Is your charity of choice charitable to your beliefs?

An old high school friend posted this screencap on Facebook, with the caption "note to self....find a different charity."

This got me thinking about how complicated charity and fundraising is these days, with our diverse and conflicting religious and secular agendas and beliefs.

The Salvation Army is, after all, a pretty conservative religious organization. I knew some Sally Anners growing up, and they had to sign contracts with the church that they would never do bad things like smoke or drink (which is why our neighbour stashed his smokes and beers in my parents' basement). I didn't really expect them to be down with the rainbow.

At the same time, I've learned from experience that the social media outrage of the day could be outdated, out-of-context, or just plain made up. So I did my own lookup. Here is the American Salvation Army's position paper on homosexuality, in full:

Homosexuality 

The Salvation Army holds a positive view of human sexuality. Where a man and a woman love each other, sexual intimacy is understood as a gift of God to be enjoyed within the context of heterosexual marriage. However, in the Christian view, sexual intimacy is not essential to a healthy, full, and rich life. Apart from marriage, the scriptural standard is celibacy. 

Sexual attraction to the same sex is a matter of profound complexity. Whatever the causes may be, attempts to deny its reality or to marginalize those of a same-sex orientation have not been helpful. The Salvation Army does not consider same-sex orientation blameworthy in itself. Homosexual conduct, like heterosexual conduct, requires individual responsibility and must be guided by the light of scriptural teaching. 

Scripture forbids sexual intimacy between members of the same sex. The Salvation Army believes, therefore, that Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life. There is no scriptural support for same-sex unions as equal to, or as an alternative to, heterosexual marriage. 

Likewise, there is no scriptural support for demeaning or mistreating anyone for reason of his or her sexual orientation. The Salvation Army opposes any such abuse. 

In keeping with these convictions, the services of The Salvation Army are available to all who qualify, without regard to sexual orientation. The fellowship of Salvation Army worship is open to all sincere seekers of faith in Christ, and membership in The Salvation Army church body is open to all who confess Christ as Savior and who accept and abide by The Salvation Army's doctrine and discipline. 

Scriptures: Genesis 2:23-24; Leviticus 18:22; Mark 2:16-17; Romans 1:26-27; Romans 5:8; I Corinthians 6:9-11; I Corinthians 13; Galatians 6:1-2; I Thessalonians 4:1-8; I Thessalonians 5:14-15; I Timothy 1:15-16; Jude 7 

Recommended for approval by the Commissioners' Conference
Approved for use within the USA by International Headquarters

So they don't accept any sex outside of heterosexual marriage as godly, but abhor discrimination based on the sexuality of others. It's actually a pretty friendly sort of hyperconservative sexual morality they've got there.

The Canadian version is even more smiley:

The Salvation Army upholds the dignity of all persons. For this reason, and in obedience to the example of Jesus Christ, whose compassionate love is all-embracing, The Salvation Army does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation in the delivery of its services. 

The Salvation Army believes that God’s will for the expression of sexual intimacy is revealed in the Bible, and that living fully in accordance with biblical standards calls for chastity outside of heterosexual marriage and faithfulness within it. We do not believe that same-sex attraction is blameworthy and we oppose the vilification and mistreatment of gays and lesbians. We believe that we are accountable for the ways in which we express our sexuality. 

While recognizing the challenge that this presents, The Salvation Army believes firmly in the power of God’s grace to enable all to live in a manner that is pleasing to Him. 

In keeping with our mission, we are committed to proclaiming the good news of salvation, the forgiveness of sins, and transformation by the Holy Spirit. We welcome all seekers of faith in Christ to explore Salvation Army church life. 

The Salvation Army, Canada & Bermuda, November 2011

It basically states that they don't believe in homosexual marriage or even sex (nor pre- nor extramarital het sex) but that they believe what you do in your bedroom is between you and god.

I can't really get mad at an organization that tries that hard to reconcile the impossible morality they impose on themselves with the desire to maintain a christlike relation with the outside world. I have certainly seen a lot worse.

So, in my moral opinion, you can choose to donate to a church that disagrees with your sexual ethics but will fight to protect them from discrimination, or not. That's between you and your own beliefs.

Update: Kerry sent me a link to an article about how Salvation Army organizations have, outside of policy, worked actively against gay rights.

F'd Ad Fridays: Vintage "educational" video warns of homosexual dangers

We keep seeing parodies of the old '50s educational films. It's such a well-known trope that I sometimes wonder if the people making them have ever seen an original.

The thing is, those original films are a really special kind of awful, from a time when conformity was considered so essential to society that they had to constantly program kids through propaganda techniques learned in the recent war.

So watch this clip. You'll either laugh or get angry. But you'll have to admit the medium is still a powerful cultural reference, decades later.

Gay lifestyle beer ads are just as lame as straight ones

Buzzfeeder hgrant just posted this collection with the comment, "Apparently gay men will only drink beer if it's low in calories, because you know, they totally don't want to get fat."

To me, it looks like the same "party on, dudes" and "you're gonna get laid!" tropes we're used to in lowbrow beer marketing. Except this time, it's dudes getting laid by other dudes.

Welcome to the world of beer marketing stereotypes, my gay friends. Party on.

F'd Ad Fridays: Unintentionally fabulous vintage navy recruitment poster

This example is from a great post on Sociological Images, which points out, "Only after an active gay liberation movement made homosexuality more visible did people actually start to look for [the stereotypes] in people they knew."

Or did the ad artist play a big joke on all of us? After all, it is an ad asking men to go down for seamen...

F'd Ad Fridays: Android Freud determines whether your son is gay

According to RFl, French Android smartphone users can download an app that will let them know if their son is gay.

It costs less than 2 Euro, and uses just 20 questions to robotically determine who your child really is:

The questions range over a variety of subjects that are supposed to indicate their son's sexual preferences. They include his attitude to personal grooming and dress sense, whether he likes football and reads sports papers and whether he likes musicals and/or divas such as Mylène Farmer.

The questionnaire also puts the parents under the spotlight.

“Are you divorced?” it asks, going on to suggest that there might be “a certain absence of the father” or, alternatively, that the progenitor might be “very authoritarian”.

While mothers whose sons are judged to be gay are told to “ACCEPT IT”, mothers of supposed heterosexuals receive a message that appears to take a much less indulgent attitude to homosexuality.

“You have nothing to worry about, your son is not gay,” it reads. “So you have a very good chance of being a grandmother with all the joys that brings.”

It's hard to count all the kinds of wrong this is, including all the stereotypes and the obsolete Freudian idea that parental conditions made people gay. (Although it should be noted that Freud was otherwise relatively progressive in his attitudes on that front.)

Not to mention the fundamental problem of assuming gayness is some kind of problem. Equality group All Out has a petition to Google to remove the app. As of this writing, it has 34.227 signatures.

K-Y reaches out to women (and the women who love them)

This new K-Y Intense ad was recently featured on Huffington Post:



It was created by Mother NY, and it's kind of cool because of what it isn't. Laura Stampler put it well: "What I love about the K-Y ad is that it highlights lesbian sexuality in a completely normalized setting. These are women in jammies, not busty models gyrating for the benefit of guys drinking Miller Lite in a beer commercial."

This is an honest attempt by an ad agency to sell a sexual product to a gay female market without the slightest tinge of male fantasy. And yet it is, in its own quirky way, explosively sexual.

Nice work!