Salvation Army Returns Donation Carrying Racist Conditions

On May 25, the Salvation Army received a donation from a man identified in the source as Jürgen B. The accompanying message set conditions on who should benefit and who should not: “Donation for Germans, donation not for Muslim immigrants or Negroes.”

The organization faced two questions. The first was whether to accept the money, and the second was whether to respond publicly. According to Andreas Quiring, the Salvation Army’s press spokesman, the first question was settled quickly: “The decision to return the money was immediately made.” Quiring declined to say how much the donation was, stating that the amount was irrelevant “because it is about the principle.”

The second question was harder to answer. Quiring said, “This has never happened before. We have never had such a harsh purpose before.” The organization decided to write a letter to Mr. B. In it, the Salvation Army quoted its mission to “receive human need without the person’s reputation” and said that, “from a profound Christian conviction, we make no difference in our help with regard to skin colour, origin, religion or gender.”

On Wednesday night, the Salvation Army posted an excerpt of the donation information and its reply letter on Facebook. As of the source’s reporting, the post had been shared about 1,600 times and had almost 3,000 “Like” clicks. Quiring said the group chose to publish it “because it was the opportunity to put a stand, to make it clear where we stand as a Salvation Army.”

Reaction on Facebook was mostly positive, with commenters calling the response “really Christian charity” and praising the group’s clear statement. Some users, however, criticized the Salvation Army for naming Mr. B. and for turning away money that, in their view, could have been better used for people in need. The organization responded that a conclusion about the donor could not be drawn from the published data.

Several Facebook users said the response moved them to give. One wrote that it was “worth a donation of my own,” and the source reports that some said they had already donated. Quiring also said that some potential donors had asked whether money would go to refugees or to homeless Germans. “We don’t think in such categories,” he said. “One thing doesn’t affect the other.” He noted it was remarkable that “people who otherwise look contemptuously at homeless people suddenly start to think about whether donations were being used for refugees.” (Proverbs 31:8-9)

As for Mr. B., Quiring said he may have received the letter only that day. As of the source’s reporting, he had not responded.

Source: Read the original report (translated from German)