Totally harsh. What else don’t I know about the Salvation Army?
OSHKOSH, Wis.  The leader of a Wisconsin Salvation Army will lose his job if he goes ahead with plans to marry outside the organization.
Capt. Johnny Harsh of Oshkosh is engaged to a woman who’s not affiliated with the Salvation Army. They’re planning to marry in June.
Harsh says he’s well aware of the agency’s rule that says an officer may only marry another officer of the organization. But he doesn’t think it’s fair.
Salvation Army Advisory Board member Helen Lord Burr says the agency’s rules are the same all over the world.
Harsh became engaged after losing his wife, Capt. Yalanda Harsh, to complications of a heart attack last June.
Buncha ding-a-lings, if you ask me. However, you can contact the Salvation Army, here, if you like: NHQ_Webmaster@usn.salvationarmy.org. Please, be civil.
That’s just nutty. I didn’t realize they were a freak cult. I want my dollar back.
At least in this latest Dan Collins expose nobody died!
Poor little Filipina, came to America for a better life, to ride her white pony, then she was swept up by the waves of the unforgiving salty breast!
That was a pretty poem, though, the Duelce whatever, Dan, so thx for that.
You’re welcome, Thor.
They’re pretty strict, membership-wise. Not sure how they get enough people to run their large organization that way.
I liked it better when they had a don’t-ask, don’t-tell policy.
I was a Lt Colonel in the Salvation Army, FWIW.
That was me, kidding; I hope that was clear.
I mean, I’d hate to be shot for desertion or anything.
He knew the deal. He can get a new job. I think it’s neat that there’s a group what says hey we are a lot cognizant that dirty little Baracky Soros socialists would like to march through our little institution and what we’re not gonna do is be having that.
I hear they were on the scene at the Pentagon on 9/11 faster than the Red Cross. Like, hours difference.
So.. If the Salvation Army wanted you to have a wife they really would issue you one?
Just don’t try to stuff yours in one of their buckets, Swen.
At least he CAN leave, unlike the members of some other religions I could mention.
That bell ringer thing is already getting old though, and it’s only Dec. 5th. Gives me a real case of the Bah Humbug..
I bet they are homophobes and racists too. I am pretty sure that nishit is scheduled for an arranged Salvation Army wedding.
What would the Salvation Marine Corps be like?
This gives a whole new meanng to all in the family…
An interesting inversion of the rules that most corporate entities employ. But, he knew the rules, so its time to look for another job…
Lots of religions require that their members marry inside the faith.
What would the Salvation Marine Corps be like?
They’d have their own fixed-wing air support.
If they keep this sort of behavior up, Tom Cruise might agree to become their spokesman.
While I think they should consider changing their rules, I hope no one forces them to.
Naw, Tom needs the holding-tin-cans auditing and the love only L. Ron can provide.
This seems incredibly goofy, but I suspect this fellow knew this when he voluntarily joined, so he should not be surprised that they might actually enforce their own rules.
Seems pretty straightforward to me: if you don’t like the rules, fuckin’ work somewhere else.
OK, they’re a little odd — but man, can they fight!
Erm, am i the only one who noticed this;
Here …lemme doublecheck … July, Aug, Set, Oct, Nov … FIVE MONTHS? Five months? And already engaged?
Carin – He is a stud.
That is a bizarre rule, but it’s their bizarre rule, and they do a lot of good. Actually, it’s not that big a deal to me; they’re set up as a missions organization. A missionary going to China would have to have a spouse also in the mission field. If the spouse B won’t be a missionary, then spouse A is not going to China. It looks like they’re operating under the same premise.
I’m with happyfeet (assuming that’s not sarcasm); I think it’s admirable that they’re trying to keep up the philosophical commitment to the Salvation Army goals. And they really are doing the most good — homeless shelters, food pantries, energy and housing assistance, job training, disaster relief. I just did one of the “Angel Tree” things at the local K-Mart and bought a lot of clothes and toys for a child. I’ll forgive them their quirks.
The Salvation Army is a church, not just a charity. Why is a requirement to marry within the faith controversial, especially for “officers”, i.e., clergy?
Historically, “Officers” in the SA have been allowed to only marry other officers. Think of “Officers” as a sort of Deacon.
You wouldn’t have given this a thought if a RC priest lost his pulpit because he wanted to get married.
“Capt. Johnny Harsh of Oshkosh”. Gordon Lightfoot should write a song.
Firing Squad?
no sarcasm here I promise
Do they have “enlisted” as well as “officers”?
Okay, techie. But having to marry another deacon?
According to Wikipedia:
Its claimed membership includes more than 17,000 active and more than 8,700 retired officers, 1,041,461 soldiers, around 100,000 other employees and more than 4.5 million volunteers.
Huey: That was awesome!
