The BSA and gays: A lesson from the Scouts’ own book
During hundreds of camping trips and meetings and service projects and weird and wonderful events such as the Klondike Derby (a cold-weather competition in which scouts drag makeshift sleds over frozen ground for hours), I learned how to adapt to changing circumstances on the fly while keeping the main goals in sight.
Now, of course, it’s time for the Boy Scouts themselves to learn a lesson about adaptability—one that I fear may be coming too late to save the group from its long decline in numbers and influence.
I still draw on what I learned in the Scouts, whose mission statement talks about preparing “young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes.” That creed has helped to make me a better father—or at least a less-bad one—to my two sons, whom I kept from joining the Boy Scouts because of the group’s position on gays.
It was a decision that I made with much sadness and not a little anger, but it was fully in keeping with the Scout Oath, which requires members to do their best to be “morally straight” at all times and to do what they think is right.
Blowback
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In other words, you’d like us to stop bashing gay people’s beliefs and start bashing religious people’s beliefs.
And yes, it’s a political battle. The fact that you’re trying to tell us it’s not a political battle is more proof that it’s political. Harassing the sponsors of the Scouts and attacking the organization’s reputation to get what you want is absolutely a political battle.
I don’t know what Republicans you’ve ever associated with that only just now do you want the party to burn (personally, I think you’re full of crap either way), but as a conservative Republican, I will always defend the freedom of association. Especially when it’s infringed upon by outsiders who wouldn’t join the group if they were paid to do so.
Let me just end by noting that sexual preference used to be a personal matter. The culture of fame and glory has raised a generation that expects a medal if they declare their sexuality from the mountaintops.
KingGold on February 3, 2013 at 12:10 PM
Ahhh.. yes. The person who is no longer voting Republican because some people posting on a blog about Boy Scouts and gays can’t handle it any longer.
How silly.
If “this” is what makes you decide you’re not voting Republican any more, then I suggest you check your priorities. $1.6 trillion deficit every single year, executive overreach at every turn and the Boy Scouts not allowing gays into their private organization is going to make you vote against Republicans from here on out.
What a lunatic.
ButterflyDragon on February 3, 2013 at 12:10 PM
The Boy Scouts decline is indeed due to its resistance to moral relativism. But popularity is not worth giving up on solid principles- EVER. And that itself is the definition of being ‘morally straight’.
michaelo on February 3, 2013 at 12:15 PM
Ding ding ding!!!!
Jodie Foster hit the nail on the head with her “coming out” speech and the idiots covering the story couldn’t even tell she ripped them to shreds.
As she said, the people that “need to know” already know. So the rest of you mind your own damn business.
I would love for one famous Hollywood actor to put on some huge spectacle and showboat a big speech to “come out” as heterosexual. Just to show everyone how stupid it is.
I personally don’t care who anyone is having sex with. The only person’s sexual proclivities I care about are my own and whoever I’m sleeping with.
I’m not against gay people. I’m against gay people having to tell me in every single conversation that they’re gay.
ButterflyDragon on February 3, 2013 at 12:15 PM
I’m not against Gay people, But I am against people attacking my religion as intolerant bigoted and hateful because it has the audacity of having moral and ethical standards.
SWalker on February 3, 2013 at 12:20 PM
Its a private organization.
They can set their own standards.
If there was a private gay organization, should they be able to refuse membership to a person who stated that they would like to see the organization move in the direction of emphasizing the positive effects of being straight, and if they didn’t like that, well “I’ve got a lawyer”?
Mimzey on February 3, 2013 at 12:23 PM
I’m trying to imagine any remaining argument against having girls join the Boy Scouts and share tents, but none would seem to apply.
If you’re looking for adventure of a new and different kind
And you find yourself a Girl Scout who is similarly inclined,
Don’t be nervous, don’t be flustered, don’t be scared – -
Be Prepared!
- Tom Lehrer, “Be Prepared”
DarthBrooks on February 3, 2013 at 12:39 PM
The Marxist left has been infiltrating the conservative right for about 100 years.
To the point now that there are tens of thousands of American’s who are de-facto Marxists who believe they are conservatives, they just have been indoctrinated so thoroughly into Marxism that they think it is a normal conservative principal to disagree with conservative principals.
Going to the Elks Club does not make you an Elk any more than going into a garage makes you an automobile and the same is equally true of being a Conservative. You either are a conservative or you are not, and you most assuredly are not a conservative if what you want is to change Conservative core principals and values into Liberal Marxist principals and values.
It is sadly tragic that most so called conservatives do not know the difference between Conservative principals and values, and Marxist principals and values. The Marxists have done their utmost to blur the distinctions, but conservatives have helped by not being more vocal about exactly what Conservative principals and values are.
SWalker on February 3, 2013 at 12:46 PM
One more reminder why libertarianism is totally repugnant to me and always will be. Thanks, Nick Gillespe, for showing me that after all that work you learned absolutely nothing from the Scouts whatsoever.
Ed Snyder on February 3, 2013 at 12:47 PM
Pretty much, yup.
Mimzey on February 3, 2013 at 12:50 PM
And anyone who sets up a reader like that for a sucker punch at the end learned nothing from the Scouts about truthfulness. Another reminder that lib-tards have to lie to themselves and others about human nature in order to swallow the b.s. they preach.
