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School Boots Boy Scouts for Mother Earth
Townhall.com ^ | May 15, 2011 | Mark Baisley

Posted on 05/15/2011 6:27:44 AM PDT by Kaslin

Something has been bugging me for years. You know, like everyone over 50 knows who Gladys Knight is; but what is a “pip”?

The school in my neighborhood told the Cub Scouts this week that their flyer cannot be distributed because it mentions God in the 12 core values.

While this constitutional misstep is unseemly, it is somehow made worse when contrasted with the always-welcome creed of environmentalism.

Like any normal American, I appreciate living in clean, healthy surroundings. But the green movement went past the point of preachy years ago.

Environmental respect advanced from the “don’t be a litterbug” messages of the 1960s to that crying indian commercial of 1970 to the recycle obsession of the past thirty years. Somewhere along the tour, the movement got mystical. For some time now, environmentalism has looked, walked, and quacked like a religion.

While bothered at what appears to be government-established religion in public schools, I had not made the effort to analyze it until the rejected Cub Scout flyer became an issue in our local school this week.

The message of reverence for “Mother Earth” has unquestionably been presented in this same school district for years. Still on the school website from 2009 are photos, videos and quotes from a local high school assembly where all 2,000 students gathered for a hero’s welcome for visiting Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchú Tum.

Ms. Tum is quoted as telling the students, “The Mayan calendar teaches that the earth is our mother.” Then, “Wherever you go in life, get your group together and do something.

Teach other young people. If we were to gather a million young people that care for Mother Earth, we’ve done something very successful. Young people need to say: Here we are. We are here to stand for the health of our Mother Earth.”

Does this worship of the environment constitute a religion? Turns out that it does -- since 1998. Merriam-Webster defines Pantheism as “a doctrine that equates God with the forces and laws of the universe.”

A bit of search-engine query reveals that the World Pantheist Movement officially established themselves as a religion on June 29, 1998 when they were issued a certificate of incorporation as a non-profit corporation in Colorado.

Their website domain name, pantheism.net, was first created on January 23 of that same year.

The salient quotes from the World Pantheist Movement website include, “Why call this a religion rather than a philosophy? Like Buddhism or Taoism, it is both.

It is clearly a philosophy. However, it deals with areas of life - especially our feelings of awe and wonder at the universe and love for nature - which are emotional and aesthetic and go beyond philosophy.

These are the proper realm of religion. Unlike straight philosophical systems, pantheism also has its own characteristic approach to meditation and religious ceremony.”

The site goes on to describe the legal benefits of being a religion, including tax advantages, and “being allowed to perform legal marriage and funeral ceremonies.”

I believe that my instincts are confirmed. Strictly controlling every move of the Cub Scouts on campus while celebrating “Mother’s Day for Mother Earth,” as one high school poster reads, is a double violation of the First Amendment.

Got that figured out. I still don’t know what a pip is.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: algore; arth; boyscouts; obama; obamasamerica
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To: SAJ

I did not know it was any seed thanks. And, yes, the anglophile in me knew it was a Britishism.


21 posted on 05/15/2011 7:11:26 AM PDT by doodad
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To: Kaslin
this week that their flyer cannot be distributed because it mentions God in the 12 core values

Ignore the damn ruling and distribute anyway. Thomas Paine time folks.

22 posted on 05/15/2011 7:18:42 AM PDT by Clock King (Ellisworth Toohey was right: My head's gonna explode.)
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To: Hoosier Catholic Momma

Congrats to your son, HCM! Scouting is great.


23 posted on 05/15/2011 7:26:01 AM PDT by sayuncledave (A cruce salus)
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To: CrappieLuck

Congrats to your son, CrappieLuck!


24 posted on 05/15/2011 7:26:56 AM PDT by sayuncledave (A cruce salus)
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To: Raycpa

I hope the parents will do that


25 posted on 05/15/2011 7:35:47 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: Kaslin

I have a new designation! Form here on out, wacko-libtard-environmentalist-activists will be known as.......EARTHERS! Like it?


26 posted on 05/15/2011 7:38:00 AM PDT by originalbuckeye
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To: chilepup

We’re an active BSA family, with one son a Boy Scout and the other a Wolf. It has been an amazing experience for them. BSA is a truly wonderful organization that manages to stay strong in the face of liberal adversity.

I’ll second that: God bless the BSA.


27 posted on 05/15/2011 7:38:41 AM PDT by jnygrl (A big mouth coupled with a small mind is a dangerous combination)
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To: Kaslin

Oops, that would be ‘from’. Spellcheck does not alert you when you misspell and the misspelled word is also a word.


28 posted on 05/15/2011 7:39:15 AM PDT by originalbuckeye
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To: originalbuckeye

Sounds perfect


29 posted on 05/15/2011 7:45:31 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: originalbuckeye

I figured you meant from


30 posted on 05/15/2011 7:46:45 AM PDT by Kaslin (Acronym for OBAMA: One Big Ass Mistake America)
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To: doodad
A pip is another name for a lemon seed.

A 'pip' is also an extraordinary thing, e.g., "Ain't that a pip?"

