Shot in the Dark

Loss Of Focus

Joe Doakes from Como Park emails:

In Medieval times, the monks in the monastery received offerings freely given by church-goers and the monks distributed that money to the poor, called alms.  Naturally, the smell of free money brought hordes with their hands out.  Monasteries invented a new job title – Almoner – for the guy who decided which poor got the money.  With limited funds to distribute but unlimited demand for funds, the Almoner was charged with separating the Deserving Poor from the Undeserving Poor.

In modern times, we’ve lost that distinction.  We’ve mostly replaced charity with welfare given regardless of worthiness, effort, or responsibility.  “Make bad choices, get free money” provides no incentive to repent, to change, to grow in wisdom and maturity to become a self-sufficient and productive member of society.

The Salvation Army is a religion formed 150 years ago in the back streets of London to minister to the wretched poor.  Its motto is “Blood and Fire,” recalling the Blood of Christ and the Fire of the Holy Spirit.  They’re always one of the first on-scene after a natural disaster, bring comfort to those who have lost everything.  I’m not a member of their church but for years, I’ve made a point of donating at the red kettles to the point that I won’t shop Target during the holy days because Target banned the Salvation Army whereas Wal-Mart welcomed them. 

But this year, the Salvation Army is struggling.  They’ve insulted their donor base.  The big-shots forgot my donation was not payment on a debt I owed to them, my donation was a gift freely given.  There aren’t as many people ringing bells outside stores and I’m not as eager to give money to an outfit that preaches woke liberalism instead of traditional Christianity.  The leadership blames the misunderstanding on a statement by its Social Justice Committee which right-wing media have blown out of context. I ask: “Why does a Christian religion so fundamental its motto is “Blood and Fire” even HAVE a Social Justice Committee?”  They’ve lost their way.  They forgot their core mission, their reason for existing, the reason people give them money.

Disband the committee, renew your organizational focus on saving souls and alleviating suffering, and the donors will come back.  Leave social justice to the politicians. 

Joe Doakes

I interviewed a Salvation Army rep on my show a few weeks ago. He, like a lot of rank and file in the Army, pointed out that the Army is not partisan, and has to deal with social issues as they come to them; that being said, a lot of rank and file in the Salvation Army were un-thrilled by the way the natonal HQ handled things.

I still support the Salvation Army, and I hope. you do as well.

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Mitch Berg

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29 responses to “Loss Of Focus”

  1. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    You think the Salvation Army is bad, check this out from the Minnesota YMCA.

    Oh yeah, then there is replacing the stars and stripes with the BLM flag at their summer camp (Camp Warren).

  2. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    It seems like all of these “charities” have gone woke. Both Catholic Charities and Lutheran Social Services, get big money from a variety of sources, to break the law and shuffle foreign invaders from our southern border, into mainstream society. Most of them, continue to be leeches off of the productive class.

  3. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    CRT (Critical Race Thinking) corrupts whatever it touches.
    The totalitarian nature of CRT cannot be overstated. CRT says that racism runs throughout society at every level. All of your personal interactions are infused with racism.
    If the most important task of government is to detect and eliminate racism, the government’s duty is to measure and judge your every action.
    It is insane and destructive.

  4. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    I admit I skipped a couple of kettles when I first heard the news. But I’m back to my old habit: I drop a buck in every kettle where a bell-ringer is present. Bell-ringers are volunteers. They remind me how little I to help those in need – I won’t even stand in the cold for a few hours ringing a bell to raise money for them – and how much others do with the pittance I give them. I give because they’re asking, in person, by ringing the bell where I walk.

    As Greg and Boss pointed out, The Salvation Army is not the only organization which forgot the reason for its existence and wandered off into the wilderness of meaningless virtue signaling (my own Church has this problem). Forays into foolishness distract from the good work they do, diverting dollars to dumb ideas dilutes their effectiveness. But the good work remains. The volunteers remain. The core of the organization’s mission remains. And it’s a worthy mission, one that I believe in and one I know I should support. So I still give, hoping my pittance buys a cup of hot soup for a tornado victim and not a couple of new suits for a bigshot.

  5. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    The closest parallel to the advance of CRT in the US is the Nazi takeover of Germany in the 1930s.
    They moved into every institution. They rewrote the policies of those institutions to agree with Nazi ideology.
    The Nazis are a better example than the Soviets because the Soviets gained power by a revolution. In Germany the Nazis took over existing institutions and perverted them.
    I bet that most “corporate giving” has, at this point, been corrupted. Applicants for grants must supply a “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” statement which will be examined by the DEI officer in the giving corporation to ensure that racism is its highest priority.
    You are hearing, now, from people who have been denied employment in academia for providing an inadequate DEI statement. This inadequacy seems to consist of not making DEI the sole purpose of your existence.

  6. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    MP brings up a good point.

