Author: Daniel J. Wakin
Publication: The New York Times
Date: February 2, 2004
The Salvation Army of Greater New
York, long known for its network of thrift shops and shelters, has begun
an effort to reassert its evangelical roots, stressing to lay employees
that the Army's core mission is not just social services but also spreading
the Gospel.
The New York division's new leaders
have ordered that job descriptions now state the mission clearly. They
have reminded employees who deal with children that they must fill out
a form promising to follow the Army's religious mission in working with
them. The form also asks those employees to describe their church affiliations.
"Periodically, we have to kind of
reclaim the ecclesiastical turf, if you will," said Col. Paul M. Kelly,
a former New York division commander who was brought in as a consultant
last year to assess its operations.
The effort has stirred a mini-rebellion
among some longtime employees who resent what they see as an intrusion
on their privacy and the potential for religious discrimination. Such demands
for religious loyalty, they say, breach the wall between church and state
because the division accepts $70 million in state and city funds for its
programs.
"We've been told that things are
changing, that they've come to whip us into shape, and they want us to
become more like the Army," said one social worker in a Salvation Army
foster care program who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation.
"Everyone's really freaked out." Robert Gutheil, a former official with
an Army social service program, said the New York division was considered
an anomaly within the national Army for the lack of emphasis of religion
in its programs.
One high-ranking administrator,
in a complaint to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, said a Salvation
Army official said during a meeting that any staff member who refused to
sign revised job descriptions proclaiming the church's mission would be
fired. And a former human resources executive said a Salvation Army official
asked about religious affiliations of people who worked for her and whether
several of them were gay.
Catholic Charities, the UJA-Federation
of New York and the Evangelical Lutheran Church's local synod all said
they do not require social service employees to reveal religious affiliations
or commit themselves to a religious mission.
The Salvation Army's New York division
leaders would not comment on the specific charges, but denied that their
policies are new or even out of the ordinary for a religious institution.
Officials acknowledged, however, that they had begun efforts to reinforce
the organization's religious identity among employees as part of a general
effort to tell the world about the group's mission.
The Army's charitable role was in
full focus last week when the national headquarters announced it had received
a bequest of $1.5 billion to build and endow 25 or 30 community centers
around the country, each of which will contain a place of worship. The
bequest came from Joan B. Kroc, the wife of the McDonald's chain founder,
who died in October.
Local Army officials said it was
far too early to say how the money would affect operations, but national
officials have said the centers will be used for educational and spiritual
purposes, not for social services.
Best known for the thrift shops
and red kettles that help support its network of services for the poor
and homeless, the Salvation Army is first and foremost a worldwide evangelical
church, according to the New York division's second in command, Maj. Guy
D. Klemanski.
"Everything that we do is related
to our ministry, and is in fact our ministry," he said in an interview.
"Do we require our employees to believe in Jesus Christ and administer
the doctrines and tenets of the Salvation Army? Not unless we hire them
for a specific ministry."
The tension between the social and
spiritual sides of the Army on display in New York have occurred in Salvation
Army divisions elsewhere in the nation, officials said. Major Klemanski
said the questionnaire asking about church affiliation has been in effect
nationwide since 1993, although it was not always adhered to in the New
York division and was re-emphasized last fall. The church questions were
to help with background checks, he said, adding that many people in the
New York division did not seem to be aware of the mission.
Major Klemanski said it was only
natural that the Salvation Army expects general support from its employees
for its mission.
"Why would you go to McDonald's
and tell everybody to go to Burger King?" he asked. "Why would any one
want to go to work for the Salvation Army if they are not supportive of
us?"
The major said he and the New York
commander, Lt. Col. Nestor Nuesch, arrived in their posts in July with
a desire to remind employees and the public of the Army's religious function.
They would have done the same anywhere, he said. "It's fresh leadership."
Their arrival came on the heels
of a reorganization plan by Col. Kelly that was circulated last spring.
In it, Col. Kelly urged that more Salvation Army members be recruited for
jobs. "The Army's 'Christian perspective' is rarely emphasized," he said.
The church and its programs are
happily growing, he said, "but what appears to be happening is a widening
gap between the ecclesiastical Salvation Army and the social service component."
