Boy Scouts: Gays cannot believe in God
The City of Philadelphia finally kicked out the Boy Scouts from city-owned property. Good.
The reason is simple: The Scouts believe in discrimination, and it’s against the law for a discriminatory organization to receive funds from the city. As the Scouts had been leasing the land basically rent-free, that’s considered accepting money. Ergo, they had to pay rent ($200K per year) or get out.
Let’s look at some of the logic of the Scouts as shown in the New York Times story.
In trying to reach a compromise with the city, the Scouts offered to agree to a policy statement that said, in part, "prejudice, intolerance and unlawful discrimination in any form are unacceptable."
One: They would agree to the statement, but they wouldn’t change anything. That’s called "lip service"; it and $2.00 will get you on the subway.
Two: By agreeing to that statement, the Scouts would be lying. They are clearly and unequivocally intolerant and prejudiced when it comes to gay, as is their right. So they’re saying such behavior is unacceptable, but doing it anyway. What lesson does that teach? If you hate gays, say so and be done with it. Don’t talk out of both sides of your mouth.
Then there are these bits of flotsam from Gregg Shields, the Scouts’ national spokesman:
“Since we were founded, we believe that open homosexuality would be inconsistent with the values that we want to communicate with our leaders."
"A belief in God is also mentioned in the Scout oath. We believe that those values are important."
One: What values would being gay be "inconsistent" with? The Scout "law" says its members must be "trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, [and] reverent." Where does it dictate who you can love?
And the Scout Oath reads
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.
Again, how is who you’re attracted to inconsistent with anything there? Answer: It isn’t. Scout leadership is homophobic, so it’s reading meaning into these things where there is none. They might just as logically say "It would be inconsistent with Scouting principles for members to date brunettes."
Or, perhaps, "It would be inconsistent with Scouting principles for members to date outside their race."
Two: What Gregg Shields is saying — in the nicest possible way — is "God hates fags." He is saying that Scouts must believe in God, and that you can’t be gay and believe in God.
Think about that: It is the clear an unambiguous position of the Boy Scouts of America that gays cannot believe in God.
So tell me, why would I want my son to be part of an organization that is not only intolerant and prejudiced, but also willing to lie about it (for the sake of money), and that believes that whom a person loves somehow affects his ability to worship?
Answer: I wouldn’t.
Good for Philly. Kick the bums out.
Steve says:
As an Eagle Scout, this really pisses me off that the BSA felt compelled to even take a stance. I wonder if the Christianist Far Right somehow got into their upper-ranks. Only in the political atmosphere of the mid-2000’s would this have even been thinkable after the 70’s.
I’ve said before that if it’s PR they’re worried about after all the molestations stuff that came up, all they had to do was show that they were doing something about it, that their organization was so vast that some crazies are hard to avoid, and that their overall boon for the nation faaar outweighed the bad press.
All of which are true.
But instead of that, they make the big media statements about gays? What? Today would they kick out the Muslim kid that was in my patrol? Or would they have kicked out the Token Atheist Kid (there was always one)?
Scouts and God are both way bigger than that kind of petty stereotyping.