Ed Snyder on February 3, 2013 at 12:50 PM
Sorry, no. It’s not about doing what you think is right, it’s about following the moral code of the religion to which you are “reverent“. If you follow a religion that thinks homosexual activity is good and fine and not perverted, fine. But, I’m guessing that – at best – you belong to a religion that tries to lie to itself about homosexuality, denying its perversity while still trying to lay claim to a god that says otherwise.
GWB on February 3, 2013 at 12:54 PM
Neither did he say Approve of bad Behavior!
If you recall (which I doubt) he said to the woman accused of Adultry, immediatly after saving her from stoning, “Go and Sin No More!”
He didn’t say, I have approved of your Sinning and shown you this by stopping them from stoning you.
As to Loving your neighbor?
If your neighbor were on the deck of the Titanic about to sink and refusing to get into a Life Boat because they were told the Ship is Unsinkable, are you professing hatred by trying to correct their being misled? When you tell them if they don’t get in the Life Boat they will die, is that a sign of Bigotry?
Jesus taught that by NOT telling your neighbor they are in thier sins you are showing Hatred.
Dear kvader,
I strongly suggest that you not go spouting what you think the Bible says, when you don’t understand what it really says.
jaydee_007 on February 3, 2013 at 1:04 PM
To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume.
SWalker on February 3, 2013 at 1:25 PM
The only one bastardizing anything here is you kvader…
Unlike you, kvader, Jesus was speaking with people who understood the scripture and the foundation of what he was telling them. They were trying to play Gotcha with him regarding which one of the ten commandments was MOST important when he said this;
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment.
So how does one do that?
It’s easy!
1. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
2. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image
3. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain;
4. Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy
5. Honour thy father and thy mother
Then he says,
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
And how do you do that?
6. Thou shalt not murder
7. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
8. Thou shalt not steal.
9. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.
10.Thou shalt not covet
Nowhere do I see Thou Shalt Not Tell Your Neighbor that he is not obeying my commandments.
jaydee_007 on February 3, 2013 at 1:44 PM
So, there is a national “service” fraternity that was supposed to be the “boyscout fraternity”, Alpha Phi Omega. A few decades ago, they made themselves “co-ed”, and removed the requirement of having been in the boyscouts.
Now, it is little more than a hook-up club who’s members pat themselves on the back for picking up trash.
Count to 10 on February 3, 2013 at 1:48 PM
Even more hypocritical comments…someone’s forgetting the multiple scriptural passages warning against impugning the faith of anyone else.
JetBoy on February 3, 2013 at 1:57 PM
T
SWalker on February 3, 2013 at 2:07 PM
My problem isn’t letting gays into the boy scouts as long as they shut the hell up about it, my problem is it becoming just another watered down PC organization that does not do what it was originally supposed to do, teach boys to become men. Just like the title of Adam Corolla’s book, “In fifty years we will all be chicks.”
I just think straight men need to start pushing back a little bit against women and the LGBT community. They are all hell bent on turning us into a bunch of pansies.
gator70 on February 3, 2013 at 2:10 PM
This is such a sad time for America.
Immaculate Virgin, patroness of the United States, pray for us!
TXJenny on February 3, 2013 at 2:12 PM
Is this a good point to note that Athena is more prominent in US government imagery than Mary?
Count to 10 on February 3, 2013 at 2:27 PM
Good Lord, Nick Gillespie makes some very good points that anger the antigay folks who would have you think that the world is going to end if the gays are allowed to be scouts or to be scoutmasters. In the end it is up to the Boy Scouts organization, even the Supreme Court agrees on that issue.
SC.Charlie on February 3, 2013 at 2:34 PM
He didn’t make a good point, he got the whole thing backward. Living a gay lifestyle is not a good moral choice, and refusing to endorse homosexual behavior is immoral. Would you encourage the Boy Scouts to promote alcoholism or smoking?
Count to 10 on February 3, 2013 at 2:40 PM
To quote Ronald Reagan, “Their you go again.” I would say that it not moral for person who is homosexual to deny his or her sexuality. I would say it is immoral for anyone who gay or straight to be promiscuous. Jim Nabors just married his partner of 38 years back in December.
SC.Charlie on February 3, 2013 at 2:52 PM
And I would say that you believe in doing that which is right in your own eyes!
jaydee_007 on February 3, 2013 at 3:01 PM
Look, it really is simple. You can either believe what the Bible teaches and live accordingly, or you can believe whatever you want to believe. Doing one makes you a Christian, while doing the other does not.
Since it was formed as a Christian outreach to boys by the Presbyterian Church, the Boy Scouts have for the last 100 years chosen the former. Now that individuals who do not share the theological or ideological foundation that the Boy Scouts had for over 100 years have managed sufficient infiltration to pervert the Boy Scouts that is exactly what they are doing.
If you do not want to be a Christian then don’t, but don’t become a preacher or minister and teach things that are not Christian theology.
SWalker on February 3, 2013 at 3:11 PM
It appears that you are woefully misinformed. The following is from Wikipedia:
I
And another link about the establishment in the United States from the Boy Scouts themselves:
http://www.scouting.org/About/FactSheets/Founders.aspx
SC.Charlie on February 3, 2013 at 3:42 PM
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