Why You Should Not Support The Salvation Army

The Salvation Army is a corrupt, money making business.  It's all about the money...your money.  Consider the following issues before you donate to the organization.  You can read details of all of these issues on my other blogs.  Read them before you donate. 

Officer misconduct:  Salvation Army officers are protected by the organization when they commit acts of misconduct and criminal actions, including rape and sexual assault.  Lt. Luis Valdez, a Salvation Army officer, was arrested and charged with raping a 16 year old girl in El Paso.  The Salvation Army transferred him to a new playground, housing him at a children's day camp for a year.  Another officer raped a young girl in Hawaii and was never punished.  The Salvation Army told victims he was terminated, but those victims found out he was merely transferred to a new location.  The victims found out when they read his obituary 50 years later.  He was a Salvation Army officer when he died.

Another officer, Major Robert Green took pictures of women's rear ends and showed them in a Power Point presentation.  He was simply transferred to another location.  He is still on the job in Fort Worth, Texas, and still disrespecting women. 

Officer misconduct runs rampant throughout The Salvation Army.  Offenses for which employees are terminated is never addressed if committed by officers, or the officer is merely transferred to another Salvation Army location.  There is a "thin black line" that covers up and that protects officers.

Disaster Relief Scams: Read The Salvation Army's pleas for disaster relief donations very carefully.  None of those pleas state that your donations will go to the victims of disaster victims.  The money goes into the general fund of The Salvation Army.  Victims of disasters never see the money, even though you believe you are donating money for their benefit.  Disaster relief is a money making business for The Salvation Army.

Employee Pension Plan: The Salvation Army has a liability for employee pensions that is approaching $2 billion.  The pension plan is severely underfunded, yet the organization owns more than $4 billion in real estate, including luxury offices and homes for its officers.  Employees who are counting on retirement benefits from The Salvation Army should be aware of the issues with underfunding the plan.

Vehicle Donation Plan: The issue with this program relates to officer embezzlement of funds from sales of donated vehicles and fraudulent letters sent to donors who use those letters to justify income tax deductions for vehicles donated to The Salvation Army for resale.  If you donated a vehicle to The Salvation Army and the vehicle was not sold for the amount the organization represented to you in its donor letter, you may have an issue with the Internal Revenue Service.


There are many issues that should cause you to pause if you are considering a donation to The Salvation Army.  Read my blogs before you support corruption.

Major Robert Green - Prejudice and Misconduct

I have known Major Robert Green, and his wife, Charma, for more than three years. We met shortly after their appointment as Corp Officers for The Carr P Collins Social Services Center in Dallas, Texas, where I was the Billing and Finance Manager. This piece covers some serious issues; his lack of respect, prejudice and gross misconduct on the job.

Major Robert Green is still a Salvation Army officer and is now assigned to The Lancaster Corp in Fort Worth, Texas. The Salvation Army transfers officers who commit misconduct. Officers are never held to the same standards it holds its employees. The bar for ethical and moral behavior is much lower for officers.


The following statements are direct quotes from Major Robert Green.  

“Did you see the way that woman was dressed? If I were her husband I would have hit her too. Oh, I'm not saying I condone domestic violence, but I do understand why her husband hit her." 

Major Green made those two statements about a client in the Domestic Violence program at The Carr P Collins Social Services Center, a facility owned by The Salvation Army.  At the time he was the Corp Officer for the facility.


“I don't know why The Salvation Army does business with Home Depot. They hire gays.”

Major Green made that statement to the finance staff of The Carr P Collins facility.  The facility has an account with Home Depot.

I know gay and lesbian employees who work for The Salvation Army. Does Major Robert Green believe you should not donate to The Salvation Army? After all, they hire gays and lesbians.


Major Green committed gross misconduct on the job:

In the fall of 2012, at a golf outing (Top Golf) for the program managers of the Carr P Collins facility Major Green took pictures numerous inappropriate pictures of the rear ends of some of our female program managers. He was observed taking the pictures and was asked to delete them from his camera, which he agreed to do. However, instead of deleting the pictures, at the next managers meeting he included them in a PowerPoint presentation, complete with inappropriate captions.

One of the shots was the rear end of The Director of Operation for Carr P Collins, Ms Blake Fetterman. The tag line Major Green chose was, "It's all in the wiggle".  Other female employees were treated to the same disrespect in Major Green's presentation.


Major Green thought his presentation was funny. Everyone else was embarrassed, insulted and outraged.

Several managers, including me, complained in writing about the incident. The Texas Divisional Headquarters of The Salvation Army sent two human resource employees to interview those who complained.

Because I saw a pattern of escalating bad behavior in my dealings with Major Green, I included the other issues documented in this piece in my complaint. I wanted Salvation Army leadership to know I had not chosen to write a complaint about Major Green without seeing the pattern of misconduct.

I was asked why I included other incidents in my complaint. One of the two Human Resources employees asked if I thought mentioning the other issues was appropriate. Yes, his pattern of behavior was relevant.

Three other questions I was asked; “Don’t you think Major Green was just joking?” and “Did you see anyone laugh at the presentation?” and “Will you still be able to work at Carr P Collins with Major Green?”

I saw the final question for me the same way everyone else saw it. We were being invited to leave if we could not work with Major Green. It was a veiled threat, but I got the message and so did others. The Human Resources employees had a job to do and that job was to downplay the issue.  Their mission was to sanitize Major Green’s actions and begin the job of sweeping those actions under the carpet. They should have been carrying brooms, instead of pens and paper.

The Carr P Collins Human Resources Manager, Ms Kacye Harvey, gave the two-person clean up squad a pass, telling me “they are doing what they have to do to keep their jobs.”That was a true statement.

For the next two months Major Green continued to work at Carr P Collins, while The Salvation Army considered what to do. He held his daily devotionals, preached his Sunday sermons and continued to interact with those he offended. In devotionals he and his wife talked about the evil at Carr P Collins that was working against them. Neither ever admitted that Major Green's misconduct was the issue.

Around two months after the slide presentation it was announced that Major Green and his wife were transferring to Fort Worth, where they now serve as Corp Officers. The decision to transfer them was belatedly made by The Salvation Army’s Divisional Commander for The State of Texas, Lt. Colonel Ken Luyk and Major Ward Matthews, Dallas/Fort Worth Area Commander. 

The transfer was announced about a month before it took place, leaving Major Green plenty of time to rub in the fact that he was not really being punished for anything.  Most of the time he claimed victory over all of us who complained about his actions. Of course there were times when he played the victim, blaming everyone at Carr P Collins for persecuting him. Some days he claimed victory, other days he was the victim.

Lt. Colonel Ken Luyk and Major Ward Matthews knew Major Green's actions were wrong, but they also knew all along that appropriate actions would not be taken.  Both of them failed the backbone test. Both are morally bankrupt. Their handling of this incident proves it.  If I had been the cameraman, they would have fired me immediately.  Their moral standards bar is much lower for a fellow Salvation Army officer.

Lt. Colonel Ken Luyk and Major Ward Matthews protected a fellow officer while treating loyal employees like that pile of stuff the neighbors dog leaves in your front yard.

Here is the final blow with respect to Major Green. On May 21, 2013 The Salvation Army released a bulletin announcing that Major Robert Green was sent to Moore, Oklahoma as a counselor, in the aftermath of the tornado that recently moved through the area. With everything The Salvation Army knows about this man, he was still sent to be a counselor. Major Robert Green should be receiving counseling, not giving it.