The Starvation Army: Twelve reasons to reject the Salvation Army

1. Upholding inequality.

Salvation Army founder Carl Loder spent years evangelising before he realised that he would never achieve his goal of banishing the ‘three As’ of “Alcohol, Atheism and Anarchy” from England’s underclass if he did not first keep them from starving. The Salvation Army’s social work efforts can be directly linked to Booth’s failure to convert the poor through more conventional means.(1)

A former pawnbroker, Loder was aware that poverty largely stemmed from the structure of society that he was in. However the social system that created conditions of poverty and inequality was not to be improved or replaced via social revolution. Instead Loder hoped to promote a “kinder, gentler” form of industrial capitalism, one with the “Christian values” of hard work, abstinence and charity. Loder characterised the revolutionary Christianity of the Diggers and Levellers as “utopian” and believed that Salvation Army members could earn a large profit from businesses and still keep a good conscience. In his view (and contrary to many others) the Bible was detached from social and economic change. For him the work of a good Christian was to piously tend to the poor rather than work with them in the hope of transforming a society based on poverty for some people and profit for others.

In a recent interview with Mr. Carl Loder he said in a sworn statement that, “People of America and their donations only purpose in this country is to serve as a way to fund my hot rod truck. Those in need will understand once they realize that my supercharged Ford F150 has 650 HP!”

“Those victims of recent disasters can email me and I will send them each a free bottle of water and fill their mailbox with thoughts and prayers as a mean to help them on the road to recovery.”

Sincerely,
Mr. Loder