    Along those lines, I have met some people, mostly women, that have genuine remorse that they are white. When I tell them that there isn’t much they can do about it, they almost lose it ‘splanin’ to me that I should be ashamed of being white, too. That’s when I just smile and walk away.

  7. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    I consider the kettle ringers to be different from the HQ. In a military sense, I think of the former as grunts on the line and those in the HQ and on the Social Justice committee as General Milley clones. I’ll assume that the kettle money for various reasons ends up being locally dispersed because handling it is too labor intensive. Good. Put money to the buckets.

    The Red Cross used to be my go-to big annual donation place until they eff’d that up and then I decided on SA. The money that I would send to the SA HQ, however, is gone until:

    1) they come with an apology. The way they’ve handled this scandal is to take back the documents and shrug. Don’t be fooled. The HQ and especially the Social Justice committee *still* think that you white people who send them large amounts of money are racists who need to apologize.

    2) the Social Justice committee is disbanded and the people in it are fired. This is simple business administration management policies. Progressives, the Woke, wreck everything they touch. Everything. On purpose. They don’t care that donations to the SA are down nor that there are fewer bell-ringers. If the SA is destroyed, it’s high fives all round among the Woke. One less Christian organization.

    There are far too many local organizations that can use my money that are not Woke and my big contributions will be diverted to them from now on.

  8. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    A very thoughtful take on it, Joe. Much appreciated.

  9. Pig Bodine Avatar
    Pig Bodine

    bosshoss,
    I too have had several encounters with white women and a couple white “men” suffering from white remorse. I attack them. First and foremost the point I drive home is that if “whiteness” is the source of all that is evil in this world their continued existence is the pinnacle of hypocrisy, if they truly believe in the evil of “whiteness” then the only valid moral question in their life is suicide. I stress that every minute of their continued existence is by their own standard a crime against humanity for which they can only atone by committing suicide, the sooner the better. Second for the young women who balk at committing suicide I stress repeatedly that if they choose to continue and procreate then by no means can they undertake that endeavor with a white male, they are by their own values required to mate with a non-white. But even if they have a non-white child I still recommend they commit suicide as soon as possible after giving birth. I always stress their responsibility to personally commit suicide. I get some angry responses but mostly shock and some tears.

    I’m sick of having to tolerate woke anti-white pretentiousness.

  10. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    Go woke, go broke. TEACH THE FUCKERS A LESSON! If you continue to donate, you ADVANCE their agenda. You are part of the problem, not a solution. I am sure there are other charities that did not lose their way that could use your donations. Camp Hope for example.

    If you continue to donate, regardless if the rank and file bellringers do not agree with HQ, the head is rotten. You are donating to a fetid, festering, filthy, maggot ridden corpse. Do you know where that buck is going to, JD? Which Soci@l Justice Committee approved cause?

  11. gl whisler Avatar
    gl whisler

    Miz Whisler and I have donated to them faithfully for over a decade.
    This year we cut our donation in half and included a note telling them why.
    Stupid git.

  12. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    Pig,
    Sounds like a good strategy.
    I’ve had similar conversations with members of the “zero population growth” crowd. When they tout that people should have either zero or no more than one child, I always ask them how many children and how many siblings they have. If their answers are 2 or more, then I tell them that we should start with their families. I follow that up with; “Now, which one of your family do you want to start with?”

  13. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    JDM, the SA might find that it cannot get rid of its Social Justice Committee. If it does, it might well be placed on a corporate giving black list. I mentioned the way the that Nazism infected and corrupted every German institution. Its like is happening now.
    The Salvation Army, on its home page, goes heavily into identity politics.
    https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/
    I’ve seen how this works in an academic setting. At its heart it is coercive because the ideology demands that it be coercive.
    First the DEI officer sets up what seems to be a harmless set of goals. It might be to graduate an equal number of men and women in STEM degree programs.
    Administration agrees to the goals because they are old line liberals who really believe that overt discrimination is the root cause of inequities in STEM programs.
    These goals are not met, of course, so the DEI department is given more money and more power. Soon they are given veto power over department hires and promotions.
    The way that academia works, is that your job, what you are evaluated for, as a department chair or professor, is to collect grant money and graduate PhD’s. The DEI people pervert that. Your grant is awarded not based on its scientific value, but how well you are achieving DEI goals. You aren’t supposed to produce PhD’s, you are supposed to produce the PhD’s the DEI department wants you to produce.
    If you resist having the DEI people run your department for you, that is proof that you are sexist or racist and that means that it is even more important that you be made to comply.

  14. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    You’re probably right, MP. Your description is dead-on. I remember reading a similar description in book form from the Vox Day SJW books.

  15. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    I acknowledge the concern, JPA. That was my first reaction = stop donating. If I limit my support to the Pure candidates, the Righteous charities, the Moral retailers, I might convince the rest to change.

