"The Situation is Dire!" – Salvation Army Faces Holiday Shortages After Telling White Donors to Face Their Racism

By Kevin McGary

“The situation is dire!” So lamented the Salvation Army. But it should be no surprise. Recklessly riding the wave of today’s cultural tide will always lead to dire circumstances, tumult, and chaos!

In reality, individuals, businesses, associations, educational institutions and non-profit charitable organizations all are under attack by an unrelenting cultural tide of “wokeness.” Case in point: The Salvation Army’s surrendering to “wokeness” and adopting an agenda of attacking people because of their race. The Army’s collapse should appall every sensitive thinking person because that institution has universally been appreciated as an exemplary Christian organization spreading a universal message of hope and charity designed to reach everyone without discrimination!

If a principle-centered worldwide institution like the Salvation Army can be compromised and undermined by “popular culture” phases, then we know: Any organization, religious or secular, evidently can be gripped, swept and unduly influenced by today’s cultural tide.

CRT’s Sneaky Strategy

We are witnessing a cultural tidal wave that is crashing into churches, institutions, and organizations formerly rooted in Biblical foundations of faith, love, and eternal salvation. They are now finding themselves gripped and swept into subjective and convoluted cultural narratives undergirded by aggrievement, hate, and endless retribution.  

CRT factions purposefully emphasize cultural “conversations” about race (primarily). This emphasis aims explicitly to subtly unmoor people from foundational beliefs by guilting them into defensively bowing down or self-hating so as to demonstrate their empathy on issues of race. Imposing race guilt and demanding conformity with the elusive mantras of “wokeness” leads to eroding moral foundations.  

Here’s how: A person who is convinced that he or she is unworthy, guilty, and unforgivable is a person who will not stand up for fundamental right vs. wrong. Thus, a white and therefore racist person, or a black person who has been called the “black face of white supremacy,” who accepts the insulting categorizations as true, will believe that he or she is totally unqualified to speak about moral issues.  

As we observe the moral framework of institutions and organizations like the Salvation Army collapse from the inside, we know that no institution is too spiritual, too moral, or too mission-driven about “human kindness and goodness” to reject the pull and seduction of today’s cultural forces. The most pervasive existential influence we have to reckon with today is the unrelenting insidiousness of CRT.

CRT Promises Bitter Conflict

CRT aggressively pushes for race conflict in America, and all elements of society are being targeted. Unfortunately, many well-meaning organizations and institutions are experimenting with an embrace of CRT without realizing how corrosive and destructive it is. In theory and practice, CRT completely undermines unity and the potential for people to love and cooperate. With a self-righteous smirk, CRT injects endless schemes of divisiveness and distrust. Even partial alignment with CRT undermines most organizations that would otherwise commit to building unified and respectful workforces without discrimination.

Contrary to its claims, CRT actually demands that organizations discriminate based on skin color and be racist. Any organization sincerely seeking to maintain "non-discrimination policies” must wholly reject CRT. With its overt focus on race in every aspect of human life, CRT is the perfect example of “systemic racism!” We observe CRT to be a racist ideology that is self-perpetuated within systems where its proponents teach and expand more aspects of racial and other divisive ideas into the system. CRT systemically “self-actualizes” as an ever-evolving racist ideology!

EBLM Leads for Truth

Every Black Life Matters (EBLM) challenges all Churches, organizations, and institutions to reject CRT affirmatively. As the Salvation Army and many other organizations are finding out, CRT is a racist and discriminatory framework that isolates and divides; it asserts a group is racist or somehow complicit with wrongdoing because of skin color. Decent people know that is wrong; its definitively evil as it rejects God’s declaration of universal human worth in His eyes. Sowing evil discord under the auspices of “doing good” makes no sense! Employees, partners and customers are not fools; they understand racism (even if it's done ignorantly or unintentionally). All organizations should reject trends that would lead to being “woke” (dividing workforces or customers by race, class, gender, etc.) by affirmatively publicly denouncing CRT.

EBLM admonishes and encourages all organizations to once again firmly embrace Dr. MLK’s timeless call that we should assess people individually on the content of their character. Character-based assessments are how organizations can effectively overcome cultural pressures that divide us based purely on an immutable characteristic like skin color and a subjectively unpredictable factor like our emotions. Affirmatively condemning CRT and reaffirming Dr. MLK's famous words celebrating the “Content of Character” is a winning strategy.

Board members, Partners, workers, clients, customers, and surrounding communities do not want to hear about their favorite organizations socially preening with “woke” racist schemes by making new DEI and CRT pronouncements. They await institutions that will affirmatively take a stand to denounce CRT publicly and reassert a philosophy on foundational principles based on the content of character. They intuitively understand todays “woke” culture is an unrelenting diabolical force that cannot be coddled or bargained with, and therefore must be utterly rejected by their trusted institutions.

[Kevin is the president and founder of Every Black Life Matters. He is an entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. In the arena of civic engagement, Kevin serves as Chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation of California, and is an executive with the Douglass Leadership Institute and the Northstar Leadership Pac.]