Speaking as somebody who has benefitted from the charitable activities of the Sally Ann… don’t tar them all with the same brush.
They’ve given me quite a secure place to stay when nobody else would. And fed me. Actually the did charge me for doing so but on a credit basis (and a helluva lot of people who they do help don’t give them a bean back).
Thing is, in helping the poor, it’s very easy for those workers to become cynical and twisted from the people they help. Lot of twisted bitter people, doesn’t half lead to a very depressed regime.
I’m talking more about the individual halls that help to house homeless people, and I’ll just give one example… the manager of the Sally Ann (Leger Des Heils actually, in Amsterdam) was absolutely looking forward to the end of the world, could not see any hope, just saw people as endlessly destroying themselves, and was quite frankly a miserable bastard.
He still helped me. OK, he was chuffed as fuck when I fell flat back down to rock bottom after moving out, but he did help, and so did a Hall in the UK.
Now, gays are a thorny issue for the Sally Ann. Legally speaking, they can’t exclude gay homeless people (in countries where this is illegal discrimination) BUT…
… that doesn’t mean all Sally Ann staff have to like gay people. Generally speaking it’s expressed as anti-sympathy rather than hate, but it’s not like there’s a hidden programme to take in all gay people and quietly murder them “because that’s what the Bible says”.
Different SA Halls have different staff and regimes, and it’s always easy to criticise and carp about the people on the front line trying to fight poverty and despair.
Fuck it, they’re on the front line. If they can’t complain or express opinions or just get annoyed, how do you expect them to deal with the pressures of trying to help?
Bitching is the easy route, just do your bit for the people around you. It’s very easy to point the finger, and sometimes criticism is helpful, but please don’t write off the whole organisation because every single one of them is a fallible human being.
They done good to me and they’re doing good to other people. That gets up some peoples’ noses. What really matters isn’t the words, it’s the actions and intent behind them.
