"Doing The Most Good"

Yes i am going to go there... but first...

This is not an official Salvation Army Blog as such thoughts and feelings represented in the following blog are those of the author and not the the official Salvation Army.

"Doing the Most Good" Is the national brand of The Salvation Army in the united States. It has also been contreversial since it was adopted a couple of years ago. I have never been comfortable with it but until recently i haven't been able to articulate clearly for myself what it is about it that rally bothers me. I know why others don't like it.

1. many argue that it is arogant. That to say we are "doing the "MOST" good is implying that there are others that are doing less good.

2. Some argue that it is to vague, that it leaves it self open to varied misinterpretations.

3. Some think we should just let our actions speak for them selves and stop promoting our selves.

There are other problems that i have heard but i think my issue is deeper.

Doing the most good "for the most people" is one the more common misquote that i hear and i have heard it presented this way both in media and by Salvation Army representitives. The mistake is made because the laguage of this brand is very similiar to the language of Ultilitarianism.

Ultiltarianism is the ethical theory proposed by Jeremy Bentham and James Mill that all action should be directed toward achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people. the greatest good for the greatest number of people sounds great at first until it is thought on a little more carefully. The greatest number of people is not "all people", and that means there are people who are inevitably left out.

As The Salvation Army our mission is to Preach the Gospel and Meet Human need in his name without discrimination. It doesn't say how to meet those human needs or who to preach the Gospel to. It is easy to say that we will preach to everybody and meet all the needs but that isn't practical or true.

The truth is resourses are limited and limited resourses means hard decisions. My concern is that this kind of thinking will slowly (or quickly) pearmeate or movement and we begin to make ministry decisions based on 'doing the most good for the most people'. and that leaves the maginalized on the margins it leaves the outcast on the outside looking in it leaves people who don't fit out definition of 'the most' to fall through the cracks.

I have cast my lot with the Salvation Army because it has traditionally cast its lot with 'the least of these' which is for me the essence of a sacrmental live. Christ cast his lot with the 'least of these', or those who fall through the cracks.

I fear this effort to brand our self is simply another move to make our movement respectable and I have no desire to be respectable. Shuld we strive to present out good work to the community in the best possible but honest face? Absolutely should we accept the money offered by outssiders who support what we do yes.

We should not be affraid that our approach is different then that of most of the others that are in the 'bussiness' of helping people. To say we go after the people that no one else wants we take the jobs that others think are hopeless we want the bottom of the barrell becuse God Loves those people and they are valuable to him is something we should be proud of.

So let's lose "Doing the Most Good" and adopt "Doing what's Right" "Or Going for the worst" or the hundreds of other possple new slogans or maybe we just stick with on of the old ones like "heart to God Hand to Humanity" (sorry purists the feminists make some valid points too).