Posted on 06/13/2002 4:39:23 PM PDT by restornu
The Boston branch of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has reportedly chosen to celebrate homosexuality as an element of “diversity,” while pro-family advocates wait to see what actions, if any, the national BSA leadership will take to discipline the council.
On Monday, the Boston Minuteman Council, which serves 18,000 boys, picked David Brudnoy — a homosexual radio talk-show host — to emcee its annual fundraising dinner. The Minuteman Council announced the creation of a “diversity awareness awards badge” that contains a homosexuality component. This fall, the Boson council will give the diversity awards to individuals and groups that “complete a curriculum of activities that promote diversity — including race, religion and sexual orientation,” according to the Associated Press.
Gregg Shields, spokesman for the national BSA headquarters, said the Minuteman Council’s action does nothing to alter the longstanding Boy Scouts’ policy — affirmed in February by the BSA’s executive board — that homosexuals, atheists and agnostics are not eligible for membership or leadership in the Boy Scouts.
Asked if the BSA would take immediate action against the Boston council, Shields said there first would have to be a “discussion” between the Boston leadership and that of the national BSA.
Shields told Culture & Family Report that the first step in the discussions will be “to understand what took place.” He said the national BSA will expect the Boston council leaders to “reaffirm their commitment to the policy” on homosexuality.
He added that local councils have the right to create awards and badges, but that they “require prior approval” of the BSA. “Other voices can be heard, but there can only be one policy.”
BIGSBY DEFENDS ‘GAY’ DIVERSITY
Brock Bigsby, scout executive for the Boston Minuteman Council, told The Boston Globe that the homosexuality-affirming “diversity” awards were created to “meet the needs of our kids — that’s where our focus is.” “Scouting traditionally has been a very diverse activity,” Bigsby said, who asserted there is a “great deal of local autonomy” for councils. (He did not return a call from C&F Report for this article.)
In rejecting dissident efforts to overturn the Scouts morality code on homosexuality, the BSA executive board stated that “homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the traditional values espoused in the Scout Oath and Law,” and warned that “the BSA’s values cannot be subject to local option choices, but must be the same in every unit,” the Globe reported.
BRUDNOY ESPECIALLY CHOSEN The Boston Globe reported that Bigsby and the Boston council intentionally chose Brudnoy, who has contracted AIDS, to emcee their “Salute to Scouting” dinner to signal their homosexuality-inclusive course: “They didn’t say, ‘David, we want you because you’re gay.’ They said, ‘We want you because you’ll be signaling to people our policy, and we hope you’ll make reference to this in your remarks,’” said Brudnoy, who hosts a nightly radio program on WBZ (1030 AM) and teaches journalism at Boston University.
“It will be in passing, it may be no more than a sentence,” Brudnoy said. “But the point will be clearly made.”
Brudnoy himself also champions the cause of atheist boys gaining entry into the Scouts. Since its inception, the Boy Scouts of America has affirmed a belief in God. In February, the BSA board declared that “duty to God is not a mere ideal for those choosing to associate with the Boy Scouts of America; it is an obligation, which has defined good character throughout the BSA’s 92-year history.”
But in an interview with AP, Brudnoy pledged to call on the Boston Scouts affiliate to allow atheists as members: “Currently an atheist or agnostic kid cannot be a scout,” [Brudnoy] said, adding that he planned to call for change,“ wrote the AP’s Ken Maguire.
Brudnoy also praised the Minuteman Council’s existing “nondiscrimination policy” that officials have said applies to “sexual orientation.”
In an op-ed appearing in the June 8 Boston Herald, Brudnoy made the connection — denounced by pro-family advocates — between racism and opposing homosexuality. He wrote:
Monday we’re celebrating the 26th annual Salute to Scouting Dinner, and I’m privileged to serve as master of ceremonies, something I, a former Scout, would not do if our local Scout council mimicked the national BSA policy. Like all Americans, Scouts and Scout leaders and adult supporters deserve a society ensuring equitable rights for all. Banishing gays from scouting is as sensible as banning people who aren’t white gentiles. It would be and is senseless. Americans of goodwill should recoil from it categorically, as has the Boston Minuteman Council.
BOSTON: PEDOPHILIA CAPITAL?
Robert H. Knight , Director of the Culture & Family Institute, and an Eagle Scout, said the Boston Minuteman Council’s action is a tragic irony, since it emanates from the city that is at the center of a growing homosexual pedophilia scandal. The Boston Archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church has been under fire since it was learned that church authorities transferred known sex offenders to other parishes and areas of the country rather than expel them from the priesthood.
Boston is also the birthplace of NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association, a homosexual organization that advocates legalizing sex between men and young boys. One of the Boston priests implicated in the Catholic homosexual pedophile scandal was reportedly active in the founding of NAMBLA.
“To see the Boston Scout Council expanding its crusade to celebrate homosexuality, even as the Catholic Church is embroiled in a crisis caused by homosexual predators who were ‘tolerated’ at the highest levels, is shocking to say the least,” Knight said. “This is especially true since the Boy Scouts themselves have been forced to take drastic measures to keep homosexual predators away from young boys.
“If the Boston council does not stop celebrating homosexuals as role models — in direct contravention of the national Boy Scout policy — it is time for Boston parents to pull their boys out of the Boston-area Scouts under its control.” YOUNG EAGLE SCOUT DENOUNCES BOSTON ACTION
Hans Zeiger, a 17-year-old Eagle Scout from Puyallup, Washington, criticized the Boston action.
“The state of Massachusetts has placed more pressure on the BSA to change its standards than any other state in America,” said Zieger, director of the Scout Oath Project, an initiative to preserve the moral tradition of Scouting in America. “Nearly every public school district in Massachusetts has denied the Scouts access to its public facilities. This is a great tragedy.” He blasted the Boston Council for “giving in” to pressure from the homosexual lobby.
“By inviting an openly gay radio talk show host, AIDS patient, and anti-family activist to emcee their fundraiser, they’ve sent a message to Scouts everywhere that the strong Scouting tradition of moral character and principled leadership development is at serious risk.
“As an Eagle Scout, I will refuse to accept the actions of the Minuteman Council. In order to consistently uphold its moral values, the BSA National Headquarters must roll some heads in Boston — those of the BSA leaders in Boston who refuse to uphold the Scout Oath must leave the organization,” Zeiger said.
He called on citizens in Massachusetts and all across America who are concerned about freedom of association and the First Amendment, and about preserving scouting for future generations, to call and write the Boy Scouts “and demand consistent enforcement of the Scouts’ morality code.”
No. One of his Sentaorial aides was.
I wish that I were more HTML-literate -- I have some hilarious albeit outrageous renditions that I envision of the patch for the merit badge in question.
Perhaps someone here will take this as an invitation to favor us all with some full-color renderings of possible designs.....
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