The Salvation Army at Christmas

The SA seems to have had quite a bit of PR this year in various forms:

• Fund raising ads on TV for the first time, certainly I have never seen any outside London.
• Appearances on Eastenders. Where we saw carol singers marching through the square, singing door-to-door and a band accompanying Stop the Cavalry. I did like the fact that they were not all uniformed up to the hilt.
  
• We were on Emerdale too and, I assume, Blue Peter, although I saw neither.
• Then there is the Together cd by the ISB which has had adverts and other tv placements. Where we are taken back the backs of four uniformed men, each standing a yard apart, overlooking a person-less landscape saying that they are Together before taking us back into the Hovis advert!
  

Now some of these I have no problem with. But if you are a neutral much of it would confirm that the Army is old fashioned and out of touch, taken out its box at Christmas and put on display to remind us of the the way that things were. We could be in danger of becoming like a Christmas card of a Dickensian picture. The thing is, its easier to do it this way but it doesn't help some of us who have to establish the Army/church in places where that kind of image is so negative. You would think that the high-ups would be steering things a bit more.