Free Republic

Boy Scouts plan uncommon hike to celebrate scouting's 97th birthdayhttp://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17747008 01/25/2007 Midland Reporter-Telegram Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to church they'll go. On Feb. 3, Boy Scout Pack 84 and Troop 84 will set off on an unlikely hike to celebrate scouting's 97th birthday. That's when they'll set off on a nearly two-mile hike with stops at six Midland churches. And at each, clergy will teach the boys about one or two of the Ten Commandments. "They are going to spend five minutes or less on each commandment," Brad Connel, field director of Boy Scouts of America, Buffalo Trail...

Survey: Some Churches Apathetic Toward Community Outreachhttp://headlines.agapepress.org/archive/1/52007a.asp By Allie Martin and Jody Brown January 5, 2007 (AgapePress) - A new survey finds while most churches are involved in some sort of evangelism emphasis, many aren't focused on community outreach efforts. The same survey also shows that when it does come to either type of emphasis, there are distinct differences among denominations. The survey of 811 pastors nationwide was focused on measuring the level of involvement in evangelistic activities and in community outreach programs among Protestant churches. According to the survey by Ellison Research, 97 percent of all churches report doing...

High-profile role for Scouts at Ford funeralhttp://www.woodtv.com/global/story.asp?s=5864166 Updated: Dec 27, 2006 07:36 PM CST By ANNE SCHIEBER WALKER -- One group that will be paying special tribute to former President Gerald R. Ford is the Boy Scouts. Ford was a tireless promoter of the Boy Scouts because he was one; and a top one. He has been the only President to earn the Scouts' highest honor of Eagle Scout. Ford's family has asked that West Michigan Boy Scouts have a prominent role in the funeral in Grand Rapids. Thousands are expected to line the streets of the motorcade along Fulton...

We're hearing from the family of a young boy, who died after falling off a float at a New Hampshire Christmas Parade. On Monday, Thomas Fogarty's family spoke for the first time about the 9-year-old boy who was celebrating Christmas with his fellow Cub Scouts. The float -- being pulled by a trailer through downtown Portsmouth, New Hampshire -- pulled Thomas Fogarty to his tragic death. "At this time, we believe that Thomas somehow fell from the float and was run over by the trailer's double-axle wheels," said Chief Michael Magnant of the Portsmouth, New Hampshire Police Department. Thomas' family...

If B.P. started scouting in 2006 what would it be like?PRESS RELEASE OF THE FLEDGLING SCOUTING MOVEMENT: Mr. Powell is pleased to announce his plans to conduct an experiment in youth character development by assembling a group of 22 boys to spend a week camping with him at Brownsea Island. This 'camp-out' is intended to put into practice Mr. Powell's ideas of outdoor education and scoutcraft in building citizenship and character for the boys of today and the men of tomorrow. Mr. Powell notes that, “the most important object in Boy Scout training is to educate, not instruct” and “the...

High Court Won't Review Boy Scout Casehttp://www.forbes.com/business/businesstech/feeds/ap/2006/10/16/ap3093823.html http://tinyurl.com/y28xrq By MARK SHERMAN, 10.16.2006, 10:29 AM A Boy Scouts sailing group that lost free use of a public boat slip because of the Scouts' discriminatory policies failed to persuade the Supreme Court to take its case. The justices on Monday let stand a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling that the city of Berkeley may treat the Berkeley Sea Scouts differently from other nonprofits because the Scouts bar atheists and gays. The leader of the Sea Scouts argued that forcing the group to pay for a berth at the marina violated the group's...

Episcopal Scouting in the Diocese of West Texas The following blurb appeared in the October, 2006 issue of "Direct Line", the monthly electronic newsletter of the Diocese of West Texas: --- Resources are available for Episcopal churches and schools interested in sponsoring a Boy Scout unit, including Cub Scout packs (for boys in grades 1-5), Boy Scout troops (boys, ages 10-18) and Venturing crews (coeducational, ages 14-20). "Scouting can be a wonderful outreach ministry for unchurched youth outside a parish, and it can provide vocational and leadership training for youth within the parish," says Fred Goodwin, an assistant scoutmaster at...

Camp Scott: Once a wilderness utopia where children played, it's fifty-year history came crashing to a sudden end with the ghastly murders of three Girl Scouts in 1977. Michele Heather Guse , 9, Doris Denise Milner , 10, and Lori Lee Farmer , 8, had all fallen victim to a monsterous killer--the likes of which Oklahoma and the nation had never before seen. A curious crime that to this day continues on as one of the country's most unusual mysteries.

To Boy Scout, building labyrinth is a journey itselfhttp://www.oregonlive.com/metrosouthwest/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/metro_southwest_news/1159667704221670.xml&coll=7 http://tinyurl.com/hxpba Service - West Linn Lutheran's new footpath reflects Kevin Lenihan's vision and perseverance Thursday, October 05, 2006 CORNELIA SEIGNEUR The Oregonian Kevin Lenihan first walked a labyrinth at age 14. "I just loved it," he said. "Just finding an inner peace. That is the whole purpose of the labyrinth, to walk silently, really just calming down." Now he's the designer of a new outdoor labyrinth at West Linn Lutheran Church that will be dedicated at 10:30 a.m. Sunday during regular church services. A reception will follow. Lenihan, 17, a West...

