jmenand

John, I take it by your bold type and stern language that you might be taking my posts more dead-seriously than I intended. I realize that the statement of religious principal gives wide latitude. In an ideal system, I feel that national should trim back on the universal guidelines and allow each troop to decide, with their CO, through what faith (if any) they would administer the scouting program. The statement alludes that this is how things are run, and in fact it is how things are run. But what is true on paper is not always the case when it comes to the intangible "tension" around certain

Beavah- thank you, that is more or less how my heart would like me to approach the situation. John in KC- Yes, I realize that it is a private organization, and in fact that life is filled with private organizations like this. However, it is my perception that other private organizations do not have the same communication problems that the BSA has. My unit is not chartered by a church. This difference means that there are some rather flat out nonreligious people in our unit. Additionally, my fear is perhaps colored by my personal history. While a teenager (not long ago), and on my way

Well, having received my Eagle recently enough for it to still be a vivid memory, I think I know what your son is feeling as far as dragging feet from Life to Eagle. And I think I also know what you will be feeling at the CoH- I don't think I've ever seen my parents so proud of me as when I saw them sitting in the parent's "seats of honor" beside me while most of my troop leadership took turns telling stories about me... sorry, I didn't mean to talk about myself! I certainly hope the Eagle CoH never dies as a tradition. As far as moments of recognition and reflection go, it's hard to bea

Dan, to clarify I wasn't advocating any sort of active disobedience, but I am raising a concern that I perceive that adults in BSA are trained to never even mention the issues they have with national policy. My fellow adults feel more or less free to joke and gossip as adults with each other when it comes to casual banter and current events, but when it comes to BSA policies I can cut the tension with a knife. I am wondering, is this "right?" For all I know, some of the people I've been working with for years could agree with my dissent, or maybe I'm the only one. But I wouldn't know because w

Gern, I most certainly don't want to leave either. John, I understand that I should not complicate the program as it is delivered to the youth. Perhaps I may be an agent for change, but we are all only human. And even if I could change the program so that I am 100% comfortable with it, I anticipate that most people will always be able to find something to disagree with if they think long enough. My problem is that I fear retaliation for merely raising the issue of dissenting opinion. I'm not talking about rasing dissent with the youth. I understand completely why that is an in

I realize that this topic may have been discussed in some form previously on this message board. I apologize if it is inappropriate. Another thread got me thinking... What do we as individuals in the BSA who believe in Scouting do if we disagree or feel uncomfortable with some aspect of BSA national policy? Now, I realize that the obvious targets are atheism and homosexuality. But I do not want to debate whether the BSA should/shouldn't allow atheists or homosexuals. What I am suggesting is that most serious minded adults in the BSA could, if they closely examined BSA polic

Thank you both for your input, this seems very reasonable (especially the part about contrasting with the other adult cub leader knots). Assuming that this is correct, I suppose my next question would be what the meaning of the red and green with webelos "stands for?" Maybe my old Webelos handbook holds the answer...(This message has been edited by jmenand)

Kudu, etc: I happen to agree as well, mostly. The real issue here is that I love what I see as the core philosophies of Scouting. Living in the US, my only real outlet to support Scouting is the BSA. In most ways, I feel that the BSA is the best, most efficient, and well organized "wing" of the scouting movement in the world. So it comes down to this: compromise a few of my personal beliefs so that I may pursue Scouting in a successful organization (the BSA), OR Not be involved in Scouting. I bite my tongue whenever issues/conversations are raised over the BSA p

Hi, I searched in vain for an answer to this question: What is the significance of the colors in the Arrow of Light knot? Almost every other knot shares it's colors with it's associated medal/award. But the youth patch for the AoL is gold in the middle with a blue border, so why is the knot red and green?

Thank you for the welcome! What follows are my personal feelings on the role of teaching morality in Scouting. If you wish to understand moral relativism, there are many better authorities than I on the subject. I apologize for the length. I see moral relativism as being contradictory to Scouting because Scouting is built on the premise that there are moral truths. Strict moral relativism says that moral truths are an illusion created by culture, historical traditions, and personal references. By recognizing a spiritual existence of any kind ("God," if you wish), a person is abl

I did not follow for much of the discussion, since I feel much of it is semantic arguments about interpreting what constitutes a belief in God. One line caught my eye: Ed said: "An agnostic & an atheist are not the same. An agnostic believes in a higher power but isn't sure about it. An atheist doesn't believe in any type of higher power." I would agree that they are not the same. However, I do not think they are mutually exclusive. - Atheist/theist is an ontological position, agnostic/gnostic is an epistemological position. They aren't mutually exclusive, as they spea

Hello everyone, first time poster here! I have a question about patches. Is there any uniform rule or etiquette about using older versions of patches which were retired before I became a registered scout? For example, my local council has gone through a number of different shoulder patch designs. I would like to use a quite old design because it has a bit of a classic appeal. Similarly, I had my OA ordeal in the mid 1990s, but I found a lodge flap for my lodge from the 70's which is neat (and only cost $2 at a yard sale) which I'd like to use on my new uniform (my current one was damaged recen