War Cry - February, 2016 Page 47

The War Cry | FEBRUARY 2016

The Army

Out in Front

David Neff,

retired editor in chief of Christianity Today,

discusses how The Salvation Army builds on its tradition of pursuing justice and evangelism.

n the late 1990s, evangelicals began to wake up to the breadth and brutality of sex trafficking. But
one group was way ahead of everyone else. The Salvation Army has a history of fighting sex trafficking
that stretches back to 1881.

That's when Elizabeth Cottrill of the Army's Whitehall Corps

began taking women and girls who had escaped sexual slavery
into her home. When demand overwhelmed capacity, the
Army rented a house and put Florence Booth, wife of the
Salvation Army Founders' eldest son, in charge. Over the next
30 years, she expanded the specialized ministry to 117 shelters.

In 1884, a girl who had escaped a brothel by climbing down

a rainspout visited Florence's husband, Bramwell, in his office.
Her story compelled him to look into London's East End sex
trade. "The cries of outraged children," he wrote, "and the
smothered sobs of those imprisoned in living tombs were
continually in my ears."

Bramwell concluded that public

sentiment must be aroused and laws must
be changed. He approached his journalist
friend W. T. Stead. Like most Brits, Stead
needed proof that such evils occurred in
England. So in league with Bramwell and
several activists, Stead laid out a plan to
purchase a young girl from her family, have
her certified a virgin, then sell her to a
brothel. From there she would be rescued
immediately and sent to safety.

The scheme gave Stead the evidence he

needed for a 10�article expos� in The Pall Mall Gazette. For
months, the public talked of little else. Catherine Booth,
Bramwell's mother, engineered a "monster petition" of 393,000
signatures on a scroll that stretched two miles. The petition
asked Parliament to raise the age of consent from 13 to 18 and
demanded criminal penalties for procuring young people "for
seduction or immoral purposes." Parliament raised the age of
consent to 16, and the Army prepared housing for thousands
of girls who suddenly found themselves on the streets.

Some government officials, however, not wanting to admit

that sex trafficking was a problem, prosecuted the co-
conspirators. A judge convicted some of them on one
technicality: when Stead's agents purchased the girl from her
mother, they did not obtain her father's consent. As a result of
these events, The Salvation Army entered a new phase in which

social ministry stood alongside and supported evangelism.

Over the past 130 years, the Army has done a remarkable

job of holding individual salvation and social salvation in
balance. In 2013 in the United States, they provided 58 million
meals and 10 million nights of shelter; that same year, they
recorded 455,000 faith commitments.

To celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2015, the Army rolled

out a major social initiative aiming to lift 100,000 families out
of poverty over the next 15 years. Called Pathway of Hope, this
innovative program will target qualified families that show the
necessary "strengths and aptitudes" to benefit from in�depth
support from Army caseworkers. The Army began to pilot

programs in three midwestern communities
in late 2011. Early results show that 50
percent of the families who stayed in the
program "demonstrated increased stability
and sufficiency."

The U.S. wing of the Army has the

necessary reach to attempt a project of that
scale. "Across the country, we have about
3,500 active officers, 60,000 employees,
and 3.5 million volunteers," National
Commander David Jeffrey told me. "We're
in over 7,000 communities." In addition, the

Army is collaborating with social work departments at colleges
like Asbury, Trevecca Nazarene and Olivet Nazarene.

But to identify and serve these families on the path to self�

sufficiency, Jeffrey estimates, the Army will need to hire up to
700 more caseworkers. It will required an additional $200
million to ensure that the program can retain its faith�based
nature and stay free of government restrictions.

Faith commitments make a difference, Jeffrey says. For

example, in their adult rehabilitation programs, about 33
percent of those who complete the program do not reoffend
within the first year. But when graduates become involved in
a faith community, about 80 percent stay on the straight and
narrow.

The Salvation Army's history makes it clear: Evangelism

and social uplift belong together.

In 2013, the Army

provided

58 million

meals

and recorded

455,000 faith

commitments.

This article reprinted from Christianity Today by permission of the author.

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