'Tis the Season to be Oblivious

The holiday season for many is a time for charity. For freethinking members of society who don't wish to contribute to the painfully out of touch agenda of many religious charities, it can be difficult to find charitable organizations with a secular viewpoint. In the past, prior to my recovery from religious manipulation, I've personally donated to The Salvation Army, perhaps the most high profile charity during the holidays. As with too many Christian establishments, The Salvation Army maintains many views that exemplify just how detrimentally unaware many Christian institutions and those of other religious convictions are. To prove this point, I visited SA's website and reviewed their "position statements" regarding various topics, with special attention to the areas dealing with sexuality. Here are some "positions" that I found most disturbing:

"...sexual intimacy is not essential to a healthy, full, and rich life."

"...Christians whose sexual orientation is primarily or exclusively same-sex are called upon to embrace celibacy as a way of life."

"Men and women need each other, not only in the bonds of marriage, but in nearly every aspect of our lives."

"Marriage is the only proper context for sexual intimacy."

There is a plethora of other statements made on the site consistent with the insensible postulations of many religious assertions, including those related to abortion, assisted reproduction, birth control, even social drinking. They can be found here:

http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn_2.nsf/vw-text-dynamic-arrays/B6F3F4DF3150F5B585257434004C177D?openDocument

Even with unrealistic stances, there can be no doubt The Salvation Army, along with other charities, religious-based or not, do make real, positive impacts in people's lives. I can't imagine any responsible, compassionate member of society being opposed to helping our fellow world inhabitants, human or otherwise. However, what I personally cannot condone is the proliferation of ideas that contradict the very reality that we are immersed in and instead promote beliefs that devalue the human experience of others.

Would I accept the charity of a religious person or organization should I fall upon hard times in the future? I certainly would; just as I would not withhold my charitable contributions to other individuals based on religious beliefs. I would absolutely never deny much needed assistance to someone based on any of their beliefs; that is certainly not what I am promoting in the least. However, we do have the option of providing donations to organizations with secular ambitions, or those religious organizations more in tune with true understanding and humanism.

Here is a list of some secular charities:

http://www.freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Charities

Faith based organizations I like to refer people to, which accept direct contributions, and which can likely cite other sensible venues for donations include:

http://www.uua.org/

http://www.calchurches.org/

Many, many other nonreligious groups, associations, businesses, ect., can be found at the following link. I'm sure many of these accept donations as well, and can be found either by nation or state wide:

http://www.atheistalliance.org/directory/list.php

Please feel free to add to this list by commenting or sending links for me to post. Thank you!

'Tis the season to give intelligently!