Thoroughly Inspecting the Salvation Army

Almost everyone has some acquaintance, however slight, with the Salvation Army, whether it’s the shelters for the homeless, bell-ringers in malls collecting for charity, a brass band playing on a street corner, or the big trucks that pick up old clothing and furniture. Then too, as Diane Winston reminds us in her lively, well-documented book “Red-Hot and Righteous,” the image of the starchy Salvation Army lass has become part of popular culture, right down to the heroine of the musical “Guys and Dolls.” The Salvation Army also inspired George Bernard Shaw’s play “Major Barbara,” not to mention Vachel Lindsay’s rousing poetic tribute to the army’s founder, “General William Booth Enters Into Heaven.”

But despite this superficial familiarity, many of us do not know much about the Salvation Army’s history or the role it continues to play in American life. Far from having become an anachronism, the Salvation Army of the 1990s, Winston tells us, “has been the nation’s largest charitable fund-raiser, receiving more public support than the Red Cross. . . .”

The story of the Salvation Army is an international one, beginning in England in 1865, with its founding by the self-styled “General” Booth. Winston’s study, however, begins in New York in 1880, when a band of seven “Hallelujah lassies” and their leader, George Railton, arrived from England to bring their message to America. Their aim was to “save” the “unchurched” masses: poor and working-class slum dwellers.

The army’s strategy, as laid down by Booth, was “TO ATTRACT ATTENTION.” While many late-19th century Protestant churches offered worshipers a respite from the hurly-burly world, the Salvation Army took religion to the streets, marching into saloons and brothels to save boozers and fallen women, and cheerfully appropriating the techniques of the burgeoning commercial culture--brass bands, garish ads and a circus-like atmosphere. One early poster promised a show of “men who were as wild as LIONS as savage as TIGERS and as stubborn as old JUMBO” but who’d been “captured by Army troops and tamed.”

Indeed, despite their missionary zeal and conspicuously plain clothing, Salvationists enjoyed boisterous, revival-style meetings. Or, as their newspaper put it, they saw “no reason why the devil’s children should have the monopoly of dancing and singing on the way to hell, while we who are on the way to heaven are expected to be silent and still.”

Initially, the Salvationists were widely ridiculed. But before long, their sincerity and commitment won them respect. Their religion was weak on theology but strong on action, which appealed to Americans. Salvationist “slum sisters” moved into poor neighborhoods, where they offered help with household chores. In World War I, “Sallies” went to the battlefront to bake fresh doughnuts for grateful doughboys.

Winston examines the varied styles of successive leaders of the American movement, culminating in Booth’s youngest daughter, Evangeline, who topped all her predecessors in the art of attracting attention. She even starred in a show of her own devising called “The Commander in Rags.” “My parents,” she reflected, “ . . . were always afraid I might leave the Army, and . . . go on stage because--well, I had a bit of good looks and a gift for speaking. Besides, I was no cold, prudish creature. But I was never tempted . . . at least, not too much. It’s interesting to be tempted a little.”

At a time when many religions forbade women to preach, Salvationist women, we learn, not only were encouraged to do so but could rise to the army’s highest echelons, often outranking the men. From the outset, Salvationists welcomed people of all races. And although the army tried to stay out of politics, it did denounce lynching, aid striking workers and back Prohibition.

Although the early Salvationists saw sin and drink as primary causes of misery among the urban poor, Winston notes that it was the “scientifically” minded social reformers of that era who deemed it necessary to distinguish the “deserving” from the “undeserving” poor. Religiously inspired slum workers like the Salvationists considered it their duty to minister to all.

Winston explains that the Salvationists were fundamentalists: They believed in the Bible, literally. But, adhering to Scripture did not make them bigots: quite the reverse. They were non-racist, non-sexist and tolerant of other religions. No doubt these qualities, in addition to their knack for “attracting attention,” must have contributed a great deal to their success.