Without a recognition of the hurtful and limiting experiences of the past, trust and enthusiasm for future changes will be limited. Any step forward, therefore; ought to include an acknowledgement of harm done. Said one interviewee, “As an organization we need to repent and lament before we move on. Our leaders need to listen and lament and embrace these hard stories.” Another said, “Please just hear us and receive our words and acknowledge our pain.” ¹ Healing and restoration will require truth-telling and humble repentance.

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[1] Interview data: “We need to listen to the deep pains and the great joys. We need to pay attention to the injured and those who are healing;” “It is important to listen to female stories and the female experience in our organization. I want people to stop minimizing my story.” 

Closely linked with reconciliation is the call to use power redemptively. It comes with the sober realization that power imbalances exist within our current system. Entering into The Officer’s Undertakings represents submission of officers to the organization, trusting leadership to be accountable to God for the power afforded them and to appropriately steward the officers’ holy calling in the context of covenant. We acknowledge that the Officer Undertakings is beyond the scope of our authority to revise, however, power dynamics emerging from its language and interpretation fall within the key findings from our officer interviews and therefore need to be considered (See Recommendations C6, C7). Upon entering into the undertakings, a significant and sacred trust is placed upon leaders. Leaders become the providers, and the rest of the officer force are the recipients of that provision, in a near parent-child relationship. Recognizing that a system is composed of “human beings standing together for something,”² and acknowledging that people in leadership are susceptible to unconscious bias, it is hard to imagine how equity can exist in a system that lacks a framework of accountability to these ideals.

The recurring emphasis on compliance and obedience, which is tied to officers’ faithfulness to their spiritual covenant, leads to a loss of discernment as to what is appropriate or inappropriate when it comes to interactions with the organization in general and with those in leadership positions over them.³ It also deters any healthy critique of the organization or those in supervisory or leadership positions and vilifies those who choose to speak up for their personal needs. (For more detail, refer to Addendum Paper entitled “The Undertakings and Paternalism.”) Theologically speaking, this power entrusted to leadership is to be curated in a way that protects, serves and restores dignity.⁴ In a system where leadership holds such significant power over the lives of officers, and where leadership is male dominated, female officers are even more impacted by the power imbalance. Women interviewed spoke of the learned helplessness they experience under the current appointment system, as well as the lack of accountability for the oppressive and harmful actions of the past. “People who were my leaders hurt me, they shut me down, no one was held accountable and there was no one to turn to.” “We sit and wait as leaders whisper in secret about decisions directly impacting our lives.”⁵

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[2] Dr. Diane Langberg, author of Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church

[3] This is not a new phenomenon within The Salvation Army. Peter Jacob Letkemann as a student at The University of British Columbia, wrote in his Masters of Arts thesis entitled The Salvation Army – A Study In Compliance, “Anyone reading Salvation Army literature, especially the writings intended for its own participants, will be impressed by the strong and ever recurring emphasis on compliance. Authority is ordained of God and obedience is blessed of God. Authority plus obedience equals victory. This is the formula of The Salvation Army and its theme runs throughout its literature, sermons and songs.” – pg 15.  Source: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0105004 

[4] “Jesus uses power to protect, to expose and to restore dignity. He calls his people to be in the world using our power under his authority, displaying his character by speaking truth, shedding light, and tending and protecting the vulnerable.” Redeeming Power: Understanding Authority and Abuse in the Church, Dianne Langberg, Ch. 12.

[5] Interview data: “I live in the tension between respecting the process of appointments, and not being able to input into our own lives and trusting God’s providence—learned helplessness;” “We need godly people who will lead from a place of servant leadership—gender aside;” “There is a subtle messaging in roles at THQ that the husband always has the more important role than wife—this subtle messaging permeates the oppressive culture at THQ.”

Men and women are each created in the image of God and thereby carry inherent worth, dignity and value. As a part of the church, the body of Christ on earth, The Salvation Army represents Jesus to the world, who consistently recognized and affirmed the uniqueness and value of each person. While the organization represents this well in its mission to others, the lived experience of women officers reveals this to be less than true in its internal relations with officer personnel. This is reflected in these statements by interviewees: “I have to come to realize that The Salvation Army didn’t understand me, didn’t see me, didn’t know me,” and, “There is a developed bias in our system. It is such a terrible feeling to have leaders look right at you and not see you.”⁶

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[6] Interview data: “There are a few times when I feel as though I have been ignored by the organization.”

In the first creation story, in Genesis 1, both men and women are given authority and responsibility as co-leaders and co-stewards of the created world. In addition, marriages are designed to reflect the co-equality, oneness and mutuality of the Trinity, without hierarchy of power. The Salvation Army’s witness to egalitarian theology is rooted in proper interpretation of scripture and ought to inform practice in home, church and organizational life. (Refer to Addendum Paper entitled “Gender Equity: Aligning Egalitarian Theology with Practice.”)

As a cadet on a special weekend, they decided that I should stay home with my child rather than asking my husband and I what we needed—they sent my husband.

Interview data reveals a culture marked by headship theology that manifests in male authority and women in supporting roles. One woman shared, “There are times when the organization asks us not to be (a team), and to let him lead in places where it would be more natural for me to lead.” The expectations this places on how couples function at home, at church, and in appointments within the organization, act as barriers to the flourishing of women as individuals in leadership.⁷ One woman expressed, “At times it has felt as though I am treated as an associate officer to my husband who is the lead.” Another shared, “I have been discouraged by something I heard recently. A senior leader female said that her job is to be in support of her husband. It makes me sad to think about my future, that my husband will be offered opportunities, will be seen by the organization because he is a man. There are many days when I wonder why I became an officer.” Many women interviewed also testified to the added burden of being primarily responsible for household and parenting duties, an expectation that was not equally placed upon the husband. The stronger the teaching and modeling around co-leading and co-serving in every sphere, including the home, the greater the freedom and empowerment to do the same in the ministry space.

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[7] Interview data: “Upon entry to CFOT where I was known as ‘Mrs.’ —my individuality was gone. I became wife, not partner—we were not equal.” 

As a church, The Salvation Army has been endued with spiritual gifts among its people, gifts given “for the good of all” (1 Corinthians 12:7). The Army’s 16th general, John Gowans, once wrote, “Leadership is a gift of the Spirit in whom ‘there is no such thing … as male and female.’ To waste any gift or leave any talent buried seems to be a tragedy, according to the teaching of Christ.”⁸ In the covenant made in the Officer Undertakings, leadership is to “encourage officers in the use and development of their creative abilities.” Women officers report that the organization is not aware of, nor have they properly stewarded, their gifts. One interviewee shared, “My husband was the area commander, and I was not, but if anyone looked at us individually—our skills and our giftings—they would know that he is not gifted at administration, that it was me who was doing the administration, the finance, and my husband who was pastoring the congregation.”⁹

The individual, as well as the mission, cannot thrive until every effort is given to recognize and enable officers to walk in their giftings. “If God by grace gives the gift of leadership, let her lead well.” (Romans 12:8).

Right now I don't feel that our organization knows my giftings. I receve almost no opportunity to speak about what I am passionate about and share that with our organization.

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[8] Gowans, General John. “Women’s Gifts should not be wasted.” The Officer. The Salvation Army International Headquarters, December 2000.

[9] Interview data: “There are default appointments—I have seen colleagues placed into these roles, even though they are not gifted or interested or passionate about Women Ministries they are put there-. This devalues the person and devalues the role of Women’s Ministries;” “I have been typecast in many of my roles—assistant to my husband, at CFOT personnel—it feels as though it was my gender that decided that;” “Right now, I don’t feel like our organization knows my giftings.”