Huzzar

I just looked at their statement of faith and it's actually quite broad from a Christian perspective. LDS doesn't make the cut because they have scriptures not found in the rest of the world's bibles. Don't think it has anything to do with not wanting LDS to take over. Let's be honest here; until quite recently most people around the world considered the Mormons to be a non-Christian cult. Every denomination of every faith has things about it that make outsiders scratch their heads but LDS has far more than most. The welcome to non-Christian youth is no different to my United Methodis

Nobody is asking any Scout to make a profession. If a Scout tells a BoR to take a hike on any legitimate question it's okay for the Board to deny rank advancement. General questions about Reverence are legitimate.

Trail Life doesn't appear to be growing where I live. There are no units within 50 miles as best I can tell. I think they'll end up about the size of American Heritage Girls, which has the same outlook as they do. Just another choice for a kid's time, no great threat to BSA.

Now you're making stuff up, Packsaddle. It's perfectly acceptable to ask a Scout what Reverent means to him in a BoR. Provided he doesn't say "nothing, I'm an atheist" it's just another conversation point. If he does say "I'm an atheist" and persists in sticking with that position despite the BoR members trying to get him to understand the BSA's position then the BoR has a pretty tough decision themselves. Deny rank and explain why or ignore the religious part themselves. No...I'm not going to engage you in nit picky arguments about what/who a supreme being is.The BSA is quite upfront

and lawyers wonder why they get a bad rap. Rolling my eyes..

I think your advice would be applicable if the Scouters were neutral and able to act objectively. In this case, the CC is the bully's mom and rides roughshod over everyone else. There are only two options available and one of them isn't realistic. First, move on and don't look back (my choice). Second, work to have the IH via COR remove CC and restore some sanity. Two might be the ideal option, but my experience is that it isn't worth the drama. Scouting is meant to be fun. When it isn't, the Scout should go to a unit where he will be happy and having fun.

Just move to the other troop and don't look back. It doesn't matter how obvious the facts seem to you, you will get "there're two sides to every story" if you complain. With any luck some of your son's friends will move too.

"The entire requirement is idiotic and ridiculously badly defined." I agree with this one. Quite frankly, with the change for sexuality for Scouts I can't see the point in excluding a tiny number of boys because they won't wordsmith their lack of faith to meet BSA's wishy-washy requirement.

Perhaps your leader met the dude at the Unitarian booth at Jambo that was telling the yoots he was an atheist but liked being a Scouter so he joined the Unitarians because they don't care if you believe in anything.

It looks like Ryan Andresen turned 18 in 2011 or 2012 so it would be the old rules.

Wouldn't it depend on the age of the Scout as of 1/1/14? Anyone that aged out before that will be under the old rules.

It's a bit early to make any definitive statement about membership numbers and finances. My Council is still chasing down units that are tardy with paperwork. IMO, the change for Scouts is minor compared with a change for adults. If Gates has been brought on board to make it happen then he should do so as quickly as possible so we can see what happens. He's never going to build a consensus on this so just get on with it.

I thought that UK Scout numbers improved after they appointed as Chief Scout a guy that kills rattle snakes with his bare hands and then eats 'em raw. Skip--do you have dates of when numbers improved and when Grylls became the face of Scouting in the UK?

No mass (or minor) influx of gay kids either. So we're where we always thought we were, pandering to the AT&T dude cos he was getting stick at shareholder meetings. Next up, will Gates be Stephenson's guy to push the change for adults?

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Sorry Never... you're making tripe up.

It's interesting to see what's going on in the UK but I don't think it is relevant to the BSA. The percentage of the UK population that attends religious services on a regular basis is quite small. Given that, it's understandable why the Girl Guides are making the oath as broad as possible. It's probably accurate to say that Scouting and Guiding in the UK are outdoor youth programs with very little religious component. The National leaders for Guides have decided one oath only so the groups that don't like it have to change or leave. Hmmm...sounds familiar...

What is a nice price?

It is not an analogy. The distain with which most boys hold schoolwork Scouting is literal, not figurative. The reaction from my son when he attended his first Merit Badge roundtable "this is just Saturday morning school. Can we go fishing instead." It also prompted him to say he wanted to leave Scouts, but stayed in when I said he could skip merit badges and just have fun on the trips. Yes, he eventaully decided to set Eagle as a goal but still disliked more merit badges than he liked.

The author was talking explicitly about welfare in the USA and its deleterious affect on black family structure in the USA. Pointing the finger in this case is extremely helpful. What to do about it is the complicated part.

>>Yes, there are boys who would jump at the chance of twice as many meetings a week and twice as many camping nights a year!

Nothing hypocritical about it, Merlyn. They behaved like assholes, I can call 'em on it. And you have to be reading impaired to think that the cards they displayed were meant to do anything but mock the religious displays.

I can give you the back story to that one, KDD. Chester County isn't discriminating against atheists, they're discriminating against assholes. A few years back the local atheists lobbied to have their tree put next to the Christmas tree and menorah. That request was granted as an equal access type deal. Unfortunately, the atheists chose to decorate their tree with cards that explicitly mocked the beliefs of the people that put up the two religious symbols. The County, rightly IMO, concluded that the atheist group had lied in their petition and did not want to express any type of good wishes fo

I just shopped for the same policy I had 4 years ago when I was self-employed. I'm thinking of hanging the shingle again and health care is the biggest concern. What was a $350/month policy is now being sold at $950/month. Of course, it covers things like pregnancy and abortion, which I never paid for before as neither was going to happen. BTW, the 10% increases aren't going away, they'll just be on a bigger base figure.

Many years ago I was working for the Florida Dept of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles when we got word that a guy that was ticketed for DUI while riding a bike had his appeal to the Supreme Court rejected. He argued that a bike wasn't a motor vehicle thus he couldn't be DUI. After the Supreme Court ruling we had to update all the offense codes that applied to vehicles so they could also apply to bicycles. My favorite: Commiting a lewd and lascivious act while on a Bicycle, :-)