The Salvation Army and the state of welfare : an analysis of text and narrative : an analysis of the discourses influencing the development of Salvation Army policy

This research arose out of the author's concern that the Salvation Army and its social services in Australia were being influenced by government and society at the expense of its own Christian beliefs and internal rhetoric. The Army's rhetoric is explored through an analysis of Salvation Army's texts. The study findings verify the proposition of Kress (1985) and others, that institutions transform and are transformed through their use of discourse. It is confirmed that William and Catherine Booth (the Army's founders) were not independent from the state and from external influence as required by Booth. It was found that just as William and Catherine Booth reworked the discourses of their time, they were influenced in turn by these discourses and the organization they created , namely, The Salvation Army was transformed through the use of discourse. The research found that modern texts produced in the Army in Australia, are influenced by the dominant discourses of the modern Australian welfare state, and that as a consequence the Army, in transforming these discourses for their own purposes, is also being transformed and in the process becoming increasingly colonised by governments in Australia