He praised a human resources executive
for ordering a Muslim employee to remove "various Muslim artifacts" from
one center. His report also questioned whether it was a good idea to have
hired a human resources director for the Army's adult services agency "who
represents an Eastern religion," apparently Buddhism or Hinduism.
The clash between the group's religious
and social service missions goes to the heart of President Bush's effort
to make it easier for churches to obtain federal money for so-called faith-based
social programs, a debate in which the Salvation Army has been central.
The group has lobbied the White
House to allow exemptions from gay discrimination laws, and in New York,
has argued that its hiring policies fall well within the terms of contracts
with the city, the city's human rights law and a 1980 executive order.
Opponents sharply disagree. "It's
governmental monies to spread the mission of Christ," said Martin Garbus,
a First Amendment lawyer who is representing at least a dozen Army employees
who are upset by the religious policy and fear retaliation. "The government
shouldn't support Pat Robertson, it shouldn't support the Catholic Church,
it shouldn't support Jewish synagogues."
The New York Civil Liberties Union
asked the city and state comptrollers two weeks ago to audit the New York
branch. Lawyers for the group say the New York division may be violating
city and state contracts prohibiting religious discrimination.
The city comptroller, William G.
Thompson, has passed the complaint on to the New York City Human Rights
Commission, and the office of the state comptroller, Alan G. Hevesi, said
it was studying the case.
Lawyers for the employees said a
lawsuit could be filed this week.
"This is an agency acting on behalf
of a government providing government services," said Donna Lieberman, the
civil liberties union director. "It cannot be in the business of promoting
religion and discriminating against its employees based on religion."
Religious institutions are exempt
from religious anti-discrimination laws, but not for employees working
in government-funded programs, the civil liberties union argues. The Bush
administration favors allowing religious institutions to consider religion
in hiring people who work for their government-funded programs.
The Army, which operates in 109
countries, was founded in London in the 19th century by a Methodist minister,
who patterned its structure and terminology after the military. Adherents
undergo training before being "commissioned," or ordained, as "officers,"
the equivalent of ministers. Army doctrine holds that the Bible is truthful
revelation and salvation depends on obedience to Christ.
Nationwide, the Army has 46,000
employees, a budget of $2.5 billion and a reputation for being efficiently
administered.
Some 1,700 employees work in the
Greater New York Division's social service agencies, which have a budget
of $120 million a year, about 60 percent from government sources, the division
said. The agencies operate more than 60 group homes, foster care, treatment
programs, H.I.V. services, shelters and the like. The New York division,
which covers New York City, Long Island and seven counties north of the
city, said it touches the lives of 5 million people a year.
A few supervisors refused to hand
out the forms that included questions on church affiliations. Some workers
feared losing their jobs if they did not sign. They included Jews, Muslims
and Hindus, gays and lesbians, atheists and even a lapsed Salvation Army
member, employees said.
The civil liberties union has also
condemned job descriptions calling for applicants to support "the mission"
of the Salvation Army, which is listed on job postings and calls on new
hires to "preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in
His Name without discrimination."
The associate executive director
of the children's agency, Anne Lown, who is Jewish, filed the E.E.O.C.
complaint, according to the New York Nonprofit Press, which reported the
dispute last month. Ms. Lown, now associate director, would not respond
to questions about the complaint.
Mr. Gutheil, the executive director
of the children's division, said in a Sept. 26 memo to his superiors that
the church-affiliation form would have an "enormously chilling effect"
on hiring good applicants. He said it was bound to be challenged in court,
bringing bad publicity and hurting donations.
"Finally, whatever the legality
and whatever the practical implications, this is just plain offensive to
many of us who share the Gospel faith of the Salvation Army," wrote Mr.
Gutheil, an Episcopalian. "This is a city that thrives on its diversity.
Our workplace should reflect that."
Within weeks, Mr. Gutheil had left
the Army after more than 20 years. On Tuesday, he said a confidentiality
agreement that was part of a severance agreement prevented him from discussing
his departure. But he said the dispute contributed to it.
"It was an important stand to take,"
he said. "I'm sorry I'm not at liberty to say more about it."
