The Salvation Army accepts hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from Pokie Machine Profit Funds, despite Pokie Machines now being New Zealands most hazardous form of gambling. (See recent Southland Times article featuring the SA)
This is an atrocity!
My feelings on this were confirmed in a conversation with a friend in policy for Problem Gambling Foundation whose key role is to persuade organisations not to accept pokie money because it entrenches pokie machines deeper into communities, and validates their reason for existing.
Part of the tension between those who think it is cool to accept money from corrupt sources and those who think it is absolutley not is probably fuelled by that William Booth quote "I'll even take money from the devil himself, wash it in the blood of the lamb and use it for the glory of God" (or along those lines) I think this is definatly one line of Billy's that needs to be banished from Army history!
I simply can not see how we can justify using dirty money from dirty sources in order to clean up the dirt!
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7 comments:
isn't william booth considered infallible by sallies, booth and the bible are of equal basis aren't they
yeah it can be a little bit like that... Which probably suggests why people can't see issues like this with clarity? ("Booths quote goes against all logic, but he only speaketh the truth")
: ) Wow.
First of all, I didn’t think that the Army, in any part of the world, was allowed to accept money that had come from gambling. ??? This is a new one to me.
Second, I had somebody from another denomination use that quote on me the other day. I had never actually heard it before but he used it to back up his amazement at the fact that we did not accept money that had come from gambling.
I used to feel that way about Booth (coming only slightly short of wearing my WWBD? wristband). But since reading "Blood and Fire" by Roy Hattersley, it really opened my eyes. In a lot of ways, William Booth was arrogant and self-serving. Don't get me wrong, I still think he was a brilliant man and his passion (along with Catherine's determination and organisation - lest we forget) kick-started a great movement. But he had major hang-ups and weaknesses just like the rest of us and I don't think we can accept everything he said as gospel.
We shouldn't be accepting this money.
This is God's army - not Booth's.
I was never quite sure that Booth should be credited with saying 'why should the devil have all the good music' but he seems to be - anyway, he did come out with some corkers so why not use them and the poor man isn't around to defend himself so enough of the Booth bashing.
I'm glad that they have now stopped calling loss making churches (corps) as 'mission aided' and loss making social centres as 'deficit funded'. Sounds silly but the insinuation was that only corps do mission. Whereas in fact, if we saved some resources on keeping 12 old ladies and a dog happy each week and plowed it back into corps and centres that actually were mission focussed we wouldnt need to take money from dubious sources.
And any corps with a charity shop that has no community programme to support should be shut down!
But dont get me started..
I thought it was Cliff Richard said that? (kidding...Johnny Cash?)
Jo: you hit the nail on the head there, if we truly knew that God would provide we wouldn't have to compromise anything to get the stuff done, eh. And shut up about Walden, are you freaking kidding me. That must be a big joke. That is making me livid by the second....Arrggh....
Tim, I couldn’t agree more with your take on Corps, Social Centre’s and mission aid. As somebody who came to the Army from another denomination, I think it’s a joke that social centre’s are now separated from our Corps. Most Salvationists aren’t anymore Salvationist than my Baptist, Pentecostal, or Catholic friends. They just have shiny uniforms. And I’m with you on the Corps who offer no community programming, they’re not a Corps. Shut them down. Or call them what they are, an old folks home, and get them on that budget deficit list!
(Thanks for the space to vent that one Lucy. I can’t exactly say it on my blog.)
However, I will disagree with your take on William Booth. First of all, I don’t think people are having a go at Booth as much as they’re having a go at Salvationists who worship the guy. Somebody said he was “Brilliant”, I wouldn’t even go that far. He was passionate and gifted in the area of evangelism. Two things that always attract a crowd. The more I learn about William and Katherine, the more impressed I am with Katherine.
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