The legend lives on from up Oshkosh on down to the big metro center, Milwaukee.
The Colonel, it’s said, found a girl he would wed, but not from The Salvation Army!
Um … that should be The Captain…
Don’t they know that in-breeding kills?
/just not fast enough
//see Arkansas
Soldiers? Wow. Onward, Christian soldiers…
His expired wife had gone under the knife for a myocardial infarction,
They eat lots of cheese there and bratwurst and freeze there, it’s articky there in Wisconsin!
I don’t think requiring marriage within the leadership corps is outside the bounds of incredulity, especially if it’s really a church. I always thought it was a charitable institution with a Christian foundation, not a church with its primary mission being charitable acts.
Certainly not my cup of tea, though. Methinks I’ll pass, ‘specially if Mrs DR cares not to join up too. Although I’d get good alimony.
BJT:
Nice!
What #42 said, that was awesome.
Hey, how do they get around employment law regarding marital status? Are they classified as a kind of church?
When I was in the Kiwanis Club of Dearborn Outer Drive another member was a social worker with the Salvation Army. I knew they were a church and not just a charity, but the charitable aspect is really emphasized and they do a lot of good work with the jails and halfway houses and substance abuse programs.
I worked for SA as an employee. The structure of the organization is all-encompassing. They are self-insured and basically provide for every single need of the officer and their family: home, cars, utilities, travel, vacation, medical, groceries… everything.
When an officer marries outside of the Army, it plays huge financial havoc with the structure of care. The officers I worked with were both third-generation Salvationists and the cutest young couple– and very fun and non-stuffy. It’s all they’ve ever known. They traveled all over the country playing their instruments for different events and their actual SA duties were pretty light, since ours was a very small unit.
Bell-ringers, unless they are volunteers, are paid a fair hourly wage, btw, and can be anybody.
The SA office usually serves as a touchpoint for other Social Services money provided by grants or the government or community groups and the United Way. SA money does not usually pay for absolutely all the services they provide. Or at least it didn’t where I worked. Another big program for the SA is probationary oversight programs. They can do it at a much more reasonable rate than other private providers and push pretty hard to own those programs.
They must move to a new location every two years. This is a safety precaution to keep any undue influence or monetary temptations at bay. It keeps them focused on the mission, and not so much on “kingdom building”.
Shelters, food, and life programs overseen by good Christian “soldiers” have a much more successful impact. It’s hard work, but they are sold out to it.
It’s going to take a tremendous re-structuring to accommodate a “half” couple lifestyle. It’s a lot to ask of the organization. The SA will bend over backwards to help one of their officers adjust back into the secular world.
Lay off.
Thanks for the explanation, Joan, except for the “lay off,” part.
Oh, that wasn’t directed at you, Dan, and actually this thread has been quite reasonable, so I do apologize. There have been other blogs about it and I guess I let it bleed over into this one.
That’s all right, Joan. You’ve obviously seen what they do close up. It’s exotic to me, and maybe endogamous to them, but as you say they seem to do a lot of good work and they have values I can dig, so, whatever.
Majority says dude knew what he was getting into, deal with it.
I just didn’t know they were a culty church is all.
I think he should sue and force the Church to bend their teachings to his will.
I read an article wherein he states he had been praying about whether to leave and start his own non-denominational church, and he believes his current pickle is the answer to that praying; he expects to be asked to leave the SA.
He is worried people will stop donating and he’s right to be worried, though.
Because I though they were just a nice non-denominational charity. I didn’t know they were an actual church.
Yeah, I didn’t really know anything about them, either, Sarah. Maybe they like it that way.
I am sure that the Supreme Court could help him out, and make this Church change their system to accommodate this one person.
#46 Joan:
I rang for the Sally Ann’s when I was in the Kiwanis. It was fine with me. Their charity isn’t – as far as I knew as a law clerk and a Kiwanian – given based on denomination, other than the denomination of need.
BTW – ‘Sally Ann’ is something I picked up from my Canadian cousins – A Canadianism, as it were.
It’s a private organization and membership is . He knew the rules going in and didn’t object, he knew the rules when it was his reponsibility as an officer to enforce them and didn’t object, but now that the rules apply to him and deny him something he wants, suddenly he decides the rules aren’t fair?
“Man Encounters Reality” — not newsworthy.
Correction: that 1st sentence should read, “… and membership is voluntary.”
Sorry
Every time I am someplace in trouble, I have seen the SA there first. Mississippi FLoods of 1993 – the Red Cross were the REMFs, and the SA was right in there, up to the water lapping over their ankles while they delivered baby formula, etc.
I only saw two outfits in the New Orleans metro area as fast as us in the DoD (and Coast Guard) – Wal-Mart and the Salvation Army.
I’d rather people leave them to their good works and lay off.
