Posted on 09/01/2006 4:51:41 AM PDT by T-Bird45
RALEIGH — I’m never surprised to be hit in the face each morning with multicultural, victimization, support-group style reporting in my local papers. That’s the bread and butter of the mainstream media these days. But if any publication was going to resist the trend I figured it would be Scouting magazine. I was wrong.
Scouting bills itself as “a family magazine published by the Boy Scouts of America.” In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a big supporter of the Boy Scouts of America, was an avid Scout as a kid and am the father of two Eagle Scouts. I like the Boy Scouts’ no-nonsense, no-guilt, in-your-face advocacy of God and country and its ideals as set forth in the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
Imagine my surprise, then, as I leafed through the latest edition of Scouting magazine yesterday. The cover story, “Connecting Cultures,” sets the mood. It tells how Scouting helps Asian-Americans “become part of U.S. society while also maintaining cultural traditions.” Also promoted on the cover are “Boys with Autism Can Thrive in Scouting” and “A Bicycle Ride for Insight and Understanding.”
The theme is found throughout the publication. A news brief chronicles one Boy Scout council’s efforts to highlight “the issues of hunger, health, and shelter.” Another tells of a Cub Scout pack that was started for homeless boys. There are stories of Scout troops created for “sons of incarcerated mothers” and “disadvantaged youth.” Another story tells of a North Carolina man winning an award “for exceptional service and leadership to Scouts with disabilities.”
The “Riding for Insight and Understanding” story highlights a California council’s program to help Scouts gain a “deeper appreciation of different religious faiths.” A bike ride took Scouts to 12 houses of worship, including an Islamic Center, where they heard an imam discuss the sixth point of the Scout Law’s admonishment to be kind. Religion has always been a big part of Scouting, but only recently, it seems, is it assumed that Scouts won’t tolerate other religions without this kind of assistance.
The “Connecting Cultures Through Scouting” tells the story of a troop of Chinese-American Scouts. “We have many people from China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, and Korea — as well as Caucasians, Hispanics and Native Americans,” one Scout leader said in describing the council of which this California troop is a part. While the council may be diverse, this featured troop most certainly is not. Is this an argument for segregation? Is this story saying it is better for troops to be homogenized rather than draw from many different cultures, races and religions?
In “Boys With Autism Can Thrive in Scouting — With Help,” Cub Scout and Boy Scout leaders discuss how they’ve dealt with Scouts with autism and “pervasive developmental disorders.” The story, written by the parent of an autistic child, encourages troop and pack leaders find ways to get autistic and developmentally disabled boys involved in Scouting.
Helping the disadvantaged, the homeless and the boys of the incarcerated are noble callings. Appreciating religions and cultural differences also are things a boy should be taught, preferably by his parents. I kept turning the pages to find articles about camping, hiking, first aid and lifesaving, anything that might make Scouting sound like fun instead of social work. Maybe they’ll be in the next issue.
Jon Ham is vice president of the John Locke Foundation and publisher of its newspaper, Carolina Journal.
I never had much of an opinion on Jon Ham, the John Locke Foundation, or the Carolina Journal before today. I do feel that before forming an opinion on someone or something it (or they) deserve at least a standard level of respect to begin with. However, after reading this article, I have lost whatever amount of respect that was for this man, this organization, and their publication.
If someone can do a better job than Mr. Ham and explain to me what the Scouts are doing wrong, then go ahead. Because I don't see anything bad going on here. Clearly, this author has missed the point of what the Scouting movement is all about.
Helping autistic kids = homosexual paganism?
Screw you.
Does anyone rememember why Baden-Powell founded the Boy scouts?
It was so that the children of urbanized England could get exposure to life in the rough as teenagers, and learn the survival skills that would stand them in good stead with the British army. It has evolved into a service organization, to help kids. As someone who's grandfather, father, myself, and sons' participated in Scout's, and worked as a volunteer leader myself, it's the challenge to the Scouts to learn and master skills that they would otherwise never be exposed to that makes Scouting interesting and rewarding. Exposure to multiculturalism is standard school fare. Building a rope bridge across a river is not. Be prepared isn't taught in schools, neither is do a good deed daily.And our education system forgot the whole trustworthy,loyal, helpful,.... Well you get the idea.
hehehe....I prefer, the old, practical, usable magazine ....Looks like Boy Scout Magazine, is sliding to Liberalism. :(
My article....."Lets Talk it Out: A Snake's Side of the Story"
There is absolutely NOTHING wrong with maintaining cultural traditions, so long as they are within the bounds of U.S. culture. The problem is that so many new arrivals, legal or not, have no intention of assimilating.
