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Jambo has slightly older age requirements but is not considered "high adventure" exactly although it is now held at a BSA high adventure base (Summit/Bechtel Reserve). Jambo does not have busses like at A.P Hill. There was a BMI requirement (31.9 or less). Surprise - West Virginia is not flat! For myself, I participated in the Bataan Death March (2005 Jambo where approx. 5 deaths occured and multiple hundreds evacuated due to heat stress). I'm all in favor of the current trend to put slightly more emphasis on physical fitness for both the boys and adults. It got to a point that the "defa

Later day saints? Some Mormons are very punctual. Latter-day Saints is what you may have meant. Let's eat Grandma!

Smoking that pint of tea again?

Barry, what you say may be true but the only morality I get comes from my fellow man. Exactly what is the conduit that you received your morality education from God? Even the Fruits of the Spirit (Galations) can be argued that this came from man. Just because a man tells me that it came from God does not exhibit proof to me. That's why "faith" is such a big deal in almost 100% of religions. P.S. Yeah, with Internet Explorer any "enter" kicks me out too.

International Left Handers Day!

First of all, the original poster asked if there was such a policy on this topic. He was not asking anyones opinion on the subject. Now, ADCin NC answered the question. It seems very clear cut to me that what the leaders of this unit are doing is in violation of the Charter and Byaws of Article IX. Article IX. Policies and Definitionsâ€â€From the Charter and Bylaws Section 1. Declaration of Religious Principle, clause 1.The Boy Scouts of America maintains that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation to God. In the first part of th

One of the many highlights I had as a Scoutmaster was to arrange for our troop to go the the Scoutmasters Council Camporee at West Point. Every year the Cadet Scoutmasters' Council hosts a camporee at Lake Frederick for approximately 6,000 scouts and it is by invitation only. It was interesting for me to see the Cadets - some only two or so years older than the Scouts put this on every year. It was also an experience to see soldiers - trained in crowd control and not in Scouting - tell a group of scouts not to block a pathway at Ft. A.P. Hill. It is one thing to have a middle aged, overweight,

I could create a poll that asks "Do you like ice cream?" and then in the fine print define ice cream as as frozen water topped with cool whip - and I'd still bet I'd get a ton more "likes" than "hates." Folks are going to define what the BSA represents themselves and for a poll that resides in this forum where the vast majority are BSA members, well the poll outcome should be obvious.

I am not naive enough to believe wholeheartedly in the BSA statement nor the forchange.com statement so I won't be signing any petitions or lobbying an BSA executives. However, it is troubling that this has occurred - you'd think that grown men Kuska and the council leaders could work something out.

First of all, the article makes no mention of atheists. However, the use of the Star of David was objected to by the Freedom from Religion Foundation. That is a foundation that works primarily with the isssue of separation of church and state (1st Amendment violations).

Sure they can, they'd just be wrong.

Kahuna, I couldn't disagree more with your comments and I was not disturbed at all by Obama's comments. He did not imply that the police, jury, defense, prosecutor or judge did anything wrong in this case. I think what his statement may have done is tamp down some of the self-righteous "100 city protest" of the case and put out a call to keep all demonstrations non-violent. I appreciate that. He reminded folks who may have forgotten what the typical black American male youth experience in this country. I think he was also trying to set expectations that the federal government, in all pro

The USA is a great country founded on basic religious principles (not necessarily Christian) but populated with a multitude of "not so great" citizens that do lie, cheat, steal, beat and conduct themselves in other nefarious ways. Be careful of the 1933 Germany comment, we may not be a nation under God, but we surely do follow Godwin's Law.

I'm left-handed - i.e. not normal Please don't hate or judge me for it. I was born to excel on a baseball field.

I think that, at least for Boy Scouts - all Scouts feel stigmatized because their parents are - well they are their parents! Being embarrassed about your parents is a time honored teen-age rite of passage. Now if one was the Scoutmaster - that makes it even worse!

I don't think polygamy will be an issue. If gay marriage is universally allowed, all adults now have an equal chance to choose a singular life partner so I don't think a man who want to marry a 12 year old or a woman who wants to marry a horse or polygamy or any other such nonsense will be an issue.

My best friend, a non-catholic (non-Catholic?) sent his boys to a Jesuit run high school. Why? Because he thought that they would get a good education. I had my two sons go through the BSA program (Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts) because I thought it would do them and myself good. Both even earned their age appropriate religious youth emblem award (Light of Christ, Parvuli Dei and for one of them Ad Altare Dei). Maybe because their mother pushed them? Maybe because they thought having medals and knots on their uniform was cool? Anyway, my point is that the DRP was anything I was

I highly doubt that Zimmerman shot the Trayvon Martin because he was black. I think folks are forgetting a few things and not thinking analytically. One, as jblake47 and others have tried to point out - jury trials such as these do not have an objective to prove someone innocent. The judges direction to the jury was to determine if George Zimmerman acted in self-defense or in legalese - if the death of Trayvon Martin resulted from the justifiable use of deadly force and that a person is justified in using deadly force if he reasonably believes that such force is necessary to prevent

DWise1 - God and religions are funny things. They mean many different things to many different folks. The BSA has their declaration of religious principle stated on their application. You keep giving what appears to be a circular argument to me - you apparently did or said something that someone felt was in violation of membership. Possibly, you posted something that upset an individual and they (rightly or wrongly) looked for a reason to kick you out of the BSA. Sort of like tax evasion for Al Capone? I stated my opinion on the BSA's previous stance on avowed homosexuality on this

Fred - as an administrator I almost went in and edited your post for clarity. Please tell me, you used "generic" many times in your post. Was that your intention or were you really implying "genetic?" For this particular protestant and engineer - I struggle with the concepts of man having free will in concert with the concept of an all knowing God.

Yes, I feel that the "gay" issue has hit critical mass due to the fact that it will not be going away. Kahuna compared the issue to "women's rights" which I think is apt. I think that we as a society, will also find out that this will both have unforeseen benefits and negative consequences - just like the changing perceptions of what the role of women in society ought to be. With more women in the workforce, they are less dependent on someone else as a provider - that has boosted divorce rates and increased the amount of children raised in single parent homes. It also allowed many women

Don't get it backwards - the Scout should be taking merit badges that exposes/introduces them to many of the various professions that are out there. Don't think of a career and then pursue merit badges along those lines. Why limit career choices at the age of 13, 14 ,15 16 or even 17? Also, keep in mind that even if a Scout wants to become a carpenter, do body work, etc. they still benefit from basic English, science and mathematics courses. That is what our high schools should be teaching. Right now, I'd say 75% of community colleges and 50% of universities concentrate on get

Baloney. So you don't see it as hateful that the organization states that they believe that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the requirement in the Scout Oath that a Scout be morally straight and in the Scout Law that a Scout be clean in word and deed, and that homosexuals do not provide a desirable role model for Scouts. But the ban on homosexuals had nothing to do with conduct - a celebate priest, if self declared as a homosexual, would have been denied membership. That was my beef. The simple workable solution is to get rid of these idiotic restrictions. Labelling folks as "

Not trying to pry but when you use the work "counselor" in your post, I'm guessing you are referencing a person who provides counseling (social worker of some sort) and not a camp counselor or merit badge counselor. Now, was your son removed due to an overt action or threat of an action or for a self expressed belief? If this is a physician-patient privilege issue, that is out of the realm of my expertise.

You do know why Baptists don't have sex standing up? Someone might think they are dancing. :-)