question for Rooster

[Big_Dog 10]

Hey brother,

 

If the leadership of Scouting ever decided to leave the question of having gay leaders up to each council, as some on this forum suggest, would that be enough to make you resign?

 

If yes, what would you do?

 

+

bd

[Rooster7 11]

It's an unfair question for me to answer. Two of my sons (20 and 17) are off to college. My third and youngest son (14) is becoming disinterested in Scouting - or rather he's gaining a interest in his Church youth group. He doesn't seem to have time for both. In short, my involvement in Scouting stemmed from my desire/need to be involved with my sons. Now that they have all essentially left the organization, I only have a tacit relationship with the troop (although, officially, Im still registered). I could have ripped off an answer like No question, Id resign immediately, which by the way, is the truth. BUT, if my sons were still involved, I might not have given that answer. I suppose if they were still active, I would wait and see how my sons troop approached the issue. Whatever the outcome, if the BSA made it a local option, my high opinion of the BSA as a national organization that promotes strong character in boys, would be destroyed. Presently, my esteem for them is extremely high. They have maintained their resolve to traditional values better than most churches. I will be greatly saddened if they should ever falter, and cave to the political pressures of the day.

[NJCubScouter 1389]

If the leadership of Scouting ever decided to leave the question of having gay leaders up to each council, as some on this forum suggest...

 

BigDog, I don't mean to intrude on your conversation with Rooster, I just want to clarify what the issue is. The "suggestion" is to leave it up to each unit, not each council. If it were done council-by-council there would still be a lot of units that would be required to discriminate against their will. And since I don't think the BSA would ever make a unit accept an openly gay leader if they didn't want to, in effect the policy would be local option in some councils, but the current policy in other councils. So I think "local option" means its an option that every unit has -- to be determined by its CO.

 

I'll step back out of the conversation now.

 

[Big_Dog 10]

NJ-

I apologize, unit is correct. Also, I don't guess the question is just for rooster. The question is not meant to start another squabble, but rather to gauge the response if such a thing happened. I appreciate roosters response, because at one time it was an absolute with me, I'd be gone quicker than a June bug on an ant hill.

I think such a decision on the part of National would hurt Scouting immeasurably, but I don't think it's an automatic "I'm Gone" with a lot of folks like it used to be. Could be wrong, though; that's why I asked.

[NJCubScouter 1389]

Also, I don't guess the question is just for rooster.

 

Fair enough, BigDog. But given my opinion on the subject, it is definitely not a question for me.

 

It does, however, sound familiar. There have been a few threads in the past that ended up on the subject of "what would you do if the policy changed." I once speculated that if local option became the policy, a certain regular poster on this forum (who last posted on July 7 except for a "See private message" on July 13), would just go along Scouting. In response, he got very angry and said I didn't know anything about Scouting, which I think was the first of about ten times he told me the same thing. I think his apoplexy and the resulting verbal abuse may have been due to the fact that I was talking about him and a possible change in BSA policy in the same sentence.

[packsaddle 753]

NJ, sometimes you are just asking for the gom jabar.