Wall Street Journal Guest Op-Ed Slams Salvation Army ‘Wokeness’

A Salvation Army worker, left, wears a mask out of concern about the coronavirus while han
AP Photo/Rodrique Ngowi

A contributed Thursday op-ed in the Wall Street Journal blasts the new “wokeness” reigning at the Salvation Army, lamenting its embrace of the worst of critical race theory (CRT).

Joining other voices decrying the decline of this venerable Christian charity, Kenny Xu, president of Color Us United, cites a Salvation Army discussion guide called “Let’s Talk About Racism,” published earlier this year.

“We must stop denying the existence of individual and systemic/institutional racism,” the 2021 guide declares. “They exist, and are still at work to keep White Americans in power.”

Although the Salvation Army eventually caved to the public outcry against its guide and pulled it from its website for “appropriate review,” it has never disowned its content or apologized for its embrace of the narrative of America’s purported “systemic racism,” Xu notes.

The Salvation Army has rather installed two new “diversity, equity and inclusion” (DEI) directors, Xu observes, roles that typically draw deeply from the CRT poisoned myth of American history, which does not bode well for the direction the organization is taking.

Xu also suggests that this move by the Salvation Army may reflect a desire to solicit more corporate giving, given many corporations’ current love affair with DEI.

In his analysis, Xu echoes criticisms by Dr. Bill Donohue, president of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, who similarly slammed the Salvation Army for buying into the lies of critical race theory.

In a December 6 essay, noted that throughout its text, the Salvation Army reiterated the belief “that white people are racists, thus necessitating the need to ‘apologize.’”

“Our foundations were built on racism, and it is still strongly felt in every aspect of American life,” the document declares, and there is “no other way to read that other than to say that ‘America is an inherently racist society,’” Donohue wrote.

The Salvation Army defines racism as the “prejudiced treatment, stereotyping or discrimination of POC [People of Color] on the basis of race,” Donohue observed, thereby excluding the possibility that anyone but a white person can be a racist.

In concluding Thursday’s op-ed, Mr. Xu calls for a public renunciation of the text and its contents by Salvation Army leadership.

The Salvation Army “should release a statement making clear that America isn’t a racist country,” he writes.

“This is a moment of the organization’s leaders to truly take a stand against wokeness,” he insists.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.