    But Salvation Army volunteers were on the ground in Kentucky the day after the tornado. That counts for something too.

  16. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    But Salvation Army volunteers were on the ground in Kentucky the day after the tornado. That counts for something too.

    So were KY whiskey manufacturers! Go buy more bourbon instead!

    Cajun navy shows up at every disaster in the TX/LA area – go buy more petchems and gas to keep them employed!

  17. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    If I limit my support to the Pure candidates, the Righteous charities, the Moral retailers, I might convince the rest to change.

    It is a war, and you are aiding and abetting the enemy.

  18. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    But Salvation Army volunteers

    And one more thing – Regional SA chapters DO have a voice and a choice. Speak up! Splinter! Let SJ warriors command rats. Find another worthy charity to work for. …crickets…

  19. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    jpa is right: it is a war. The commies have no problem using every weapon available to them to destroy and defeat their declared enemies. And meanwhile the non-left gaslights itself with “it doesn’t matter” or “someone’s gotta do it” or “OK, I guess that’s reasonable”.

  20. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    They aren’t commies, JDM, any more than Big Brother was a commie.
    It is about the acquisition and exercise of arbitrary power.

  21. justplainangry Avatar
    justplainangry

    The result is the same, MP. The powerful assault YOUR freedoms. Whether it is done at the business end of the gun or by a million cuts by executive orders and culture wars. The outcome tis the same – the nation of slaves. Your question to self, Mberg and JD should be whether you will using your hard-earned money to make it happen faster by donating to the enemy.

  22. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    My family has been bell-ringers for 7 years now.

    Or we were. Nothing this year.

    I feel for the ringers and volunteers, having been one myself, but when the officers who direct things get corrupted it’s exceptionally hard for the rest of the organization to effect change. And in the SA’s case, I really doubt that change is possible. The tentacles are in too deep already.

    My choices for charities have been restricted over the years. Long ago United Way tried to sanction the Boy Scouts, so I dropped them, despite the efforts from IBM management at the time to pressure everyone into supporting them. The Red Cross went greedy at corporate level, so I dropped them. SA had been the replacement until this year. Now it’s Samaritan’s Purse that’s getting my money.

  23. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Thanks nerdbert for the Samaritan’s Purse option.

  24. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    I’m in no position to duplicate Joan Kroc’s donation to anyone, but I half wonder if a big part of the problem that the SA faces is her donation, as well as the SA contracting with government and corporate entities for their support. If you don’t need to ask your support base for donations, their concerns are going to be lower on your list than if you did.

    It’s a consideration I have in the case that I might end up with a boatload of money. How can I give it away without ruining the beneficiaries? Again, not a huge issue for me at this point, but it is worth thinking about.

    More specifically, though, to the topic at hand, I did read the anti-racism booklet of the SA, and my interpretation of the same was that they rely rather heavily on disparate impact as a proxy for alleging racism, and thus their framework from which they approach the subject is in effect CRT.

    I don’t object to the notion that, historically speaking, white Christians (of which I am one) have something to apologize for, racially speaking, and something to correct. However, the argument “the two groups are different, therefore you are in the wrong” goes too far.

  25. Pureblood Pete Avatar
    Pureblood Pete

    My tradition was, empty my pockets every time I passed a SA kettle. Sometimes it was loose change, some times it was a Jackson or two.

    This year, I’ve been dropping in vouchers for “1 White apology”; I carry several in my wallet. I feel very virtuous.

  26. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    I don’t object to the notion that, historically speaking, white Christians (of which I am one) have something to apologize for, racially speaking, and something to correct.

    Do you feel the same need to apologize for your eye color?

    I have relatives who fought and died in the Civil War as abolitionists. I can be proud of them, but I can in no way take credit for their actions, nor do I feel the need to apologize to those they killed, nor accept repayment from those they freed. I can’t change their color, I can’t change their actions, and while I accept that their actions and beliefs may have influenced my own, in the end I own how I behave and how I believe.

    And I believe that treating anyone differently based on their skin color is pernicious, evil, and ultimately corrosively damaging to a culture. The longer that skin color is treated as an apology for discrimination in any form, the longer it will be used by demagogues to perpetuate discrimination in all ways.

  27. Pureblood Pete Avatar
    Pureblood Pete

    Apologize real, reeeal hard, bubba…and they’ll forgive you for sure.

  28. Emery Incognito Avatar
    Emery Incognito

    Woolly wrote: “CRT (Critical Race Thinking) corrupts whatever it touches.”

    You’re not objecting to teaching history; you just want to make sure that it’s taught in a way that the people in power think is objective and accurate, and not tainted by ideology you don’t like.

  29. Pureblood Pete Avatar
    Pureblood Pete

    Lol…look at rAt Emery whine. Sucks when your own filthy tactics get turned on you, don’t it rAt?

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