The death of manlinesshttp://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52283 Posted: October 5, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern Mark Foley is a sick man in a sick culture. He apparently was abused by a priest as a child, and then he, too, abused House pages (how extensively is uncertain) before it ruined him. By the way, as his attorney affirmed on Tuesday, Mark Foley "is a gay man." Aside from the political tides generated by Foley's resignation, there are much larger cultural tsunamis swashing round. The Foley scandal intensifies the strain on relationships between youth and adults. It is particularly damaging for relations between old men and...

It was 1926. Queen Elizabeth II was born, the first liquid-fuel rocket was launched and a pair of men's pants cost less than $6. It also was the year Charles Soldi joined the Boy Scouts. Soldi, the middle of six kids living in Orange, was 12 when he was recruited by a neighbor. He quickly advanced in Scouting with the goal of making Eagle Scout, the organization's highest achievement. He earned 22 merit badges and in February 1932, at a court of honor, he was presented with his sterling silver Eagle Scout pin. Yesterday, Scouting officials from northern New Jersey...

‘More than just a hiking trip’http://www.pittsburghcatholic.org/newsarticles_more.phtml?id=1761 http://tinyurl.com/nvcz3 Friday September 22, 2006 by: Bob DeWitt Brian DeFazio felt the call to the priesthood long before he hiked the rugged mountains of northern New Mexico in July, taking part in a high adventure leadership program with other Catholic Boy Scouts. Now he’s even more certain that he wants to become a priest. Brian, 16, of St. Elizabeth of Hungary Parish in Pleasant Hills, may be the first Boy Scout from the Diocese of Pittsburgh to be chosen for the biannual St. George Trek at Philmont Scout Ranch, sponsored by the National Catholic...

Oregon high court rules for Scouts, against atheist motherhttp://www.kgw.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8K0R7JG0.html 09/08/2006 By TIM FOUGHT / Associated Press The Oregon Supreme Court rejected Friday the discrimination claim of an atheist whose son was required to attend a Boy Scout recruiting session in a Portland public school. The Scout oath requires members "to do my duty to God and my country," but simply providing information to pupils in public schools isn't discrimination under Oregon Law, the court said. Reversing a lower court, the justices denied the claim of Nancy Powell, whose son, Remington, was in elementary school when the dispute began in 1996....

Ten Reasons To Be An Adult Leader http://melrosetroop68.org/blog.html Friday, September 01, 2006 It is that time of year. Boys around the country will be joining Boy Scouting for the first time this month. And new parents will be asked to help their troop by becoming an adult leader. There are many reasons not to be a leader, but let me give you ten reasons why you should become a Scouter. (These are not in any sort of order.) 1) Be a positive influence in a boy's life. I think we can agree that there are many youth out there who...

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...

Ten ways scouting outranks televisionhttp://www.auburnpub.com/articles/2006/08/30/news/lake_life/lakelife03.txt http://tinyurl.com/pex7t By Don Grillo Wednesday, August 30, 2006 10:12 AM EDT Any time of the year is a good time for parents to enroll their sons in Scouting. But most boys join Scouting in September and October. During this period, annual recruiting programs are conducted by Cub Scout Packs and Boy Scout Troops throughout the Cayuga County Council. Boys are attracted to Scouting for the obvious reasons - camping, hiking, uniforms, pinewood derby races, earning badges and awards, making new friends, learning new things and having fun. Parents want their sons to join Scouting because...

(KSDK) - Threats of litigation by the American Civil Liberties Union is causing trouble for some Boy Scouts in St. Charles County. Last year the ACLU complained the Boy Scouts were a religious group, because members were compelled to swear an oath of duty to God. When the ACLU began winning court cases, several sponsors pulled out. Cub Scout Pack 530 was sponsored by Castlio Elementary School in St. Charles County for 20 years until the school pulled out after the ACLU'S nationwide threat to sue. Some parents are upset because the parent-teacher organization at Castlio decided not to sponsor...

Gay rights vs. religious beliefs http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/editorial/15345126.htm Posted on Thu, Aug. 24, 2006 Commentary By Roger T. Severino Live and let live. A simple concept, to be sure, but can we apply it to the growing conflict between gay rights and religious beliefs? The answer increasingly seems to be no. Recently, Philadelphia ordered the local Boy Scouts of America chapter (the nation's third-largest) to renounce the national organization's ban on openly gay members or begin paying rent on its city-subsidized headquarters of 78 years. Some thought this issue was settled by the Supreme Court in 2000, when the Boy Scouts won...

Army: Witnesses did not recall seeing signs about power lines before four Scout leaders died Three witnesses to the electrocution of four National Scout Jamboree leaders did not recall any signs warning of high-voltage power lines in the vicinity, according to investigative documents. However, a photograph included in the documents does show the presence of a sign. And one Boy Scout from the Western Alaska troop stated he noticed the overhead electrical lines before a metal tent pole touched them on July 25, 2005, the first day of the quadrennial event at the U.S. Army's Fort A.P. Hill in Caroline...

Finding God on the Mountainhttp://www.beliefnet.com/story/197/story_19711_1.html A scoutmaster discovers he had to get lost in order to find what was missing from his life. By Tony McIntosh I'm a scoutmaster for a small Boy Scout troop in my town. This summer during camp I went along with two of the older scouts--my son, who is 14, and another boy, 15--on what's known as "The Adventure Trek," a 28-mile backpacking trip that includes two days of white-water rafting. Our troop had gone backpacking in the past but never like this, so it was going to be a challenge for all of us....