Salvation Army Anti Gay = Common Knowledge?

[bainsidhe]

I only heard about it 2 months ago, when I read an article, otherwise I had no idea. And I thought it was kinda passive too, though that doesn't make it right. I thought for sure the article would have a big impact on donations this Christmas (again, since this was the first I heard of it), but then I heard they beat their goal. *shrugs*

I usually donate clothing & whatnot to Goodwill, but only because they're convenient. Otherwise I donate to a church's yearly rummage sale. I don't care much for Goodwill, they've become so commercialized it's crazy. Plus local Goodwills have been known to trash leftover clothes that aren't sold. Perfectly good clothes that other agencies could use, thank you.

[Mishi]

I knew about it because of Dan Savage, and then looked it up for myself. We don't donate to them because they called me, triple-checked that I am *my name*, and then said: "Hi Mishi, we have a list here for your street and the surrounding streets, we need you to collect donations for us. I will send out the items you need, the date for collections is X and you WILL collect donations between Y-Z, okay?" The lady was surprised when I said that no, it was not okay, I had never volunteered for them and never would. She was a little bit offended, so I hung up.

[Kheldarson]

I actually didn't know until this thread.

But I'll probably still drop the few cents I rarely have anyway at Christmas each year. It barely adds up to a dollar and makes the bellringers happy, so what the hey.

[the_std]

so what the hey.

I'm not the type of person to generally get involved in what other people do with their money in terms of charitable donations, but you put this out there, so...

What the hey is that you could be giving those pennies to a organization that helps support people without spreading a message of intolerance. Convenience is a terrible excuse to give money to an organization that displays this message of intolerance, however passive it may be. By giving them money, you support their entire organization, not just the bits you agree with. You are supporting the anti-gay agenda and that is a sad, sad fact.

[Hyena Dandy]

And as I said, I would rather give money to them than no-one. Fortunately, there are a lot of options in my area, so I don't have to. But if it was a Hobson's Choice, I'd choose them.

[the_std]

Okay, I know I'm using the dreaded "A" word here, but I'm not scared of assuming that Kheldarson is in a situation where there are other options. They might just not be convenient options, and like I said, convenience is a really lousy reason to contribute to someone like the Salvation Army.

[SkullKing]

Okay, I know I'm using the dreaded "A" word here, but I'm not scared of assuming that Kheldarson is in a situation where there are other options. They might just not be convenient options, and like I said, convenience is a really lousy reason to contribute to someone like the Salvation Army.

I agree. You can often just by a little extra with you change and give it to someone else on the way home. I sometimes do that when I go to the bakery for instance.

[AdminAssistant]

This time of year, the local grocery stores always have those coupons out that you can scan to give 50 cents or a dollar to a local food bank....another way of small giving.

[telecom_goddess]

I knew about the Salvation Army having that attitude, but only recently. I'm never giving them anything and didn't really to begin with.

[smileyeagle1021]

According to the American Institute of Philanthropy, they actually rate high on the financial front.

That said, I prefer to give to local, more focused charities, anyway.

^-.-^

of course, there are still a lot of places that do better...

[Peppergirl]

I had no idea until just now. I dropped alot of change in those buckets this year.

I'll no longer be doing that. Very disappointing!

[Iseeyouthere]

I recently learnt about this as well. I'm glad that I didn't get work with them.

[Kheldarson]

I'm not the type of person to generally get involved in what other people do with their money in terms of charitable donations, but you put this out there, so...

What the hey is that you could be giving those pennies to a organization that helps support people without spreading a message of intolerance. Convenience is a terrible excuse to give money to an organization that displays this message of intolerance, however passive it may be. By giving them money, you support their entire organization, not just the bits you agree with. You are supporting the anti-gay agenda and that is a sad, sad fact.

So...my giving maybe, at most, a dollar, over the course of a Christmas season, over maybe 6 buckets, for the express purpose of giving holiday cheer to the guy or gal, or kids in one case, who's sitting there in the cold collecting money is a bad thing simply because the group they're with happens to, among other things, support anti-gay legislation. Sounds like beautiful reasoning to me.

[KabeRinnaul]

Okay, I know I'm using the dreaded "A" word here, but I'm not scared of assuming that Kheldarson is in a situation where there are other options. They might just not be convenient options, and like I said, convenience is a really lousy reason to contribute to someone like the Salvation Army.

Not a good assumption. We're in West Virginia. There's SA, this one Goodwill somewhere out on the other end of the valley, and... the Lions Club if you have some glasses to donate. And then... the Scouts? Do they do donations? But they're notoriously Anti-Gay, too, so I don't think you'd be happy with that, either. Or local churches. But considering the area is pretty heavily Baptist, I don't know how well that would work.

[Boozy]

Not a good assumption. We're in West Virginia.

And you only have three or four charities in West Virginia?

Three seconds on Google says otherwise.