DATE: Saturday, November 8, 1997            TAG: 9711080033

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E3   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TONY WHARTON, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   85 lines

A LEAN, CLEAN SALVATION MACHINE

First of two articles

IT'S NOVEMBER, AND ONE of the holiday season's familiar sights is a red kettle on a tripod outside a department store, with one or two Salvation Army volunteers standing next to it.

Yet this army of Christian soldiers quietly works year-around, and it may be one of the most effective, far-reaching ``safety nets'' in America.

Today, poor Americans are turning to the Salvation Army more often than ever, as the state and federal governments start moving people off the welfare rolls.

For the fifth consecutive year, the Salvation Army raised more money through private donations - more than $1 billion in 1996 - than any other group, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. The American Red Cross ranked a distant second, raising less than half as much.

In Norfolk, Captain Rick Mikles has a budget of about $2.5 million for the services Salvation Army provides in this area - including rental and utility assistance, a soup line, food packages over the holidays, clothing, toys for children, and other basic necessities.

That budget is supported by donations, partly over the holidays and partly from mass mailings. (About 12 percent comes from United Way.) It does not come from the five thrift stores in the area, which direct their revenue entirely to support the Army's alcohol rehabilitation center in Virginia Beach.

Nationally, the Salvation Army is run from a headquarters in Alexandria. And it makes no bones about its religious purpose.

``We're a militant branch of Christianity with strong social outreach and strong evangelism outreach,'' says Commissioner Robert A. Watson, national commander of the Army's U.S. oper-a-tions.

The national church's 450,000 religious foot soldiers believe they are engaged in an all-out war against society's ills.

According to its latest national annual report, in 1995 the Salvation Army served nearly 7 million holiday meals; visited more than 5.5 million people in nursing homes, hospitals and prisons; helped more than 2.5 million Americans affected by natural disasters; and opened 11 million cases on people needing ongoing assistance - anything from temporary housing to job training.

``The court of last resort in most towns is the Salvation Army,'' says Major Tom Jones, national community relations and development secretary. ``We are the safety net most people talk about.''

``The battle we're talking about is against sin and human hurts - all the evils in the world,'' Watson says. ``It's the fiercest of all battles, requiring decisive, courageous, aggressive effort.''

Also enlisted for the battle are more than 1.5 million volunteers in the United States, ``good people who care about the community and other people'' but are not otherwise affiliated with the Salvation Army, Watson says.

The Salvation Army was born during the 1860s, when a traveling Methodist evangelist, William Booth, and his wife, Catherine, took to the mean streets of East London to preach to the poor, the drunkards and the prostitutes. When established churches refused to welcome Booth's unsavory converts, he started his own denomination.

In 1880, the Salvation Army sent its first official missionary to the United States, George Scott Railton, who held the Army's first meetings in New York City.

Mikles, the Norfolk captain, says his great-grandparents were among the organization's pioneers in the western United States in the 1880s. His grandparents worked in the Army during the 1930s, and his parents retired from Army careers.

By the turn of the century, the Salvation Army was operating evangelistic crusades - and the beginnings of social welfare programs - in 43 U.S. states.

Mikles said he never doubted he would enter the Salvation Army.

``The Salvation Army has a very strong religious basis. What I like about that is that's not going to change because of some whim in leadership.

``Although our services may change to meet whatever crises the community has, our basic tradition has not changed and has remained faith-based.

``That's kind of refreshing.'' MEMO: Religion News Service contributed to this report. Next week: New

programs, new directions for the Salvation Army's work. ILLUSTRATION: SALVATION ARMY photos/via RNS

Evangelist William Booth founded the Salvation Army in the 1860s in

London after churches would not accept his unsavory converts. His

daughter, Evangeline, shown with him here, was the U.S. commander

from 1904-34.

Robert A. Watson is national commander of the Army's U.S.

oper-a-tions, based outside Washington in Arlington. ``We're a

militant branch of Christianity,'' he says.

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