BSA blog carnival

[Merlyn_LeRoy 72]

 

There probably aren't many readers of atheist blogs in I&P, so here's a BSA blog carnival going on today against the BSA's exclusionary policies:

 

http://reason-being.com/index.php/2012/12/01/the-boy-scouts-of-america-anti-homosexuality-and-anti-atheist/

 

[Sentinel947 1205]

I liked what I was reading towards the beginning and became less and less inclined towards his argument as he went through it. His personal story filled me with a feeling of empathy for him and his Scoutmaster, that is the experience we want our boys to go through in Scouts, having fun and having excellent role models.

 

Towards the end of the piece he slid into more of an attack on the BSA policies, and I feel like he fails to separate local units from the policies set by National. Those troops selling Christmas trees is money that goes to their local units, it doesn't go to the people setting the policy in Irving.

 

I disliked some of his terms like "Vehemently", but I guess that depends on what side of the fence you are on. I'm clearly on the pro BSA side. He points to the Scouts, "Actively working to destroy part of the community." I vehemently disagree. Neither I, any of the Adult volunteers or Scouts in my units are out to destroy the gay and lesbian community. Our dear blogger has jumped off the cliff. He is perfectly justified in taking his donations of time or volunteering to other organizations. He is not justified to denigrate 11 year old children.

 

I don't frequent those types of blogs, being a Roman Catholic myself. I applaud him for having strong convictions. I agree with the pro gay/athiest in Scouts groups on the end result, ending the ban, but not on the methods to get there.

 

Yours in Scouting,

Sentinel947.

[SeattlePioneer 144]

Great! Perhaps I can be the Merlyn_LeRoy of the blog.

[Merlyn_LeRoy 72]

"The" blog? There are 30 of them participating; that's what blog carnivals are.

[qwazse 4345]

I'd be more impressed if the conclusion was more like ...

 

"So I'm starting a new youth organization: free of duty to God, an 11 point law, and welcoming to adult leaders of all sexual persuasions -- strictly new morality straight. You're kids will love it! You'll be amazed by their superior character compared to youth from other narrow-minded organizations,"

 

Praising folks for defunding youth is just gay and empty-idealed whining.

[WAKWIB 107]

Ok...Word to the atheists. Never buy your CHRIST-mas tree from a Boy Scout.

[Pint 23]

Quote: "Ok...Word to the atheists. Never buy your CHRIST-mas tree from a Boy Scout. "

 

Isnt that where Xmas comes in?

 

On a slightly more depersing note we have got a Seasonal service coming up ( was previously a christmas carol service ) that apparently is going to concentrate on the spirutual side of humanity, apparently it will be non denominational, non relegious and instead it will focus on the spritual side things and the diversity of humanity as a whole.

 

most of the Scouts and parents cant see the point in it.

[qwazse 4345]

Ya Pint,

 

I'd rather send my Christian kids to a proper Druid service. Give them an idea of what St. Patrick was encountering every year when the days grew short.

 

By the way, the X is simply a Romanization of Chi, the first initial for Christ in Greek orthodoxy. (If the Arab world were into mash-up abbreviations, it would be Mmas, because they use the Semitic word, Messiah.). It's use is in no way meant to remove Jesus from the purpose of the day, but rather to remind Christians who tried to ban the Victorian celebration that the last authority to try such a tactic was the Roman empire, under whose repression believers had to draw the symbol of a fish to identify themselves to one another.

[Eagle732 27]

Thanks for bringing that to my attention Merlyn!

Merry Christmas and God Bless You!

[Peregrinator 85]

By the way, the X is simply a Romanization of Chi, the first initial for Christ in Greek orthodoxy.

 

Well, Greek period -- not just Greek Orthodoxy!

 

Χριστος (Christos) Chi rho iota sigma tau omicron sigma

 

 

[NJCubScouter 1389]

I never heard of a blog carnival before. Are there clowns? I can't stand clowns.

 

I mostly agree with Sentinel here. Obviously I want the policies to change, but it's the "boycott" idea that I have trouble with. The question is for me is, how does my opposition to the policies fit in with the fact that I continue to be a troop committee member? Do I need to quit? Will National suddenly change its policy because one troop in central New Jersey had to find a new person to chair Boards of Review? The guy who wrote this blog made his choice, and I respect his choice, but I have to make mine. It may be that if I was in his position, at the age of 21, I would have quit too, but the plain fact is that I "quit" -- meaning I did not spend summers and breaks from college with the troop -- starting at about 19, simply because my interests had moved on to other things. I get the feeling that this blogger has not yet had the experience of having a six-year-old son who wants to join the Tigers with his friends. That's when I came back to Scouting, after a 20-year break, and I haven't left yet, even though my son is 21 and long gone from the troop. I will say that one reason I have never gotten involved at the district level is that while I can justify to myself being involved at the level where the boys are, if I were to get involved at a higher level I might feel like I was giving the BSA more of a "blanket endorsement", and they don't need that from me, and they aren't getting it. We're all just fine with me helping my son's successors with the advancement process and with me throwing in my two cents on other subjects at committee meetings.

 

Nor do I think there is anything to be gained by not buying a holiday wreath or a light bulb or a ticket to a spaghetti dinner from a 12-year-old because of some policy made far away that he doesn't know about and wouldn't fully understand if he did. On the other hand, if Intel and UPS want to withhold their funds (underline, THEIR funds) from the BSA, that's ok with me. If other companies join in, maybe it will do some good in the long run. It's too bad that some kids are going to have to miss out on something in the meantime, but that is the result of the BSA's decisions, at least as much as Intel or UPS.

 

By the way, quazse, if we're talking "Semitic" here, the word is actually "Mashiach" (Hebrew) or "Masih" (Arabic.) (Had to look up that last one, this of course is assuming that Wikipedia hadn't just been vandalized by someone who wanted to mislead the world on the Arabic word for "Messiah.")

[Eagle732 27]

"Are there clowns? I can't stand clowns."

 

Yea, I can't stand clowns either. And there's too many of them around these days.

 

Again those that demand tolerance offer it the least.

[NJCubScouter 1389]

Again those that demand tolerance offer it the least.

 

Not me, I tolerate almost everybody, whether I can stand them or not.

 

[qwazse 4345]

NJ, the wiki's not lying. Hebrew and Arabic are Semitic languages and have lots of words in common, the word for Messiah being one of them. And, Peri, my apologies for making the Greek Protestants, Catholics, and others feel left out!

[Merlyn_LeRoy 72]

I get the feeling that this blogger has not yet had the experience of having a six-year-old son who wants to join the Tigers with his friends.

 

Check some of the other blogs. There really are people who don't allow their kids to join the boy scouts because of their discrimination.

 

And quite a few people don't distinguish between the BSA's policies set by national and a local pack or troop; that's typical of boycotts, they urge people to simply stop dealing with this or that organization in any way.

 

I don't know if it will have the desired effect, but it's not like anything else has changed the BSA's position since the Dale decision.