Where does the author say that?
You said: It would be so much more fun if Scouts lived in their own privileged world and never learned a thing about helping other humans, as well as learning how to tie knots.
***
I think the emphasis of the post is that there was NOTHING about tying knots, camping, etc. in the edition of the publication referred to. It was ALL about diversity. The writer expressly states that the diversity references are good, but suggests that some entertainment and the "roots" of scouting be given at least fair treatment as well. I agree with him.
Scouting is about molding boys into Men of character... Cub Scouts = manhood 101
Boy Scouts = manhood 102
Scouting covers extremely broad areas... Scouting is different things to different kids, and its large and broad enough that they can explore all sorts of things and find the things they love and enjoy and also see and experience things outside their normal sphere.
Scouting has hardly gone PC... if it had, I know I certainly could not be a leader in it.
Now Girl Scouts on the other hand have completely betrayed their original mandate and now is basically run by a bunch of dykes and feminists at the highest levels that don't care a lick about raising women of character, just pushing political correct nonsense. Fortunately most local leaders are still reasonably sane, but the natioinal organization is doing its best to drive all semblence of traditional values out of the organization.
Baden-Powell also had great respect for other cultures and incorporated aspects of those cultures, like those of African tribes he encountered, into Scouting. I would much rather have the world exposed to Boy Scouting and its values than to have the Boy Scouts diminish in growth because of the fear of PC and of isolationism. Rascist and xenophobic Scout leaders do their Scouts so much more harm than good.
I'm sure all three will be distraught upon hearing this news.
And since taqiyah (sp?), or lying to the Infidel for the advancement of Islam is part of their heritage, you can never believe any Muslim anyway. The more devout, the more true.
Off topic, sorry! < /rant >
What interesting timing. I was just chatting with a colleague who has a son with PDD. She was just telling me what a blessing Scouting has been. Her son is a Webelos and loves the activities, loves the out-of-doors, loves being allowed to be a *boy* - none of which he's getting from his public school. I'd much rather young men learn good citizenship skills from an organization with a moral framework and tradition like the BSA than from an organization that is slave to a PC-driven agenda like the public schools. God Bless the BSA.
He mentions not one but two articles on scouting for disabled kids, then says he couldn't find "anything that might make Scouting sound like fun instead of social work." I.e., spending time around handicapped kids is a drag and only someone engaged in PC 'social work' would willingly do so.
Horse hockey, Sloth. The author doesn't say anything of the kind.
What he is saying, quite accurately, is that Scouting (and for that matter, the movement) is in danger of being swamped by multiculti touchy-feely BS. Guiding has sadly succumbed to that, as another poster accurately mentioned. We in Scouting need to guard against the dilution of Baden-Powell's message.
Respect, yes. Deference to, no.
From the sounds of this short article it does not sound as bad as what I was prepared to read. I think that the point that were made could be true with some kids and actually should be a positive look at it. A toubled kid joining scouts turns out to be a CEO of some big company. What is wrong with this type of story. I don't see anything PC about it. The bike ride to various churches was a little much but that was one troop that did that not the entire scouting program. I am not having heartburn over this story at this time unless I am not seeing something and an pointed out by a FREEPER.
Ham,
Manhood 101 and Manhood 102. I use that in our recruiting flyers for our Pack and Troop.
Must be effective, we signed up 15 or so new Scouts last night. Our Pack/Troop is 100% Homeschooled, so our recuitment pool is a little smaller than normal. The new parents seemed to be highly engaged and excited about Scouting. I'm really geeked myself about this year.
As for the Boy Scouts, I very much appreciated your comments. Our son is long out of scouts, out of the army, and working hard.
The poster who suggested I was drunk is a very poor example of what I hope is not a scout leader. That would be a shame.
Broadening the experiences of young boys is a worthy goal and I certainly approve. (but what do I know)
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