The Salvation Army has this stupid thing where after the hurricane did its number on Galveston I went to the Salvation Army website and they had a hurricane click thinger but what actually happened was they route the contribution to the chapter closest to your billing zip code that corresponds to the card you use. I read the fine print later and I would have had to have mailed a check specifying I wanted it to go to beleagured Texans and not stupid California people what are always having gay misfortunes mostly cause they ain’t living right.
happyfeet always makes me smile. Spooj, and assclown, and parsnip, not so much. What a perfect name, is assclown.
*beleaguered* I meant. For some reason NPR isn’t camped out down there with their mobile victim porn production facility. It’s very mysterious.
Thanks JD. I will be in Austin end of December so let me know if you have to visit again.
the 30th mostly
I think the 30th counts as the end of December. I will be in New York that week.
oh. I think I’m in NY middle of January but just maybe cause I am wanting to get that off my plate. oh. I think I just make noises like that so I feel a faux sense of empowerment. There’s probably a 95% chance I’ll be there like it or not.
I get to go out there to see a couple of big projects that we have underway. This training stuff is interesting, and the travel is fun, but I like being at home.
Travel is fun. I’m cheesed cause NY approved us to stay at the Algonquin which is all famous and historical and has a cat but boss person wants something more conveniently located. He wouldn’t know who Dorothy Parker was cause he is from a faraway land and when I think of trying to explain I just sigh.
I am likewise excited, as my new company is constructing the playing field for the new Yankee Stadium. I cannot wait to get out there, and experience that from the construction stages, to opening day, to 30-40 years down the road.
oh? Is that the project they’re using air rights to build? Like the whole thing is built over a railway yard or something? How cool. You are so George Costanza.
George Costanza? Please, explain.
My new company designs and builds natural and synthetic playing fields for football, baseball, soccer, field hockey, etc … Our niche specialty is natural grass baseball fields, and being given the honor to construct the field in Yankee Stadium seems so very cool to me.
oh. George got a cool new job with the Yankees. I saw it on the tv. He was very excited. I know you’re not with the Yankees per se but it’s a metaphor you don’t get to use every day so I went with it. Yes it is very cool. But I read that it was an engineering challenge cause of the way it was being built over something to do with trains but I could have just read a proposal and this is a different one?
oh. You can go here and search on So you just did the opposite of everything? and that is where the George thing came from.
You are right. That was a great episode, I had forgotten about that one. Our designers, architects, and engineers all say it has been the most challenging field they have built. It is really just rock, sand, gravel, and dirt, covered by grass.
My dad told me a story when I was little about how when they built the Astrodome this guy came to pitch them on his new product which was like grass but not really cause it was made out of plastic or whatever. And the guy that was in charge of the Astrodome building was like how much does it cost and the guy told him and then the guy said I tell you what. You’re gonna give us this grass-like whatever for free and we’ll let you call it Astroturf. I don’t know if that’s true or not but dad liked that story.
If all the boss persons were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.
h/t: DP
hf – That is a good story. I will have to see if it is true, as my boss worked with the guy that made that initial sale for the Astrodome.
oh. *AstroTurf* that should be. I think it’s apocrypha though, JD. This history seems definitive and it doesn’t mention that. A really good read by the way.
oh. And Fieldturf seems to be the name to know nowadays. They’ve got the jump on AstroTurf somehow it seems. Who knew?
*AstroTurf*
AKA: Fuzzy cement.
According to Wikipedia, the product was originally known as “Chemgrass”.
AstroTurf is definitely better marketing. I hope they can get back in the game. They’re sort of a minority-owned thing now I read but I sort of just skimmed that part. Someone took their eye off the r&d ball apparently is the important thing I guess.
That is a great article, happyfeet. They went out of business, and the company that took their place went bankrupt. FieldTurf is the giant in the industry right now.
I noticed a few years back that the ChemLawn company is transitioning its name to “TruGreen”.
Here is about the new stadium. Hey! The limestone is coming from Indiana! That’s kind of a neat coincidence. It looks like I had just read about the first proposal discussed here and that’s not the one they went with. But this is sort of interesting…
That story is from the first link.
I am trying to convince Better Half to let me do the backyard in turf, or at least one of the rooms down in the basement.
I like turf around pools in Texas. We got “cooldeck” that’s supposed to not burn your feet but it was a lie. It was pretty but it was a lie that you could walk on it barefoot after it had sat in the Texas sun. Turf is just friendlier except you have to vacuum it a couple times a year or so. Or maybe our neighbors just liked vacuuming theirs.
Good night, all.
good night, JD.
[…] Joan of Arrrrrgh and MAJ (P) John made some good arguments in favor of the Salvation Army, and asked me to lay off, […]
“Hey! The limestone is coming from Indiana!”
