Shaw Clifton
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General Shaw Clifton (born September 21, 1945 in Belfast, Northern Ireland) is the General of The Salvation Army. He succeeded John Larsson as the 18th General on 2nd April, 2006. He has the academic qualifications LLB(Hons), BDTheol(Hons), PhD and AKC(Theol).
Clifton was commissioned as an Officer of The Salvation Army on July 5, 1973. His first appointment was a British Territory Corps in Burnt Oak, North London, England in July, 1973. He went briefly to continue his officer studies at International Headquarters in October, 1973, before being appointed to Zimbabwe, initially to the Mazowe Secondary School and then to the Bulawayo Corps as Corps Officers.
He returned to the United Kingdom in 1979 to take charge of the Enfield Corps, North London. In June, 1982 he became the Legal and Parliamentary Secretary at International Headquarters. In May, 1992 he became Divisional Commander in the Durham & Tees Division of the United Kingdom Territory with the Republic of Ireland. He would serve in that post until 1995 when he became Divisional Commander in the Massachusetts Division of theUSA Eastern Territory for a couple of years until he was promoted to Territorial Commander of the Pakistan Territory for the Salvation Army in 1997. In 2002, he became the Territorial Commander for the New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga Territory.
In 2004, he made his move back to United Kingdom Territory this time as Territorial Commander until he became General-elect for the Salvation Army on January 28, 2006.
He is married to Commissioner Helen Clifton (nee Ashman), who was born in 1948 in Edmonton, London. The two have been married since July 15, 1967. In the course of their travels together, they have always encouraged full participation by men and women in the church. They have three children, Matt, John and Jenny (Collings). Matt and Jenny are officers in the Salvation Army.
Commissioner Helen Clifton is World President of Women's Ministries and has been a Salvation Army officer since 1973. In 1984 they jointly edited a book 'Growing Together' about marriage and family life. [1]
[edit] Views and politics
Clifton believes that Salvationists should, "...aim to encourage the homosexual person in a selfdisciplined, celibate life-style, parallel to that of the unmarried heterosexual person."
Clifton also believes it is the Christian's duty to pressure store owners to stop selling pornography. "... we expect our local shopkeeper to empty his shop of all pornographic material whether hard or soft. Perhaps this is the best way for the individual Christian to be effective. What is to stop us from politely informing any shop proprietor we have dealings with that until he withdraws from public view and from his stocks all offensive publications we shall withdraw our custom and shall actively but privately encourage others to do the same? Hit in his pocket, he will respond."
| Preceded by: John Larsson |
General of The Salvation Army 2006 – present |
Incumbent |
