The executive committee of the Boy Scouts of America recently proposed revising its membership policy that would be a sort of compromise that might please everyone on the issue of homosexuals. Unfortunately, as is the case with most compromises nobody seems pleased.
The Boy Scouts are an admirable organization with a commitment to helping boys become men. It’s been amazingly successful. And it’s that success that’s made it a target. The Scouts are now facing legal challenges, media bullying, and some good ol’ fashioned name calling from opponents of the ban on actively gay scout leaders.
May 1, 2013 at 3:30 pm
Isn't the Scout's proposed policy actually just following the lead of the Church? There is no prohibition on "gays" belonging to the church, and they could theoretically be altar servers, etc.
ALL Scouts, because they are minors are expected to be chaste, and the Boy Scouts are not giving a pass on this to gay scouts.
I don't look at it as compromising with the Gay agenda, I look at it as affirming that scouts gay or straight should not be defined by inclination toward behavior that scouting says should be left out of scouting entirely.
May 1, 2013 at 9:02 pm
If you are there to scout, then there is no problem.
I think in one circumstance with a scout, others were actually trying to 'out him' in which he wasn't doing anything other then being a scout.
So does he lie and says he is straight, or does he come out and be honest that he isn't?
We don't want boys, who aren't doing anything to cause conflict having to lie.
What does it mean to be openly gay is so vague, especially width being gay in of itself isn't a sin in Catholicism.
My husband is an Eagle Scout, my sons are cubs. I've been on Family Scouting trips. It is the most asexual/unromantic thing in the world. Even as a married couple, they would tell us to stop out even if we were showing normal public displays of affection.
To eight year old boys, that's just gross!
The issue is more about behavior then orientation, as I saw one comment on another blog. In his experience at Scouts, there was sexual abuse of younger scouts by older ones. The older scouts were not homosexual, but rather hyper-sexual.
May 1, 2013 at 9:06 pm
I am the mother of two Eagle Scouts (heterosexual). Scouting, as you progress through the ranks, involves a great deal of camping and times when man and boys are alone together. In many ways, that is the point of scouting – it allows boys to learn to be men/fathers by watching and participating in physical and traditional male activities under the tutelage of men who act as role models. A boy need not have a father himself to learn from a father-figure through Scouting.
There was a young man in ours son’s troop who the boys always suspected of being gay. No one EVER said anything, but the boys desperately did not want to share a tent with this boy. This was as difficult and humiliating for them at 13 as it would have been to sleep in the same tent with a girl – chastity was irrelevant. As this boy approached his Eagle ceremony we came to understand through the grapevine that he had “come out” at school and everywhere but Scouts. So be it – this was but one aspect of our sons’ overall Scouting experience and they are now adults and have moved on. Still, these problems were very real and dramatic and, I am certain our sons’ Scouting years would have been more beneficial had they been in an entirely heterosexual group.
Being straight is unique and my boys deserved and we intended an experience that was geared to them and their needs. If Scouting abandons this original mission there will be no activity left for young heterosexual boys to experience the type of bonding and adult imitation necessary to create decent husband and fathers.