Let's hope that the trailer was a rush job.

The Cold Facts dishonest attempt to portray the Salvation Army (From fsaof.blogspot.com)

EMANUEL KARLSTEN on
JOURNALISM, RELIGION AND THE CHURCH

So it’s now clear what the Cold Facts’ scrutiny of Salvation Army will be about. Homosexuality. How very original. What's next? A disclosure that the Pentecostal church thinks that premarital sex is a sin? The Catholic Churchs’ displeasure with condom use?

It's obviously a good thing that Cold Facts examines society and especially the Salvation Army, which benefits immensely as a recipients of funding and often becomes the municipalities; and the state's extended helping hand.

I have blogged a few times before about how the Salvation Army effectively pared Cold Facts - as they perceive the reporting - ‘suspect’ scrutiny. The Salvation Army has responded openly to all business matters and did not want to agree to a interview (not necessary) and which was subsequently clipped together.

In the trailer that Hard Facts has now released the program gives the Salvation Army cause for concern; On any given point. The trailer dramatizes, of course, but the editing is effectively and deliberately pastes together a very false image.


They claim that gays are victims of exclusion from the Salvation Army's help. This obviously a direct error, which a quick check would confirm. An anonymous Salvation Army representative with a distorted (but still clear Jönköping district dialect) voice explains that the Salvation Army's basic view is that homosexual sex is a sin, a textbook answer from the fully open ethic’s document the Salvation Army has on its website. Then, in the middle of everything, two Malawian clergy comments are edited in, from a completely different faith community, continent and context, saying that homosexuals can be equated with dogs, pigeons and chickens. Finally, it appears as though someone is ejected from the Salvation Army "because they are not members". However, if you are familiar with the various ‘free’ churches (in Sweden) you will see that it is instead Stefan Gustafsson, Chair of the Ecumenical umbrella organization Swedish Evangelical Alliance (SEA), who ask the Cold Facts representative to "leave the building" because they "are not members" (the SEA).

If this is some sort of measure of honesty relative to the Cold Facts’ report, it is truly, truly sad.

Clearly, one is free to review the Salvation Army's position on membership. There is much that can be considered questionable there. There are two levels of fellowship (membership), one of which is "soldiership" – where one renounces much (eg alcohol) and one enters into a lifestyle (where, as an example, cohabitation, or sex before or outside marriage is not allowed) - and the other is "civilian membership", where, briefly, likes and supports the Salvation Army's work, but where one is unable or unwilling to be part of such lifestyle transformation.

This means that a homosexual can be a member – a civilian member (adherent)- of the Salvation Army. In the sense that anyone who ends up under the definition "sin", as in the Salvation Army's view of soldiership would be; whether you live in a homosexual relationship or, for example, drinking alcohol.

For more than two years I worked for the Christian newspaper THIS DAY and where I wrote untold column inches in which I tried to challenge the church in its views on homosexuality. We can and should continue to do so. But somewhere one must however also maintain a reasonable respect for the church's general decision to place limits on its own membership, how one chooses to see and interpret the Bible and one’s faith. If it extends to deciding whom we choose to help then it ought to be condemned. But if there is anything the Salvation Army does better than all other churches in the world it is to see and help the person, and not seeing him as a sinner - no matter what the Salvation Army or your own definition of sin is.

It would be more honest if that image were fitted in the Cold Facts report. Because, the aim of journalism should be to ensure that the truest and most realistic picture is presented. Not the one with the most tantalizing appeal.

Let's hope that the trailer was a rush job.

(Transparency: I'm not active, but I grew up in the Salvation Army where my parents are active as corps officers)