military uniforms and give themselves military titles/ranks and advocate for the imprisonment or conversion of homosexuals.

Wikipedia:

The Salvation Army was founded in London’s East End in 1865 by one-time Methodist Reform Church minister William Booth and his wife Catherine as the East London Christian Mission,[1] and this name was used until 1878.[42] The name “The Salvation Army” developed from an incident on 19 and 20 May. William Booth was dictating a letter to his secretary George Scott Railton and said, “We are a volunteer army.” Bramwell Booth heard his father and said, “Volunteer! I’m no volunteer, I’m a regular!” Railton was instructed to cross out the word “volunteer” and substitute the word “salvation”.[43] The Salvation Army was modelled after the military, with its own flag (or colours) and its own hymns, often with words set to popular and folkloric tunes sung in the pubs. Booth and the other soldiers in “God’s Army” would wear the Army’s own uniform, for meetings and ministry work. He became the “General” and his other ministers were given appropriate ranks as “officers”. Other members became “soldiers”.[44]

When William Booth became known as the General, Catherine is known as the “Mother of The Salvation Army”. William Booth’s early motivation for The Salvation Army was to convert poor Londoners such as prostitutes, gamblers and alcoholics to Christianity,[45] while Catherine spoke to the wealthier people, gaining financial support for their work. She also acted as a religious minister, which was unusual at the time; the Foundation Deed of the Christian Mission states that women had the same rights to preach as men. William Booth described the organisation’s approach: “The three ‘S’s’ best expressed the way in which the Army administered to the ‘down and outs’: first, soup; second, soap; and finally, salvation.”[46]

In 1880, the Salvation Army started its work in three others countries: Australia, Ireland, and the United States. Salvationists set out for the United States in 1880, and when George Scott Railton and his team arrived they started work in Harry Hill’s Variety Theatre on 14 March 1880. The first notable convert was Ashbarrel Jimmie who had so many convictions for drunkenness that the judge sentenced him to attend the Salvation Army.[47] The corps in New York were founded as a result of Jimmys’ rehabilitation. It was not always an Officer of The Salvation Army who started the Salvation Army in a new country; sometimes Salvationists emigrated to countries and started operating as “the Salvation Army” on their own authority. When the first official officers arrived in Australia and the United States, they found groups of Salvationists already waiting for them and started working with each other. Australia was the place where the Army’s organised social work began on 8 December 1883 with the establishment of a home for ex-convicts.[48] In 1891 Booth established a farm colony in Hadleigh, Essex.

The Salvation Army’s main converts were at first alcoholics, morphine addicts, prostitutes and other “undesirables” unwelcome in polite Christian society, which helped prompt the Booths to start their own church.[49] The Booths did not include the use of sacraments (mainly baptism and Holy Communion) in the Army’s form of worship, believing that many Christians had come to rely on the outward signs of spiritual grace rather than on grace itself.[50] Other beliefs are that its members should completely refrain from drinking alcohol (Holy Communion is not practiced), smoking, taking illegal drugs and gambling.[51] Its soldiers wear a uniform tailored to the country in which they work; the uniform can be white, grey, navy, fawn and are even styled like a sari in some areas. Any member of the public is welcome to attend their meetings. As the Salvation Army grew rapidly in the late 19th century, it generated opposition in England. Opponents, grouped under the name of the Skeleton Army, disrupted Salvation Army meetings and gatherings, with tactics such as throwing rocks, bones, rats, and tar as well as physical assaults on members of the Salvation Army. Much of this was led by pub owners who were losing business because of the Army’s opposition to alcohol and targeting of the frequenters of saloons and public houses.[52]

The Salvation Army’s reputation in the United States improved as a result of its disaster relief efforts following the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. The familiar use of bell ringers to solicit donations from passers-by “helps complete the American portrait of Christmas.”[according to whom?] In the U.S. alone, over 25,000 volunteers with red kettles are stationed near retail stores during the weeks preceding Christmas for fundraising.[49] The church remains a highly visible and sometimes controversial presence in many parts of the world.

In 1994, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, an industry publication, released the results of the largest study of charitable and non-profit organisation popularity and credibility. The study showed that The Salvation Army was ranked as the 4th “most popular charity/non-profit in America” of over 100 charities researched, with 47% of Americans over the age of 12 choosing ‘Love’ and ‘Like A Lot’ for The Salvation Army.[53]

Charity Watch rates the Salvation Army an “A-” to an “A”,[54] indicating a high level of financial efficiency and organisational transparency.

The Salvation Army’s first sin is being a Christian organization. The Left despises religions (except Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and all religions that are not Christian or Jewish.) Karl Marx called religion the “opiate of the masses.” Some say that the Left hates religion because it represents a source of power they do not control. Others say that socialism is a secular religion that is intolerant of “false gods.” There is no god but the state.

If the Left has their way, “freedom of religion” will mean “freedom from religion.” Once they have stamped out or subdued Christianity and Judaism they’ll start working on the other religions too. Leftists claim that diversity is our highest value, but they absolutely abhor diversity of thought.