Click on emblem to locate your local Boy Scout Council.
Girls, atheists, and homosexuals have all sued the scouts. Until recently, the scouts always won, on the grounds that they were a private entity, not a "public accommodation" like a restaurant or a hotel. As such, they should be allowed to set their own membership and leadership criteria, consonant with their moral purpose. Nevertheless, the litigation has been a public-relations nightmare. The press, of course, ate up every challenge, while ignoring the daily good that the scouts perform. When Timothy Curran, a homosexual Eagle scout, lost his bid to become a Berkeley, California, scoutmaster—he reportedly wanted to teach kids that there was nothing wrong with the homosexual life—Bay Area institutions sprang into action. Levi Strauss, Wells Fargo, the United Way of San Francisco, and the Bank of America stopped funding the scouts (the Bank of America subsequently restored funding); San Francisco and Oakland schools banned school-day scout programs. Companies elsewhere are joining the bandwagon: in a paroxysm of self-righteousness, Fleet Bank of Providence criticized the scouts for their ban on avowed homosexual scoutmasters while publicly accepting a scout award.
For those scout funders and sponsoring institutions that have withdrawn their support, it comes down to this: furthering the gay-rights crusade takes precedence over helping inner-city children—all the lost funding was earmarked for inner-city scouting or training for minority scoutmasters. New York state senator Tom Duane and Queens schoolteacher Danny Drum, both homosexual activists, are pressing the New York City Board of Education to end their support of scouting camperships for poor children. "I don't think students should go to a camp like that, whose organizers clearly discriminate against gays and lesbians," Drum explained. I asked him whether the young campers were even aware of the scouts' views on homosexuality. No, he answered: "The fact that [homosexuality] is not talked about is one of the biggest problems."
Ironically, the scouts' reticence about homosexuality is what finally ended its winning streak in the courts. Last August, the New Jersey Supreme Court ordered the scouts to reinstate James Dale as a scoutmaster, despite his public homosexual-rights activism. Not only did the Court find that the scouts were a "place" of "public accommodation," akin to a business establishment, but it concluded that the scouts have no First Amendment right to select leaders committed to their chosen moral message.
The Court rejected the scouts' First Amendment defense on several grounds: that fighting discrimination against homosexuals is supremely important; that having a homosexual scout leader is really no big deal; and that finally, though the scouts claim to believe that open homosexuality undermines their family-values message, they don't really mean it. The Court reached this astounding conclusion thus: since the scouts don't rant about homosexuality, since in fact they are virtually silent on the matter in their published materials, and since as we all know there is nothing more benighted than disapproving of homosexual conduct, the scouts misinterpret their own moral oath. The scouts may claim that their injunction to keep "morally straight" proscribes homosexual conduct, but they're wrong. The Court knows better.
If the New Jersey Dale decision stands, you can say good-bye to an independent private sphere. If the government can tell private, values-based groups what they really believe, free thought will go underground. If private groups have no freedom to choose their own leaders, private groups will wither away. What better way to destroy the scouts than to force on them leaders opposed to their core convictions? James Dale feels obliged to "point out" to scout administrators "how bad and wrong" their stance against homosexual conduct is; given the compulsively proselytizing character of the homosexual-rights movement, some homosexual-activist scoutmasters will inevitably also "point out" to the boys themselves their right to choose a homosexual life over a heterosexual family.
The New Jersey Supreme Court breezily declared that forcing homosexual scoutmasters on the scouts would have no effect on the organization. Seasoned scoutmasters know better. Francis Harty, a veteran Staten Island scoutmaster who has helped dozens of boys become Eagle Scouts, says: "I have no problem with a gay person in scouting. I'd have a hell of a time telling parents he's taking their boys into the woods." People will leave in "droves," predicts Baltimore scoutmaster Harry Shaw. "And we thought it was bad in the 1970s."
The Scout litigation is an alarm that America's obsession with alleged discrimination has gone too far. Elite culture now sees the highest function of government as correcting the petty prejudices of the citizens, even if that means destroying civil society in the process. If the government's crusade against so-called bigotry means eviscerating the scouts, it is long past time to shut the crusade down. Scouting does more good in a year than an army of ACLU lawyers has ever done. Although scouting has been battered by time, although its top officials are public-relations incompetents, it remains the paramount character-education program of our era, as a host of copycat programs such as Outward Bound testify. Everyone who cares about poor children--everyone who cares about teaching values to boys--should embrace it wholeheartedly and rally to its defense.
Eagle Scout (1997) bump....
It is fascinating. Perhaps $2.00 worth of silver and 25 cents of ribbon...
but all the memories and symbolism of behind it. All the hard work. All the ideals of what an American young man should be are represented in that.
