Here’s the graphic that a Quora user posted on the space It’s Okay to be White:
The post was reported, with the following explanation:
Factually incorrect (explanation: This meme is false. See attached referenced page. The Salvation Army’s Response to False Claims on the Topic of Racism The Salvation Army USA [https://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/story/the-salvation-armys-response-to-false-claims-on-the-topic-of-racism/])”
Following the link, we find this statement:
Those claims are simply false, and they distort the very goal of our work.
The truth is that The Salvation Army believes that racism is fundamentally incompatible with Christianity, and that we are called by God to work toward a world where all people are loved, accepted, and valued. Our positional statement on racism makes this clear. These beliefs and goals are critically important because we know that racism exists, and we are determined to do everything the Bible asks of us to overcome it.
Their “positional statement on racism” claims that:
Racism is fundamentally incompatible with the Christian conviction that all people are made in the image of God and are equal in value. The Salvation Army believes that the world is enriched by a diversity of cultures and ethnicities.
This statement contradicts itself, because if there is value (enrichment) in the diversity of cultures and ethnicities, then it follows that the Last member of the Mohican tribe has more value to his life than a Han Chinese – because when the Mohican dies, the world loses not only the individual, but also the ethnicity (tribe). This is an extreme example, but it illustrates my point. If the existence of ethnicities has value, then not all people are equal in value – and if all people are equal in value, then there can be no special value to a diversity of cultures and ethnicities.
The document goes on to reiterate the claim that “racism is incompatible with Christianity:”
The Salvation Army firmly believes that racism is contrary to God’s intention for humankind, and yet we recognise that the tendency for racism is present in all people and all societies. Racial discrimination can take many expressions, including tribalism, casteism and ethnocentrism.
That’s odd, because the Bible is full of tribalism. In fact, it could be fairly claimed that most of it is a manifesto of tribalism. Jews are God’s chosen people, and clear distinctions are made between Jews and non-Jews throughout the Bible. Is the Salvation Army claiming that the Bible is “incompatible with Christianity?” That would be a bizarre claim. It’s evident that it’s the Salvation Army that’s incompatible with Christianity. It has abandoned Christianity in favor of Wokeism.
Also, the two quoted statements above can’t both be correct. If the “world is enriched by a diversity of cultures and ethnicities,” then it follows that members of such ethnicities should do what they can to survive as distinct groups. In other words, nations should fight for their own group interests. Another word for this is “nationalism” or “tribalism.” When Jews work to have our own neighborhoods and a nation-state, this is tribalism. But the second statement claims that tribalism is “racial discrimination” and that it’s “contrary to God’s intention for humankind.” You can’t have it both ways Salvation Army. Make up your mind!
As if that’s not proof enough that the Salvation Army lacks any critical thought, the document then recites Lewontine’s Fallacy:
The concept of race has been used to justify the most appalling policies of discrimination and murder. Science has shown, however, that there is no evidence to support the existence of biologically different human races. There is much more genetic variation within each so-called racial group than there is between them.
Lewontine’s Fallacy has been debunked many times already, so here I’ll simply link to Gregor Jameson’s article in It’s Okay to be White. He does an excellent job at explaining this fallacy in layman’s terms.
There’s another problem with the Salvation Army’s statement: If we’re going to condemn the concept of race because it “has been used to justify the most appalling policies of discrimination and murder” then we must also condemn Christianity – and even more so. Perhaps this is why the Salvation Army has abandoned Christianity, and adopted…
… Marxism, because Marxism has never been the cause of discrimination and murder, has it?
The rest of the document only serves to show how uncritically the Salvation Army has drunk the cool aid of Critical Race Theory:
For many people, decades of racist structures and prejudices have created inter-generational effects and disadvantages. This can be so entrenched in institutions and culture that people can unwittingly perpetuate racial division.
I think the underlying problem is a total, and uncritical, reliance upon “experts” by those in charge of the Salvation Army. In a sense, this might be a flaw that they inherited from their Christian past. A good Christian is supposed to accept divine authority without question or reservation. They simply transferred this deference to the new class of priests: The priests of CRT and fake science.
As stupid as stupid gets.