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Christianity with its sleeves rolled up

The waiting press, expecting something approaching a crusader force, were instead greeted by three Salvationists waving banners proclaiming "Africa for Jesus". That was how it all began - with an anti-climax.

The Salvation Army is a registered Christian church and theologically akin to the Methodist Church. In reality, it is more like a social movement. "Christianity with its sleeves rolled up," is one of the Salvationists' mottos.

Founder William Booth, a fiery preacher who established a ministry working with the outcasts of society, was rebuked by the Methodist Church hierarchy in 1860s England for bringing his street converts into their middle-class congregations. So he started his own congregation, using a tent in a disused cemetery as the place of worship.

The Salvation Army was born in the super-heated fires of the militant evangelical revival sweeping England during the industrial revolution.

Booth formed an "apostolate of love" to minister to the needs of demobbed Crimean War conscripts, many of them crippled, unemployed and poverty-stricken. This new movement struck a chord with the poor and down-trodden and its rapid expansion often met with hostility and violent opposition.

From its early beginning the Salvation Army had as its mission the salvation of society's outcasts - the alcoholics, gamblers, prostitutes, criminals and the poor. Many of these were clients of public bars and bordellos, so it is not surprising to find publicans and others in the hospitality trade at the forefront of opposition to the Army's missionary advance. During its first three years in the Cape, Salvationists were frequently set upon by hired thugs, known as the Skeleton Army, out to protect their employers' dissolute trade.

"Many a night Captain Pascoe and I stood back to back while the hooligans pelted us with eggs," wrote one of the early volunteers, adding that at times seventy and more of a "rag and bobtail mob" tried to disrupt activities.

The Skeleton Army found willing help from police, who stoked the fires of persecution under the guise of maintaining law and order. These "threats" to public order were the Army's open air ministries and their trademark brass bands which attracted many hangers-on to the corps, as they named their churches. Preachers and bandsmen gladly accepted the martyrdom of a night behind bars, only to take to the street the next day to resume marching and preaching. Some did hard labour, working pick and shovel on Sir Lowry's Pass.

Despite persecution, the Salvation Army grew from strength to strength. A total of 21 corps were established during the first three years, growing to 60 over the following 15 months (30 of them categorised as white corps, 18 coloured, 10 Dutch and two African) while the officer strength trebled. An illustration of the early growth is the increase in circulation of the Church's weekly publication, The War Cry, from 4 000 to 10 000 by 1887. Today, in contrast, the magazine's circulation is down to 7 000, and is issued bi-weekly.

The army spread rapidly throughout the Cape, and into Natal. In the Transvaal it was active in the mining tent towns around Johannesburg and Barberton. A Salvationist accompanied the Pioneer Column into Mashonaland in what later became known as Southern Rhodesia.

Military symbolism and language pervade the organisation. Evangelising efforts are termed "expeditions" , "invasions", "opening of hostilities" or "first shot in the campaign". Often the allegory was real as expansion into Mashonaland and Zululand was carried out with military precision.

The theology of the Salvation Army does not conflict with that of other religious groups, and it is common for converts to "cross the floor" between various Christian denominations and back again. For this reason, there was no opposition from the Dutch Reformed Church until 1906. The willingness of British Salvationists to learn Dutch won many Afrikaners to the faith in the early years.

According to Salvation Army historian Lieutenant-Colonel Dr Brian Tuck the army suffered its most damaging reverse during the Boer War.

"Although Salvationists were apolitical, their beginnings in Britain and their Victorian traditions, together with the fact that they tended to follow in the footsteps of the British Army, meant that they were forever identified with the British, despite extensive Dutch membership," he said.

"Salvationists were the first organisation to erect a hospitality tent on a field of battle and they fought on both sides during the Boer War, but many corps in the platteland closed during the war, never to reopen."

The work of the Naval and Military League, as it was known, is described by Tuck in his book Salvation Safari: "Army choruses lightened the load of blistered feet, those dying on the battlefield, fighting men from both sides received a cup of cold water in the name of Christ; others were carried by unarmed Salvationists through a hail of lead, and then sometimes carted for miles under the blazing African sun. The Leaguers did it all, driving the ambulances, writing tragic letters to loved ones, and the burial service rang out across the scarred veld, sometimes 12 times in one day."

The Boer War and its crippling effect on Army membership and facilities, coincided with a waning of the evangelical movement at the turn of the century. When the Dutch Reformed Church closed its doors on dual membership, many Afrikaners returned to their mother churches. Today there are 260 Salvation Army officers, not much more than the 200 in 1900.

The army's social work first began in Australia in 1883, followed by South Africa in 1884. It opened a home for prostitutes in Port Elizabeth and many other homes, schools and clinics followed. By 1997 there were 172 corps, 121 societies and outposts (informal shelters attached to corps or homes), three schools, three hospitals, 32 institutions, 23 day care centres, 11 goodwill centres and one AIDS centre. About 24 000 adherents are active in the community.

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