31 posted on 05/15/2011 7:51:57 AM PDT by RobinOfKingston (An election is not a (national) suicide pact.)
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To: Hoosier Catholic Momma
Congrats to your son! Encourage him to stick with scouting all the way to Eagle and beyond.

And if he does make it there, be sure to check out all of the scholarships that are offered for Eagle Scouts; some are partial while others are full rides. The University of Louisville has a full scholarship program with my local council, and this is mirrored by colleges and universities all over the country.

32 posted on 05/15/2011 7:57:14 AM PDT by Stonewall Jackson (Democrats: "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy.")
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To: Kaslin

Principles of conservation are taught by the Scouts....not environmentalism. There is a huge difference. My troop regularly
engaged in clearing brush for fire safety, erosion control by shoring
up hiking paths and clearing litter along the way. Recycling newspaper
was a fund raiser. Understanding proper wildlife management to use
controlled hunting to keep populations in a healthy range was
standard practice.


33 posted on 05/15/2011 8:10:43 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Hoosier Catholic Momma

“On a side note, my son receives his Bear patch today. On to Webelos! ;)”

One of my biggest thrills of being a cub scout was earning the right to get the Cub Scout pocket knife. All the kids wanted to earn this. You hung it off your belt. We’d go to school in full uniform with the knife hanging on the belt-—but now I guess if you did that, they’d swat team ya.


34 posted on 05/15/2011 8:28:08 AM PDT by WKUHilltopper (Fix bayonets!)
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To: Tax-chick
I recall 20 years ago, the Womyn of AcademiaTM were complaining that Copernicus was sexist because he replaced the earth/Gaia-centered (feminine) universe* with the sun/Sol-centered (masculine) one.

These were the same post-modern scientific intellects who were upset that NASA used (phallic) rockets instead of what those of obviously superior intellect used--(feminine) flying saucers.

I remember laughing when I heard one say these things, before I realized they weren't meant humorously, nor as a scam to get funding--they were dead serious about it all!


*sometimes they said universe, sometimes galaxy, but it was actually more humorous to me when they got it right and said, Solar system, because even when speaking of Gaia, they described the system as "Sol-ar" :-)

35 posted on 05/15/2011 10:50:27 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: doodad
It was actually the nickname of Gladys Knight's cousin. I'm not certain why that nickname. Perhaps a reference to Pip of Great Expectations or Moby Dick, if not fruit seeds, dice spots, or military insignia?
36 posted on 05/15/2011 10:53:54 AM PDT by Gondring (Paul Revere would have been flamed as a naysayer troll and told to go back to Boston.)
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To: Hoosier Catholic Momma

Congrats... my son just finished his Eagle project -so we’re on the tail end of the journey. It is HIGHLY worth it! I’m the scout master - and I’ve had more chance to bond with my son (and watch him grow up) due to scouts. I can also say that I’m terribly proud of many of the youth in our troop - because they are learning to live the Scout Oath and law.

I just recently found out that I have three of my older scouts forming a group to run a walk-a-thon for Japan. They did this on their own without prodding from any adults. It was a wonderful feeling of success to find out that the message I (and my many other adult leaders in the troop) have gotten the message of service to community, god and country through. These boys get it!

What is even more impressive is this troop consists of boys of ALL major faiths. We have Christians, Muslims, Hindu’s, and Buddhist members.

So - keep on scouting - it’s the best youth program we have!


37 posted on 05/15/2011 12:13:53 PM PDT by fremont_steve
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To: jnygrl
BSA is a truly wonderful organization that manages to stay strong in the face of liberal adversity. I’ll second that: God bless the BSA.

They've been the recipients of a persistent, organized, liberal-supported, vindictive campaign of recrimination and exclusion in many quarters ever since the New Jersey Dale case in which the Supreme Court upheld their right to exclude perverts from their membership and leadership.

Just last week, the Houston Better Business Bureau published a list of "approved" organizations that met the BBB's guidelines for eleemosynary giving. The BSA was excluded from the list, while any number of gender-specific anti-battering organizations, environmentalist groups, church-supported groups (like Catholic Relief) and the homophilic PFLAG were on the list.

Of course, organized homosexuals, in the cake-taker, got the BSA kicked out of a public park in San Diego that their members had built with their own hands generations before.

38 posted on 05/15/2011 12:49:45 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus (Concealed carry is a pro-life position.)
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To: Gondring
...instead of what those of obviously superior intellect used--(feminine) flying saucers.

Who ever determined that flying saucers are intrisically and irreducibly "feminine"?

I think faculty lounges were invented by some kind soul who realized that teachers and professors needed a place of concealment, to hide from the public the fact that, away from their blackboards, our illuminated ones are very often blithering idiots.

39 posted on 05/15/2011 1:01:51 PM PDT by lentulusgracchus (Concealed carry is a pro-life position.)
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To: Gondring
Returning space capsules are lenticular in form, considering that they travel through the atmosphere with the blunt edge forward. In the early 1960's, Alan Kehlert designed a craft that used a saucer shaped airfoil. although it wasn't used for the Apollo program, the general shaped was used in another 60's space program.


40 posted on 05/15/2011 3:30:54 PM PDT by jmcenanly ( "We pay a person the compliment of acknowledging his superiority whenever we lie to him." -Samuel)
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