Off-Topic For Me, BSA

Lordy, lordy, I try to keep my blogs here related to Scientology, But sometimes, something strikes my blog nerve and I just have to write about it. In this case, I connect two stories, the Boy Scouts of America in the City of Brotherly Love (ironic, that) and a related California case of a scoutmaster molesting the kiddies.

My brain is full, but yesterday, I caught a story on some news channel that featured a legal rep in Pennsylvania defending the Boy Scouts against a city demand that they pay full price for occupying a half-acre lot in the City of Brotherly Love (a Quaker tenet) because of the organization's bigotry against gays.

The issue: the city of Philadelphia has demanded the Boy Scouts of America pay a realistic rent on a city owned property where the youth group established its headquarters on a half acre site.

The red herring: "With an epidemic of gun violence taking the lives of Philadelphia's children every day, it is ironic the administration chose this time to destroy programming that services 40,000 children in the city," Jubelirer said in a Fox News interview.
http://www.foxnews.com/...

I have friends across a wide spectrum. Some parrot the above defense; the Boy Scouts instill American values, do good works and help kids.

On the down side, BSA rejects atheists and gays, but only if they talk about their beliefs or orientation.

The city of Pennsylvania has decided to terminate BSA's sweet deal and will require them to pay full and reasonable market value on their headquarters. Oddly enough, Pennsylvania has seen through their flag-waving bigotry and determined that BSA is, in fact, not worthy of the extremely special deal this organization has enjoyed for years. Fox News (lord, I hate quoting Fox, but there you are) points out that

"In 2003, the council in Philadelphia said it would adopt a nondiscrimination policy on gays. However, weeks later the group dismissed an 18-year-old Scout who publicly acknowledged he was gay."

An attorney defending the group last night on tv kept parroting this "don't ask, don't tell" policy that allows gays and atheists to participate in Scout programs as long as they hide who they are. In other words, conform.

The Boy Scouts had the same issues here in San Diego, where they were able to rent an island facility for scout activities for a dollar a year.
Until someone pointed out that they aren't really a civic organization that's open to everyone.

The Campfire Girls and Boys don't have this problem. The Indian Guides are moribund. The Scout program has always been the premiere group for kids, and Eagle Scouts enjoy a status amongst a certain societal group. They are esteemed as leaders, as ethical people, but it turns out, they are no better than the KKK, another "Christian" group that favors certain values.

"In 2003, the council in Philadelphia said it would adopt a nondiscrimination policy on gays. However, weeks later the group dismissed an 18-year-old Scout who publicly acknowledged he was gay."

So, let's look at this group that supposedly embodies the best of American values. They may do some good with their programs, it's true. But, part of their program discards atheists and gays as "unsuitable." What a wonderful message they send to kids everywhere who don't march in lockstep!

Today, I saw an article on a Scout leader in Berkeley who is facing charges of abusing youngsters in the Sea Scout program.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/...

According to the article, the accused is this guy.

"The scout leader, Eugene Evans, 64, is the same man who sued Berkeley after the city revoked free berthing privileges because the group's parent organization, the Boy Scouts, bar atheist and gay members."

You can't have your cake and eat it too. You can't claim a "don't ask, don't tell" policy and justify it. It's hypocrisy, as sure as Mitt Romney's railing against illegal immigrants while hiring them to do his landscaping.

I'm sick of the Boy Scouts. They aren't open to everyone, they're a special interest group that excludes certain groups that don't share their ethnocentric, somewhat fundamentalist Christian beliefs. Communities are finally realizing something; they may do some good, but they promote beliefs that harm young people who are "different."

They've had their chance to change. The San Diego Union Tribune report states that "The United States Supreme Court let stand last year a state supreme court ruling that upheld Berkeley's decision to deny free slips. City officials told the Sea Scouts that the group could retain its free berths by breaking ties with the Boy Scouts or disavowing the policy against gays and atheists."

They persist in excluding these kids, which probably makes the children feel unworthy.
And yet, their claims of being an organization for social betterment comes unhinged when you look at the history of Scouting, and the number of pedophiles who have somehow slipped under the "atheist and gay" restrictions. If you do a google search, the numbers of kids who have been molested by straight, married scoutmasters is stunning.

They exclude gays and atheists. Apparently, pedophiles are just fine, as long as they reflect the very high standards of the Boy Scouts of America.

I'd as soon send my kids, if I had any, to a Catholic school and let them be altar boys.

How can the BSA pretend to be accepting, and throw up this smokescreen, when their history so clearly reflects their bias and the idiocy of their policies? That they demand special treatment because of "all the good they do" is gobstoppingly blatant when you research them.

I am sure that many readers had a great scouting experience.
But you all weren't gay or atheists, were you? And you were lucky enough not to have a pedophile as a scoutmaster.

The Scouts screen their leaders. Don't believe in God?
You're out!
Like people of the same sex?
You're out!
Pedophile?

I agreed when the city of San Diego required the Boy Scouts to pay a full fee for the benefits they enjoyed as a social betterment group balanced against their bigotry.

This is a story about a betrayal of trust, and lies. Not so unlike Scientology after all...