Recall the recent story of the Salvation Army going woke involved the longtime Christian charity promoting to its members a problematic guidebook entitled “Let’s Talk About Racism” that was heavily infused with Critical Race Theory. As objections erupted across social media and in the broader public, SA’s leadership pulled the controversial guide and issued a statement (not an apology nor a mea culpa) that read: “Elements of the recently issued, ‘Let’s Talk About Racism’ guide led some to believe we think they should apologize for the color of their skin, or that The Salvation Army may have abandoned its Biblical beliefs for another philosophy or ideology. That was never our intention, so the guide has been removed for appropriate review.”

Well, it now appears that the backtracking was a day late and a dollar short, as the charity’s famous Red Kettle Campaign is falling well short of SA’s fundraising goals. In Tallahassee, Florida, for example, with just one week to go in the campaign, the charity has raised $114,000 — some $50,000 below the original goal. Campaigns in several other states are experiencing a similar drop in donations. There’s still time to make up the deficit, but signs are pointing in the wrong direction.

Of the downturn, political analyst Liz Wheeler observed: “When you call white donors, tell them to apologize for their racism, tell your white donors that because of the color of their skin they’re inherently racists and there’s no way to avoid being racists — I mean, this is a horrible thing. It’s a false thing. It’s a toxic allegation. … This is a huge turn-off for everybody in our country, regardless of your political stripe.” In other words, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.

But there’s a deeper element here that should concern every biblically committed Christian, and that is the fact that the ideology of CRT is at its very core opposed to the Gospel message. How in any logical or rational sense can an explicitly Christian organization promote an ideology that opposes and indeed attacks the very foundational tenets of the faith and not expect to suffer damage? As Proverbs puts it, “Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?”

When questioned about this season’s apparent underperforming campaign, a spokesperson for SA sought to downplay any concerns: “We have no information to suggest that the efforts of any political action group is affecting the Red Kettle results. Our units in local markets have ups and downs each year, which shouldn’t be mistaken to represent the status of our national Red Kettle campaign. We expect to have a measure of the national results in early 2022, and we are encouraged by the final tally of this year’s National Commander’s Red Kettle Challenge, which doubled the amount raised in 2020.”

The question is whether SA leadership merely dabbled with woke ideology or embraced it. Time will tell, but statements regarding the controversy seem to indicate that leaders have traveled farther down the road to Wokeville than they’re willing to admit. If its campaign ends up underperforming, we hope that will encourage them to turn back to the true Gospel and reject the false gospel of wokeness.