Struggling with Salvation (non-dog)

This is not dog-related, feel free to skip it. It may end up being dog-related, most things do around here, you just never know. 

The Salvation Army and I don't have much in common.  They are a para-military, right-wing Christian church, and I am not.  It has gone out of its way to adopt and promulgate positions and policies that are anti-choice, anti-gay, and generally consistent with a right-wing political philosophy.  They have employment practices that are disciminatory and just plain bizarre.  And even their charitable endeavors can be somewhat twisted and whacko, in the hands of zealots. 

A week or so ago I was talking with my mother and she told me how much she had enjoyed shopping for a child that day through the Salvation Army's Angel Tree program.  I expect everyone knows what that is, but basically they put up trees in various places around town with cards on them identifying particular children and that child's needs/wants for Christmas.  They are presumably needy children who otherwise won't be receiving much in the way of gifts.  The program varies a bit by locality, but around here at least, the child and the donor remain anonymous and the card on the tree lists the child's age, gender, clothing sizes, and toy requests.  The donors shop for as little or as much as they want and then deliver the unwrapped gifts in a bag along with the card that identifies the child to the program director.

Anyway, my mother told me how much she had enjoyed the shopping, free of worry about fit or style preferences.  You shop, you don't have to wrap, and you hope that they will like and can use what you get, but you don't have to worry about it.  I suggested that since she enjoyed it so much, she should go out the next day and do it again.  She did so, and I thought I should do the same. 

She was right, it was kind of fun.  I had never shopped for a 10 year old kid.  I hit Dick's Sporting Goods with a coupon for a soccer ball and such, and then Walmart for clothes.  I dropped the stuff off yesterday, but not without mixed feelings.

So, how do I feel about the Salvation Army?  I have no use for them.  It's a right-wing church first and foremost.  I don't think panhandling is an appropriate form of fund raising for anyone other than homeless people so I'd never drop a dime in their red kettles.  If I ever hear that they only allow Christian children to participate in their Angel Tree program, or require them to sit through an indoctrination lecture as a condition precedent to receiving my donation, I'd never do it again.  But, as right-wing religious organizations go, I guess it's far from the worst.  Yes, like most churches, they prey on the most desperate and vulnerable people in our society.  But, to give the devil his due, they do at least put their faith into action and do something tangibly beneficial for people in need.  They may make you sit through a lecture or prayer service, but when your most basic needs of food and shelter are not being met in any other way, that's a small enough price to pay. 

I'd take a working religion over one that would slip a cracker into a starving man's mouth after doing nothing to prevent him from reaching death's door, and I have more respect for a church that operates a kitchen and a homeless shelter than one that promotes "salvation" by professing to be forgiven and born again.