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The Scout Law...of Unintended Consequences
Author: TriSec    Date: 12/04/2010 14:05:46

Good Morning!

Well, with DADT all over the news, let's take a look at the minor leagues.

Most of you know I've been a lifelong member of the Boy Scouts of America. Through the past century of the BSA's existence, it's been primarily a service organization, and we try our best to teach young men how to be productive members of society through character development, social responsibility, and a sense of what is 'right' and 'wrong'.

But since about the Vietnam Era, primarily because we wear a vaguely militaristic uniform, many people out there have derided the organization as a training ground for soldiers. I could write blogs about that, but we're not going there today.



About 20 years ago, there started to be a push from within the organization to hunt down and expel atheists and homosexuals. From all the teachings and writings of our founder (Lord Robert Baden-Powell), someone decided that the phrase in the Scout Oath "and to keep myself morally straight" somehow meant sexually straight as well.

You probably know that many churches have a Scout group that meets in their facility every week, but I bet you didn't know that a certain religious sect in the US has declared the BSA their "official" youth organization. During the 20-odd years that gays and scouting have been in the news, this church has slowly but surely populated the national ranks and has taken over national policymaking. Can you guess who it is?

To those of us on the inside, the brouhaha over gays and atheists is utterly meaningless. My "home unit" has produced at least one openly gay Eagle Scout, and we famously declared at a committee meeting once that "if a scout can tell me why he doesn't believe in God as reasonably well as I can tell him why I do, then there shouldn't be any problem."

All of this finally brings me to the point I want to make. My current Pack is in need of a new home. We've had nothing but problems dealing with the public school system over the last two years, and the PTO has recently told us they are no longer interested in chartering our Pack.

Fortunately for us, there are plenty of other organizations in this city that would be willing to take us on...one of which is the Unitarian Universalist church less than a half-mile from the Cubmaster's house. We had several of our adults meet with the church board last week to see if we could make this happen.

The first issue the church board raised was concerns by the members over the BSA's anti-gay policy, as the Unitarians are an open, non-discriminatory church across the board. My heart sank. We were able to convince the board that the discriminatory policies were generally unenforced and unenforceable at the local level, but I got the feeling that a couple of members weren't convinced. Complicating matters further is the fact that there is a "Gay Fathers" group that meets in the church...I could envision conflict there at some point in the future.

So perhaps it is a good thing that DADT is back in the news, and maybe finally headed for repeal. Perhaps there will be some actual trickle-down and the minor league can benefit someday, too.




 

6 comments (Latest Comment: 12/05/2010 17:05:32 by BobR)
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Comment by livingonli on 12/04/2010 15:20:05
Good morning folks. Up early for another weekend of marathon shifts at the salt mine.

Comment by trojanrabbit on 12/04/2010 16:54:06
While the wife's away, the Rabbit will pl....zzzzzzzzz

I found a pizza in the freezer so I just shoved that into the oven. This afternoon I'll sit down in front of the TV and watch my HS alma-mater's football team in the "Super Bowl" at Gillette. If it was a few degrees warmer I'd seriously think about attending the game, but it's gonna be dark when the game ends. I still have a couple of hours to change my mind.

Considering I burnt my breakfast when the microwave went beserk yesterday and I almost set a piece of test equipment on fire also yesterday, I might just want to stay out of everyone's way. The smell still lingers in here.

Comment by trojanrabbit on 12/04/2010 21:42:29
And Sophie kills her first "mouse"

I made the mistake of trying to get her to sit with me on the sofa, and when she jumped way, the laptop fell to the floor, the USB dongle for the mouse broke.

That'll learn me.

Comment by livingonli on 12/04/2010 21:50:57
When my roomate's cat walked across my laptop, all she did was lock the screen. At least I just had to type my password to unlock it.

Comment by trojanrabbit on 12/05/2010 01:00:02
I didn't go to the game today, opting to watch in HD.

At first my decision looked like a good one as the Mansfield Hornets were down 26-7 at halftime. Apparently the team got a good "reaming" in the locker room as they came back and scored 22 unanswered points to win 29-26. Not that Reading is a slouch, before today's game they had won 26 games in a row.

I did manage to check out Skype on the iPod touch via a call with Shane-O. The sound quality using the microphone supplied with the iPod is amazing.

Comment by BobR on 12/05/2010 17:05:32
Hey Trisec - just read this today. I hope things work out with the UUC; that seems like a good match to me.