On the subject of the alleged Salvation Army/White House deal to exempt religious groups from local gay-rights laws, Jeff Moses writes to the Minneapolis Star Tribune: “The Salvation Army wants our tax dollars for its work, and it wants the right to ignore state and local antidiscrimination laws and ordinances. Its way of ‘helping’ people who happen to be lesbian or gay is to say, ‘Here’s some soup, but you’re not good enough to work for us.’ That’s disgusting.
“What’s terrifying is that the Salvation Army wanted the Bush administration to conspire with it to enshrine the Army’s narrow interpretation of scripture into law…or at least into federal regulation. And the administration…at least for a while…seemed willing to consider the proposal, turning its ‘faith-based’ initiative into one based on hate. This is precisely why the Constitution erected a wall between government and religion.”
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In the Los Angeles Times, Donald C. Mitchell writes that the Salvation Army are the anti-Christ: “I am appalled at the continuing efforts of pseudo-Christian organizations, such as the Salvation Army, to further discrimination against lesbian and gay citizens. Jesus did not preach the laws of Leviticus; his was a gospel of love, compassion and forgiveness. Those who use his name to further agendas of hate and prejudice are truly the ‘anti-Christ.’
“As a gay man, I pray that I will not be dependent upon these organizations for social services in the future.”
In the same paper, and on the same subject, Paul Barwick brings up a chilling thought: “We would have not known of the secret deal to discriminate against gays brewing between the White House and the Salvation Army if it hadn’t been for an internal Salvation Army memo that wound up in the hands of the Washington Post. Makes you wonder just how many other secret deals are being made at the White House that haven’t seen the light of day, doesn’t it.”
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In the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Bill Dubay asks if the Salvation Army wants “special rights”: “Let me see if I’ve got this right. The Salvation Army and other religious organizations … have legal protections from discrimination based on their beliefs, yet these same people want an exemption from those same laws when the protections are extended to characteristics, in particular sexual orientation. Aren’t these the same people whose battle cry is ‘No special rights?'”