A popular donut shop in Portland, Maine, was forced to apologize for working with The Salvation Army – which activists claim is “homophobic” – when providing Christmas to a needy family.Fox News’ Todd Starnes is reporting on the misguided attack on The Holy Donut, popular for its healthy but still delicious donuts, which did nothing more than reach out to The Salvation Army to find a family in need that could be helped by a gift drive.
“Instead of saluting the donut shop for doing a good deed – an online mob stormed their Facebook page. Many accused The Salvation Army of being anti-gay and discriminating against the LGBT community. It was all untrue, of course – but the truth doesn’t really matter these days,” Starnes writes.
The Salvation Army has been under attack for years because of its adherence to biblical teaching about homosexuality with accusations of discrimination and lobbying against the LGBT community.
However, as the organization states, “The Salvation Army is open and inclusive to all people. Anyone who comes through our doors will receive help based on their need and our capacity to assist. We annually serve around 30 million Americans from a variety of backgrounds – we do not pick and choose who we serve based on religion, sexual orientation or any other factor.”
They continue: “Any instance of discrimination is in direct opposition to our core beliefs and is against all of our policies."
They also categorically dismiss accusations that they fund lobbyists against the furthering of LGBT rights because "It is not The Salvation Army’s practice to spend funds on lobbying. The Salvation Army is apolitical and concentrates its resources on providing relief and compassionate care to those in crisis. Any advocacy is done in regard to the services we provide and educating legislators on how government actions will impact those we serve.”
Unfortunately, as the Holy Donut episode proves, this misinformation campaign against The Salvation Army seems to be pushed most heavily during the “red kettle season” of Christmas.
“It is difficult to fight a phantom,” The Salvation Army says, and asks people to help end these rumors so that their coffers won’t suffer the funds needed to serve the needy.
The community did just that and rallied around the Holy Donut, fighting back on Facebook.
“Going after a donut shop because they don’t like their politics is exactly why people voted for Trump,” one observer wrote online.
“I don’t care if someone is L, G, B or T, but when they stand in the way of people helping people simply because their own personal noses are out of joint, they lose my respect and any sympathy I have for their cause,” wrote another.
But the anti-donut mob didn’t let up and threatened to boycott the business unless they renounced their association with the Salvation Army.
The donut shop finally did so, issuing a statement apologizing to anyone who was offended and insisting that they “do not support The Salvation Army or consider them our ‘partner’ for this project, they simply linked us to a needy family. We have nothing to gain here, we just wanted to help a family in need.”
The whole debacle did more damage to the LGBT community, who look like a bunch of insensitive nit-pickers, while The Holy Donut walked away looking like the only adult in the room.
“Ah yes, nothing quite like an old-fashioned yuletide public shaming,” Starnes writes about the whole episode. “The Holy Donut should be commended for helping a family in need and spreading a bit of Christmas cheer. And shame on all of you folks out there for harassing these good people and spreading out-right lies about the Salvation Army. Shame!”
He adds: “They should also be commended for making delicious donuts. (I’ve been privileged to sample their Maple Bacon Maine Potato Donut).”
Sounds good to me!
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