Analysis: Boom year for Salvation Army

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- If an organization's success can be measured by the amount of people it has helped, then the Salvation Army in the United States experienced a boom year in 2002.

"We have found that we are needed more than ever before," Lt. Col. Tom Jones, the Salvationists' communications officer, told United Press International Tuesday, commenting on a report that his small evangelical denomination has assisted more than 42 million people during the fiscal year 2002.

This was an increase of 4.3 million -- or 10 percent -- from 2001. Commissioner W. Todd Basset, the Salvation Army's National Commander, described this as a record number. The services range from emergency lodging to financial aid, day-care and help in finding missing persons.

The church, founded in 19th century England and organized along military lines, currently celebrates National Salvation Army Week, in which its own leaders and those of the secular community honor its 5,452 officers (ministers), 118,000 soldiers (congregants) and 4.5 million volunteers, and inform the public of their ministry.

Around the country, there will be donut street parties, for example, reminding Americans of the "Sallies," or women Salvationists, handing out donuts and coffee at wartime.

Considering the small size of this denomination, its accomplishments in 2002 are staggering: more than 10 million nights of lodging for people who found themselves without shelter; cash grants handed out to more than 6 million individuals; almost 6 million receiving assistance during the Christmas holidays; and 60,000 referred to jobs.

According to Col. Jones, these and other increases in relief efforts reflect primarily the economically difficult economic. However, he observed, "People also turn to the Salvation Army out of a sense of spiritual hunger. They are searching for spiritual roots. They are looking for a solid rock they can hold onto."

The Salvation Army, whose officers -- or pastors -- earn never more than $15,000 a year, plus free housing and the use of a car, is arguably one of the most beloved Christian denominations, precisely because of its hands-on ministry. As a result, this is one church whose sanctuaries are filled with more than four times as many worshipers (457,000) as it has members.

Other denominations, too, benefit from the general appeal of the Salvation Army's straightforward Christianity. "We know that many people have resumed going to churches of their own denominations because of their experiences with us," Jones said. "The Salvation Army's fingerprints are on people who go to many other churches."

Asked about his favorite recent Salvation Army success story, Jones reminisced about a formerly well-to-do Virginia lawyer "who had lost his way because of his alcoholism."

"He came to us and stayed a week," the colonel went on, "but then he left because he thought he was better than all the drunks, bums, illiterates in our program. A week later, he was back in jail, where he realized he was no better than anybody else. He came back. He's been with us six months now and says he's found what he had been looking for -- getting right with God and himself."

Founded in England in 1865, this army whose soldiers bear no arms, is today facing tougher challenges than ever before. According to Jones, its largest contingent is stationed in Africa, doing ministry in dire circumstances.

In African Salvation Army hospitals, these officers and troopers dressed in English-style uniforms are engaged in a fierce struggle against the continent's current worst enemy -- AIDS. "I remember visiting a maternity ward, where every baby was HIV positive," Jones said.

And in this war, the Salvation Army takes casualties too. Just as Salvationist teachers and medical staff have been slaughtered by guerillas in the past, Jones said, "I am sure we are now losing some to AIDS -- not because of sexual indiscretions on their part but because they may have received tainted blood transfusions and have tended to infected patients.