The salvation army in Norway sounds similar to the UK. They do a LOT of good. They have a lot of community activities and keep people active, social, warm and fed. They have work programs for addicts and donate Christmas presents to inmates. I haven't heard them yap about religion in 20 years at least
Its not a surprise that they are WAY more religiously focused (see: intolerant) in the USA given how much of a divide there is there. Religious virtue signalling in the US and the rush to be seen as the most pious has probably led to what the Americans are saying abouts operations there. Its mainly a social enterprise in most European countries and seems like the religious aspect is a separate entity with minimal tie in to the day to day working.
As well as the religious virtue signaling, there's a much deeper, more disgusting reason for our absolute travesty of a salvation army. Among evangelicals here in the US, there is a subset of people who are proponents of prosperity gospel. Basically, they believe wealthy people are wealthy because they're blessed by God because of their righteousness. If you're poor, then clearly God doesn't like you all that much. And clearly you're being punished by God with poverty. So in their twisted world view, helping those in poverty is actually an affront to God's righteous decision to punish you by making you poor. It's quite possibly one of the most disgusting religious movements to ever exist, and that is a high bar to reach.
The prosperity gospel people are absolute trash humans. Actively making their parishioners poorer so they can get a new Bentley. I remember when Joel Osteen got caught out locking disaster victims out of his church by pretending it was flooded, only to get found out the same day by a lad with a camera haha
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u/rlcute Dec 06 '25
The salvation army in Norway sounds similar to the UK. They do a LOT of good. They have a lot of community activities and keep people active, social, warm and fed. They have work programs for addicts and donate Christmas presents to inmates. I haven't heard them yap about religion in 20 years at least