BSA passes resolution

On May 24, 2013 the National Council of Boy Scouts of America passed the “sexual orientation” resolution.  It is hailed in some quarters as a great victory.  I have written here extensively why it is not a change for the better.  The biggest losers will be the youth who go through sexual confusion, as many do, and who will be given the wrong guidance and sent the wrong message.  There are behaviors that lead to negative consequences and even to death.  It is and always will be better for youth to run into a guardrail rather than run off a cliff.

The negative effects and unintended consequences for the organization will begin immediately.  The full extent of the damage in terms of membership losses will not be fully seen for 5-7 years.

I believe that BSA has signed its own death certificate.  It is sad, but life goes on.

God is still God and I am still his servant. – james w

Scout’s Honor Reconsidered

I wish I had heard of this gentleman sooner.  He is a longtime Scout and Scouter and he has really done his research on this topic.  He has posted a very informative, highly recommended article at his blog.

Excerpt:

The truly sad thing is, that boys who struggle with issues of gender identity will be the biggest losers if the resolution passes. There will be no presumption of the need for guidance if the product of any amount of confusion in adolescent development is immediately dismissed as “normal,” despite the bulk of civilized history speaking to the contrary. A seventeen-year-old candidate for Eagle Scout who believes he is gay can be handled one way, while the eleven-year-old girl who “self-identifies” as a boy and wants to join a Boy Scout troop can be handled another way. The point is, there is presently the potential for options. If the resolution passes, there is only one.

Please read all of it…

Scout’s Honor Reconsidered by David L. Alexander:

http://manwithblackhat.blogspot.com/2013/05/scouts-honor-reconsidered.html

Thank you Mr. Alexander.

Boy Scouts Membership Policy Info

Welcome guests, if you are coming here for information on the Boy Scouts of America’s membership policy and potential changes, this list should be helpful:

Update 5/23/13, the vote is today.  It will be in the 11AM to 2PM range central time.  The results should be known a few hours later.  Mr. David L. Alexander has posted a very good commentary on this issue.  See my post below for a link.

Update 5/22/13, The vote is tomorrow.  The folks supporting OnMyHonor.net are on the ground in Texas and still doing everything they can to resist the resolution.  And I’m still talking with people and encouraging a “no” vote.

Update 5/8/13, vote coming soon, BSA issues an info packet for the voters:  http://wp.me/pcDrw-2k9

The official resolution is here:  http://bit.ly/Z8UYlI

My response to the resolution:  http://wp.me/pcDrw-2jL

My original and lengthy response to dropping current policy is here:  http://wp.me/pcDrw-2hq
(This is an important, baseline commentary that helps to properly frame the argument.)

My post on Ethics, Morals, and Guardrails:  http://wp.me/pcDrw-2iV

And more resources below and in the archives.

Boy Scouts at the Brink – The Moment of Decision Arrives

By Albert Mohler

May 22, 2013

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Meeting Thursday in Grapevine, Texas, the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America will decide whether it will retain or revise its historic membership policy on the issue of homosexuality. The 1,400 voting members of the B.S.A. National Council hold the future of one of America’s most iconic organizations in their hands. In reality, they are not only deciding a matter of membership policy. They are actually deciding the future of the entire organization.

The culture wars came to the Boy Scouts many years ago. For the last few decades, the Boy Scouts have had to fight battles with both secularists and homosexual activists. The secular challenge came first, with demands that the Scouts drop their historic requirement that boys affirm belief in God as a criterion for membership. Soon thereafter, the demand for the full inclusion of homosexual members and leaders followed. The Scouts have had to fight legal battles both locally and nationally, costing the venerable organization millions of dollars in legal fees. In 2000, the B.S.A. prevailed at the U.S. Supreme Court when the nation’s highest court ruled that the Boy Scouts had a constitutional right to exclude openly gay boys and leaders from the organization, so long as that exclusion is based in one of the organization’s core convictions — an “expressive message.” The B.S.A. won the case because that is exactly what they claimed. They argued that excluding openly homosexual boys and leaders from Scouting was necessary and required by the Scout Oath.

Read the rest here: http://bit.ly/10kMlFc

In Good We Trust?

Story from: http://www.frc.org/washingtonupdate/for-gosnell-a-declarative-sentence

The Boy Scouts may not realize it yet, but they’re voting on a lot more than just dropping the prohibition against open homosexuality next Thursday. When the National Council meets in Texas on May 23, homosexuality is just a preview of the broader strategy to redefine the Scouts. In USA Today, the drumbeat has already started to topple the BSA’s religious foundation too. Tom Krattenmaker, a member of the paper’s contributing board, confirms what FRC has said all along: opening their tents to homosexuality means chasing God out.

His column, “Good Boy Scouts Don’t Need God,” exposes the Left’s agenda of uprooting traditional morality altogether. “Undergirding the Boy Scouts’ ban [on the non-religious] is the dubious premise that people cannot be moral without religious beliefs… Margaret Downey, president of Freethought Society, is leveraging the new focus on Boy Scout inclusion policies to prompt a fresh look at its ban on atheists. ‘There is no question that people can be good without a god belief,’ Downey says. The Boy Scouts offer a great program, she adds, ‘yet their bigoted membership policies are harmful.’”

Make no mistake. This isn’t a war of “inclusion;” this is a struggle for the very soul of our nation–and the BSA is just the latest target. The Scouts have stood firm for God and country for over 100 years–now it’s time for us to stand with them!