THE LIST
July 10, 2001

THE SALVATION ARMY'S ANTI-GAY PARTNERS

On the heels of today's news that the Salvation Army cut a
secret deal with the Bush administration to discriminate
against gays, comes the news that the Salvation Army is also
a "partner" in a "Christian" Web portal, Christianity.com, that
not only houses such anti-gay Web sites as Pat
Robertson's Christian Broadcasting Network and ex-gay Exodus
International), but the portal also has a mission of helping
"Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox organizations" - with no
mention of what happens if you're from another Christian
religion, Jewish, Muslim or other person of faith and wish to
join the Salvation Army/Christianity.com partnership.

My exclusive breaking story on this is below - then be sure to click
and take the poll associated with the story.

JOHN

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Salvation Army's Anti-Gay Partners
About.com - US Politics
by John Aravosis
July 10, 2001

http://uspolitics.about.com/library/weekly/aa071001a.htm

Exclusive from About.com:

The Salvation Army and anti-gay groups of the religious right
have a closer relationship than was previously realized by
the majority of the world's gay community, in addition to
other civil rights supporters.

In addition to the front-page news in today's Washington Post
that the Salvation Army cut an under-the-table secret deal
with the Bush Administration to ensure the President's
support for the Salvation Army's policy of discriminating
against gays and lesbians, it was discovered today that the
Salvation Army is a "partner" of a Christian Web portal,
Christianity.com, that not only houses the Salvation Army's
US Web site, but also the Web sites of lead ex-gay
organization Exodus International and Pat Robertson's
Christian Broadcast Network. And it appears that
Christianity.com is not simply a warehouse for the Web sites,
but that there is in fact some commingling between the
Christianity.com partners - for example, Christianity.com's
home page has a lead story about converting gay people to
heterosexuals, and it is written by Bob Davies, the Executive
Director of Exodus, another Christianity.com partner.

[FYI - The Salvation Army's main international Web site posts
the link to the US-based subsidiary, and that link takes you
directly to Christianity.com. network.]

Even without the anti-gay Web portal story, the Salvation
Army was already in hot water as a result of breaking the
news that an internal Salvation Army document obtained by the
Washington Post details how the White House has made a "firm
commitment" to the Salvation Army to issue a regulation that
would in effect overturn local civil rights laws protecting
individuals from being fired based on their sexual
orientation, and providing them domestic-partner benefits, at
least as the laws apply to "religious charities" such as the
Salvation Army. In turn, the Salvation Army agreed to
support Bush's troubled faith-based initiative that even
conservative Christians have expressed concerns about. The
Post also reports that this deal is indicative of the fact
that "President Bush is willing to achieve through regulation
ends too controversial to survive the legislative process."

The internal Salvation Army document makes no bones about
it's anti-gay policy. The Post quotes a senior Salvation Army
official saying that the hiring of gays and lesbians "really
begins to chew away at the theological fabric of who we are."

However, that justification seems at odds with Bush's
charitable choice proposal implementing his faith-based
initiative, as the proposal already includes language banning
religious charities from discriminating against individuals
based on race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability
- but not sexual orientation. By telling religious charities
that they can not discriminate against individuals based on
those minority characteristics, the Bush Administration is
already impinging on the religious freedom of organizations
who do not want to hire other minorities. So, the "freedom
of religion" argument as it pertains to hiring gays seems to
be a bit of a red herring, as that freedom was already lost
in Bush's proposal. The Bush proposal endorsed by the
Salvation Army appears to single out only one minority group,
and that is gays and lesbians...

The question remains to what degree these revelations will
hurt the Salvation Army. It is a distinct possibility that
gay and lesbian contributors, and their families and friends,
will be less likely to help the Army in the future, but
private companies such as Sequoia Capital (who also funded
Apple, Cisco and Yahoo), Christianity.com's lead investor,
could feel some heat as well as the public becomes aware of
their links to the Salvation Army.

People of faith may be concerned about the Christianity.com
link as well. Christianity.com in its mission statement
specifically states that "Christianity.com focuses on helping
Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox organizations do more
online." No word on what happens when people of faith from
other Christian religions, or Muslims or Jews, attempt to
join the community run by the Salvation Army's partner. This
is particularly ironic as one would suppose the Salvation
Army is at least in part motivated in the sexual orientation
debate by a premise that people of faith should not face
discrimination based on their religious beliefs.

Gays and lesbians are also likely to find little solace in
Exodus' Christianity.com home page that includes stories such
as "Is AIDS God's Judgment Against Homosexuals?" and "What
Can I Do To Make a Gay Person Change?"

In the end, even the Salvation Army acknowledges that their
anti-gay position could hurt their public image if it even
became known. The Post notes that the leaked Salvation Army
report says: "The Salvation Army's role [in the anti-gay
effort] will be a surprise to many in the media," and the
report urges efforts to "minimize the possibility of any
'leak' to the media."

A bit late for that.

[Note: There is a poll associated with the story about
whether you would ever give again to the Salvation Army.
http://uspolitics.about.com/library/weekly/aa071001a.htm ]

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