For those who care about justice and fairness, the Salvation Army is simply not worthy of financial support.

The Salvation Army is an anti-gay Christian church with a long and well documented history of promoting discrimination against the LGBT community.

Recently the Salvation Army has tried to improve its tarnished image by scrubbing explicitly anti-gay statements from its websites and issuing a statement purportedly “debunking” the “myth” of its anti-LGBT stances. And, in fact, the Salvation Army has made improvements in both their tone and attitude towards the LGBT community, but the changes have been too little, too late, and the fact remains that the group still promotes discrimination against LGBT people.

In fact, last May the UK’s Salvation Army chief admitted the group still bans gay people from serving as members.

Another case in point, earlier this month the Salvation Army released a statement saying they would not support Australia’s Safe Schools anti-bullying program, a program designed to support and help LGBT youth:

The Salvation Army cannot unconditionally support the Safe Schools programs in Australia in their current form. We believe there needs to be consideration and refinement to the scope and form of implementation.

While not surprising, the statement is disappointing, because previously the group said they did support the Safe Schools Program.

To their credit, the Salvation Army no longer refuses to serve members of the LGBT population at its soup kitchens and homeless shelters as it once did. However, the Salvation Army continues to maintain anti-gay theological stances, continues to discriminate against its own employees and their partners, and continues to support and promote legislation and policies that are harmful to the LGBT community.

Perhaps even more disturbing than the documented homophobia of the Salvation Army, is the fact that, according to some reports, the Salvation Army requires those in need of assistance to pray as a prerequisite to being offered that assistance. To require a rational freethinker to submit to such a morally and intellectually repugnant indignity in order to receive desperately needed assistance is barbaric and despicable. And for that fact alone the Salvation Army should be shunned by decent and reasonable people.

Bottom line: The Salvation Army is simply not worthy of financial support. Instead, donate to a secular charity like Foundation Beyond Belief, or, if you want to keep it local, donate to a non-religious food bank in your area.