The Boy Scouts are not about camping, though that is a large part of what they do. They are about teaching boys what men should do. Unfortunately, in our effeminized society, there is no room for this training for manhood. Instead, liberalism has lionized the emotional, weak male (perhaps because he is no threat to radical feminism)
You can even see twinges of effeminization in the above article when it referenced the boys going about in military fatigues, as signs they were radicals. Boys have always learned to be men by emulating warriors-- and my patrol was no exception. It was a point of unit pride for my elite patrol to be one of the few that would wear commando-black Army-surplus fatigues. Anyone could buy them, but we made them a part of our ex oficio uniform.
This was a great read to end a special day in my house. My son just received his Eagle Scout certificate and wallet ID card today!
America's Fifth Column ... watch PBS documentary JIHAD! In America
Download 8 Mb zip file here (60 minute video)
The troop's leader, a dignified 18-year-old named Henry Lawson, inspects Ollennu in turn.
Ahh, Scoutmasters have to be 21, so something's wrong here....
Other requirements were exercises in self-cultivation: boys had to memorize the contents of a shop window after a brief period of observation, for example, in order to develop mental discipline and attention to the world outside the all-absorbing adolescent self.
It's called "Kim's Game", after a training game described in Rudyard Kipling's novel "Kim", about a young Indian (Asian) boy who was being trained in the arts of espionage on behalf of the British empire in the 19th century. It's on the schedule for my Troop meeting 2 weeks from now.
even all-white troops are an ethnic and religious pot-pourri.
Like mine: Catholic, Protestant, Hindu; Irish, Italian, Hispanic, Indian (Asian), German, Dutch.
You guys are the Boy Scouts; you have to set an example for others, so buckle up your lip,"
After 9/11, I commented on the proliferation of flags in the area, and told the boys that they would be looked to as examples and authorities of how to present and treat the flag. They have taken it quite seriously, practicing how to run a Presentation of the Colors ceremony and how to fold, etc. the flag. It's interesting to see how they react to the concept that being an example to other people is a) possible, and b) an obligation.
Local councils today ought to cast a far wider net to find men, regardless of color, willing to help poor boys.
Local Councils are doing what they can. What I personally find is that there are many men who duck the net, pleading pressures of work, etc. Some of that is doubtless true, but some of it is men who don't understand that it really does take a village, or community, to raise a child, and we all have our civic obligations. Those who decry the presence of women in BSA leadership need to understand that there are many young men who wouldn't have Scouting if it wasn't for women standing in for men who aren't there.
"Okay, the first thing we need to talk about is the Pledge of Allegiance," he announced enthusiastically. "Who knows what it means? What is allegiance?" The boys stare fascinated at Thomas, with open mouths and huge eyes. No response. He cheerfully continues his one-sided Socratic dialogue. "Allegiance is to respect our country. Allegiance is to be true. Who knows what a republic is?"
One of the best parts of being a Scoutmaster is when I have my Scoutmaster Conference with each young man after he completes his rank requirements, but before he goes before a Board of Review. I get to ask, "Repeat the Scout Oath." "Can you tell me what honor means? What does duty mean? What is your Duty to God? What is your Duty to Country? What does mean?" No one else ever asks kids these questions. Heck, the Marines had to institute special instruction for new recruits because most of them don't understand the concepts of duty, honor, and country. By the way, I don't tell the kid specifically what his duty to God is. I want him to understand that he does have one, and that his parents and his religious leaders are the authorities for understanding them. That works even for the Hindu kid.
Forget duty to others; today's academy teaches that only the self and all its polymorphous desires counts.
Self-absorption is the natural state of the child and adolescent. Inculcating an understanding of "duty to others" is one of our chief jobs. There's always a couple of kids to whom the concept that they are obliged to work for the benefit of others, with no reward to themselves, is a foreign and loathsome concept. This usually gets corrected by their peers on the first campout that they blow off cleaning the pots after dinner ....
The press, of course, ate up every challenge, while ignoring the daily good that the scouts perform.
Our local papers puts pictures of Scouts and reports of their activities in every issue they can, including on the front pages. Even the local big-city paper is getting into the act. Things are looking better in the media for the BSA these days.
For those scout funders and sponsoring institutions that have withdrawn their support, it comes down to this: furthering the gay-rights crusade
Actually, my local Park District made our Pack and Troop move out over the atheist issue; atheists pay taxes, too, and they didn't want the expense of defending a law suit, even if they won. Once this hit the local paper, a local Episcopal Church picked us up, and they've been great. The current pastor is an Eagle Scout.
I was a Scout in the 60's and 70's, and have been a leader for the last 10 years. While I feel that National should let local sponsors make their own choice as to whether or not gays are moral enough to be a leader for a given unit, I fully support the BSA's right to set the selection criteria for it's own leaders; I fully support the Supreme Court's verdict in the Dale suit, and I think that the BSA has the finest program for teaching citizenship, leadership, and fitness in the U.S.A.