Practice Test

Well there always comes a time when you have to stretch your weak spots, mine happens to be in english. 

The next days I need to write a placement test for university. This is my first one as practice please enjoy errors and all 

When you drop a few coins in the red kettle during the holiday seasons, have you ever thought you might be encouraging rampant bigotry? The salvation army does indeed help many in need, but only those that they feel deserve help. This is based on their views and evangelical beliefs. Should you happen to be gay, lesbian or transgendered and renounce what they consider to be an  un-healthy life style in the eyes of god.  You are cast out back into the cold. with out aid or support. 

As of 2010 the Salvation Army has assets totaling well over 12 billion dollars. It made 3.7 billion in total donations during the year world wide. It spent 2.6 billion for worldwide programs and another 191 million in fundraiser programs. They also spent close to 350 million in operating expenses, these operating expenses also included fee's paid for lobbying efforts in a number of countries world wide to promote their christian principles. 

Some of the programs they have spent included the use of reparative therapy on Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered  people. For those not familiar with this form of therapy, its main purpose is to try and convince a patient they are actually broken and can be cured. They often try to correct the problem with prayer and deep psychological conditioning, suppressing the biological desire the individual feels. This method has been widely discredited by many psychologist as being extremely harmful to the patient. Since the early 80's it has become widely accepted that homosexuality is a biological and natural occurrence in nature. Despite this some religious organizations still promote and practice this method, many without any psychological training. This is often called praying the gay away.

The Salvation Army has also spent millions of dollars in lobbying efforts to suppress any gay rights. This is not limited to just gay marriage but any legislation that promotes protection of their right to work, live or freely express themselves in peace and free of violence. In 2001 the Salvation army posted that it had a firm commitment from the Bush government that it would be shielded from any city or state legisitaltion barring discrimination of Gay, Lesbian or Transgendered individuals. This was struck down months later after an initial uproar. Again in 2004 they threatened to leave New York City all together if then Mayor Bloomberg enforced a new city bylaw forcing all groups with city contracts to pay benefits to all same sex couples and extended the same rights as hetrosexual couples. Recently in 2012 Maj. Andrew Craibe the spokesman for the Salvation Army in Australia went on a radio show and was quoted as saying "deserve to die" When pressed on the issue by they radio host who was gay he replied " You know, we have an alignment to the Scriptures, but that’s our belief."

Is this christian beliefs, or a twisted version that has been allowed to spread and not evolve as our society has grown and learned over the last 100 years.  Jesus set up a simple rule to just be good to one another and respect all life. To not judge anyone and allow god to make that final judgement. All of the funds that they gather come from donations worldwide, all those coins and dollars dumped in those red kettles fund a portion of hatred and bigotry that I truly believe contradicts the true teachings of Christ. So I ask you next year when you see these kettles across the country in a mall near you, can you give from the heart knowing what some of the funds are used for?