Groups Protest Outside Boy Scout Campground

[davidinalameda]

http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_282234859.html

Two groups of protesters gathered outside the Boy Scout campground in San Diego, California's Balboa Park Sunday.

One group called Scouting For All held its sixth annual rally to protest the Boy Scout's refusal to admit gay and atheist scouts and scout leaders. The group says they will continue every year until the Boy Scouts change its membership policies to include gays and atheists.

The other group of protesters was on hand to defend the Boy Scouts discriminatory practices saying the Bible justifies it.

[MountainLaurel]

1. The Bible justified it?!

Glad someone reminded me why I'm not a Christian anymore.

[gatorboy]

2. Makes you wonder if they've even read a Boy Scouts manual.

Though they like to counter that the Boy Scouts has a "Christian Only" membership, I noticed in my son's Wolf workbook that you can earn patches for many other religious beliefs....

[atommom]

5. I looked at their requirements for earning patches, and noted that

almost all churches were acceptable ... all but Unitarian. Apparently, the Unitarians are too accepting of homosexuality, and they are no longer acceptable for earning a patch in Scouting. Not so coincidentally, the Unitarian church is the only one we're comfortable with.

That said, my son begged and pleaded to join Tiger Scouts this year, and we let him, hoping to help changes happen from the inside. If the Scouts don't come out of the Dark Ages soon, though, we may have to find different activities for him when he gets older.

Are there any alternatives to Scouting out there that would be easier for liberal parents to stomach? Anyone know?

[pschoeb]

7. I thought UUA still had boy scout programs?

BSA policy has also led to disagreement between the BSA and the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA). The UUA has tolerance as one of its defining virtues, and this includes respect and inclusion of atheists, gays, and lesbians. The BSA, which had long recognized the UUA religious badges, along with the badges of other religions that utilized the Boy Scout programs, withdrew recognition of the badges, saying that Boy Scouts could no longer wear Unitarian Universalist badges on their uniforms. The UUA attempted to compromise, removing language that the BSA considers offensive from its official program manuals for scouts and informing young Unitarian Universalist Boy Scouts of the UUA viewpoint regarding tolerance through other means. However, the BSA did not accept the UUA alternative. The UUA decided to continue its Boy Scout program and encourage Boy Scouts to wear the Unitarian Universalist religious badges on their uniforms.

As for alternatives you can check out the Scouting For All website
http://www.scoutingforall.org/

Also the Campfire Boys and Girls do not discriminate on religious or sexual orientation grounds.
http://www.campfire.org/

Also for girls it is importnat to note that Girls Scouts of America is not connected to BSA in any way and does not discriminate on religious or sexual orientation grounds.

[atommom]

8. Thanks for the info! If he is still interested when he reaches

true "Boy Scout" age (as opposed to Cub Scouts), we'll have to look at those options.

[davidinalameda]

3. I noticed that quote too

disturbed me as well

[jody]

4. The problem of "gay and atheist scouts and scout leaders" damages

an organization that has helped millions of boys.

Many organizations have exclusive membership criteria and BSA is no different.

If necessary, I support prohibition of government funds for any group that does accept all applicants.

My guess is the BSA would survive without government funds.

[pschoeb]

6. NO they wouldn't survive

They should have their 501c public nonprofit charity status taken away then, as anytime someone donates, a portion of that's persons tax money goes to BSA instead of the Government. That mean any public nonprofit charity gets government funding because they are getting tax money from every donation.

They should be forced to be just a regular nonprofit, meaning donations aren't tax deductible by the person making the donations. The BSA money would shrivel up very fast if this were true.

One, of course, can always protest discriminatory organizations even if their conduct is legal, not everything legal is ethical, and of course the first Amendment allows us to protest anything we want too.

ARe you saying that gay and atheist scouts and scout leaders would damage the BSA?(your post is unclear, but seems to suggest this), if so I think your stance is both irrational and unethical, and I would defiantly protest such decisions by BSA, regardless of their legality.