Salvation Army serves up soul food

The Salvation Army is playing a bigger role than ever in feeding, clothing and sheltering the District’s poor — but those expanding responsibilities haven’t eclipsed the organization’s No. 1 goal: introducing people to a more spiritual way of life.

That approach — providing care for both body and soul — is making a difference in the life of “Paul,” a homeless man going through the six-month residential drug-treatment program at the Salvation Army Harbor Light Treatment Center in Northeast.

“I’m finding I can feel again, I can care again,” said Paul, whose real name was withheld to protect his identity.

It all began, he said, in the Harbor Light chapel Dec. 31.

“I’m 50 years old. This was the first time I’d been to church on New Year’s Eve,” said the D.C. native. “It’s the love and peace that was there, it’s an unexplainable feeling. I’m learning to make contact with my higher power, to have faith.”

Ten weeks in the faith-based program rekindled something in the former drug dealer he thought was gone: hope. The weekly worship services, twice-weekly Bible studies and daily prayer meetings in the chapel are all optional — but Paul says he is at every event he can attend.

“This is an opportunity for me to grow, to find myself,” he said. “I can sit here and talk to you and look you in the eye and feel good about myself.”

The drug-treatment program in the building at 2100 New York Ave. is one of many Salvation Army programs across the region and the country that offer a healthy dollop of salvation along with their expanding menu of services.

At Harbor Light, for example, therapists and counselors emphasize that submitting to a higher power is an important step in healing.

“They should have some kind of belief system because it’s about goal attainment,” said clinical supervisor Sheila Hallsey.

Federal support has expanded in recent years for faith-based organizations providing social services like those available at Harbor Light — but the effort is not without critics.

The New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) recently filed a lawsuit on behalf of several Salvation Army civilian employees who feel discriminated against by forms that ask them to support the group’s spiritual mission and disclose their churchgoing habits. Because the organization receives some government funding, the employees say they should be protected from such inquiries.

“This case is not about the right of the Salvation Army to practice or promote its religion,” Donna Lieberman, executive director of the NYCLU, said in a news release. “They have every right to do so. But not with government money.”

The Salvation Army says the forms are given only to employees who work with children. “The reason is that it’s a natural segue into doing a background check. It’s a starting point,” national spokesman Maj. George Hood said. “It’s not used to eliminate nonchurch members from working opportunities.”

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