Yeah, that’s great stuff, used everywhere — Pentagon, National Cathedral, most state capitol buildings, colleges all over. And of course, the Empire State Building.
The Michigan limestone mostly comes from Rogers City and is used in concrete. Most of the Lakes concrete haulers are barges, but the laker St. Mary’s Challenger is still in service. She was launched on February 7, 1906. (NB: Theodore Roosevelt was president when she went into service.)
http://www.boatnerd.com/news/newsthumbs/images-07-2/Challen-A-5-15-07-AM.jpg
My grandfather was on the infamous Kokoda Track in WWII. They had to march for 8 days into the Owen Stanley mountain ranges, over some of the most rugged terrain in the world, packing 70 pound packs. After 3 months of almost hand to hand fighting, they were relieved and packed out. 2 days down the trail, practically on the front lines, there was the Salvation Army, with hot fresh coffee and cookies. It is with extreme fondness the veterans still say today, ‘Thank God for the Salvoes’!
They are all right by me, and they can have whatever rules they want, You know the standards going in. The Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses are the same way.
Christ will in no way throw you out of Christianity if you are unequally yoked, but believe me marrying another Christian will raise the odds of staying in the marriage. It is called commitment in His name. The Army needs to march in lock step to do its job well, don’t ask, don’t tell would not work for them.
They will continue to get my dollars.
Yeah.. thats my dad.. and you obiously dont know what we are going through, mom died in june, and dad needed someone so who all of you who say that he is wrong.. serioulsy SCREW YOU. at least he is taking a stand in what he believes in and wether or not i support him i AM proud of him. They ARE wrong by telling him he cant remarry and it wasn’t even until june anyways so come on seriously??? cut him some slack, now we have to pack up and move, yea they only gave us 4 weeks to get out of that house. Im not mad at the salvation army, i am mad at Major Thompson OF the salvation army, he lied to my dad and told him he was okay with the fiance and then he stabbed him in the back.
I know if mom was here things like this wouldn’t of happened but they did, and now we just have to see where this journey will take us.
Yoley, I’m sorry for the hardship, and I hope everything goes well for you and your family.
oh. Now I have to go back and read what I wrote.
im hoping to.. just know that he is happy with her, and i know thats what mom would have wanted, and if he is happy, then it makes my life less stressful in knowing he’ll be okay.
Damn. I just came right out and said what I thought. Also we learned about AstroTurf.
I agree with you. I think that a lot of the people who said those things were afraid that they story would be used as a stick by people with an agenda to whack all over the SA, and they appreciate what the SA does. I want you and your dad to be happy, too, and hope they will offer some leniency.
That was really not good though for the Major Thompson to mislead your dad. That wasn’t in the original article. Why can’t your dad’s fiance or new wife or whatever take a job with the SA? Or could she not start out as an officer even if she wanted to do that anyway?
thing is… no one really has the story straight so ill post it on here..
She was NOT living with us, when she came to visit she slept in the guest room. When major Thompson heard of this he got upset, but he FIRST said that it was okay. Then he went back to his boss and told him that he disapproved of it. Thats wrong
Then a woman accused me and my dad of stealing money from the offering… wtf seriously?? she WAS my moms best friend, she stabbed us too. Just because he had a key didnt mean he did it.. 5 people had access to that room not just dad and me.
Major Thompson found the STUPIDEST things to hold against us just so they can honestly say that he wasn’t fired for marriage. cause he was fired for false accusations and it WORKED, but im happier out of there.
Major Thompson waited till holidays were over (go figure) to tell us what our future was. I was tired of playing the waiting game and im glad it over.
Like I said I dont hate the salvation army, I strongly dislike Major Thompson. Because a pastor ISNT suppose to lie…. he straight out lied.
I don’t like Major Thompson either now. I hope your dad landed on his feet. You sound very nice. My mom wasn’t really allowed to remarry after dad died cause someone who may or may not be my brother would have pitched a fit. I like the Salvation Army though. I gave them money after Gus in Texas but I gave it through their website and they just gave it to the local branch closest to the zip what was on my credit card. So the Gus people didn’t really get a whole lot out of that deal. That kind of sucked cause I wouldn’t have chosen to help California people if I had know what the deal was. Next time I’ll know better.
Hey. How old is your dad if you don’t mind me asking? I think that’s important to the way the story reads and they left that out.
Thanks, Yoley. Maybe if you email me at vermontaigne-at-gmail-dot-com we can have an online chat, and I can get your side of the story out.
okay ill do that and he is 60, he turned 60 in december on the 19th
Thanks.
You know what funny, the place the Hurricane Ike hit is Galveston, TX. and that is where my mom is burried. The Salvation Army did help out there and I just find it ironic. It’s kinda a cool fact to know :P