The Boy Scouts will now allow girls to join.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

The Boy Scouts of America announced on Wednesday that girls will soon be allowed to become Cub Scouts and to earn the coveted rank of Eagle Scout, the organization’s highest honor. 

"We believe it is critical to evolve how our programs meet the needs of families interested in positive and lifelong experiences for their children," said Michael Surbaugh, chief executive of the Boy Scouts. 

The scouting board of directors voted unanimously to make the historic change in an organization that has been primarily for boys since its founding more than 100 years ago.

Starting next year, young girls can join Cub Scout units, known as dens. Local scouting organizations can choose to have dens for girls and dens for boys. "Cub Scout dens will be single-gender — all boys or all girls," the organization said in a statement. 

A separate program for older girls will be available in 2019, the Boy Scouts said, enabling them to earn the rank of Eagle Scout.

Lots of progressives are really excited about this, and of course the conservatives are in a snit, but is it really a good thing?

When I was a kid and joined the Boy Scouts my complaint against them was that they were too militaristic, and at a time of protests against the Vietnam War I was simply uncomfortable in that environment.

However these days the Boy Scouts have devolved into an indoctrination program seemingly focused on bringing children into the religious fold.

I much prefer the philosophy of the Girl Scouts which is more clearly focused on helping their communities, learning useful skills, and of course cookies. (God I love their cookies!)

Besides the Girl Scouts have been allowing boys to join since 2011.

And by the way the Girl Scouts are not in any way thrilled with this new policy.

Courtesy of ABC News:  

The Girl Scouts of the USA has issued a blistering rebuke of the Boy Scouts of America's decision to begin letting girls into the ranks of its troops. 

"The Boy Scouts' house is on fire," Girl Scouts told ABC News in a statement today. "Instead of addressing systemic issues of continuing sexual assault, financial mismanagement and deficient programming, BSA's senior management wants to add an accelerant to the house fire by recruiting girls."

Yeah, exactly. 

No if the Boy Scouts want to signal a real change, they should give up their charters, let the Girl Scouts absorb them, and start learning some real skills in how to be positive contributing members of society.

Oh, and learn to make cookies too. (Damn I love those cookies!)

CNN's Brooke Baldwin lists all of the crazy things that have happened with Trump in the last four weeks.

Courtesy of Raw Story: 

“Steve Bannon has been fired,” Baldwin said. “It has been a chaotic four weeks, even by these White House standards, so let’s just all take a moment just to remind you what has happened, incredibly significant events, one after the other.” 

“So, in no particular order,” she began. “President Trump … fires his chief strategist, fires his chief of staff, hires a new one, hires a new communications director, fires him, hires a new one, his fourth in seven months, publicly shames his attorney general multiple times, loses a health care bill, publicly shames the three republicans who voted against it multiple times, bans transgender individuals from the military without telling the military, ticks off the Boy Scouts, makes up a phone call with said Scouts, makes up another phone call with the president of Mexico, thanks Vladimir Putin for expelling Americans, hundreds of them, takes days to sign a bipartisan sanctions bill and then blasts Congress for making him sign it, condemns leaks but then says he likes the leaks because it shows people love him.”

Baldwin then stops for a drink of water, before continuing:

“Encourages police to be rough with suspects during arrests, publicly shames the Republican leader he needs to get anything done—multiple times—embraces an unpassable immigration plan that sparks a debate about the Statue of Liberty and the definition of ‘cosmopolitan.’ He threatens North Korea with nuclear war, tells Guam it will help tourism, then his own chief strategist calls his bluff and says, no, there’s no military option in North Korea, threatens Venezuela with a military option, after a Nazi rally in which someone was murdered, the president blames both sides. After backlash, cleans it up, denounces those white supremacists, but then hours later erases all of it and makes everything worse by again blaming both sides, saying there were fine people there. No, they weren’t. They were Nazis.”

Whew!

Keep in mind that President Obama went through EIGHT YEARS in office without anywhere near this much chaos and drama in his White House.

God, Trump was right. All of this winning IS exhausting.

Donald Trump claims that the head of the Boy Scouts said his speech was "the greatest speech that was ever made to them." Except he never said any such thing.

What are you doing with your hands, waving? Okay I can wave.

Courtesy of Time Magazine:

President Donald Trump told the Wall Street Journal that after his controversial speech at the Boy Scouts National Jamboree in West Virginia, the head of the Boy Scouts called him and told him it was "the greatest speech that was ever made to them." 

But the organization told TIME they are unaware of any call from national leadership placed to the White House. “The Chief Scout Executive’s message to the Scouting community speaks for itself,” the organization said, referring to a July 27 statement from Michael Surbaugh, the Chief Scout Executive for the Boy Scouts of America, who apologized to anyone in the scouting community who could have been offended or alarmed by the political rhetoric in the speech.

Donald Trump glossed over that apology in his interview saying this:

And I got a call from the head of the Boy Scouts saying it was the greatest speech that was ever made to them, and they were very thankful.

Trump also claimed to the Wall Street Journal that there was a standing ovation that lasted "for five minutes after I had already gone."

I forgot, is it still news when Trump tells a blatant lie that is then refuted by a respected national institution? Or is that now just to be expected?  

Boy Scouts apologize for inappropriate speech by Donald Trump.

Courtesy of CNN: 

An official with the Boy Scouts of America apologized to the scouting community on Thursday for the political content of President Donald Trump's speech at the National Scout Jamboree. "I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree," said Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh. "That was never our intent." 

Speaking Monday before about 40,0000 scouts, Trump delivered a speech that would not have been out of place on his campaign or in his tweets.

He slammed the "fake news" media, promoted the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, boasted about his electoral night victory and called out the Washington "cesspool." 

"Who the Hell wants to speak about politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scouts," he said, continuing to speak about politics.

In his letter, Surbaugh said Trump's speech had "overshadowed" the rest of the jamboree and its focus on scouting. 

"These character-building experiences have not diminished in recent days at the jamboree -- Scouts have continued to trade patches, climb rock walls, and share stories about the day's adventures," he said. "But for our Scouting family at home not able to see these real moments of Scouting, we know the past few days have been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the President of the United States."

I have pretty much given up on the Boy Scouts since it started focusing more on evangelizing to a captive audience and less on identifying animal footprints and learning how to tie cool knots.

When I was a Scout in the early seventies my big complaint was that it was too militaristic for this budding peacenik,  but now we have to worry about kids being indoctrinated into a weird religious cult of being exposed to serial sexual deviant.

The Mormon Church is pulling out of the Boy Scouts.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

The Mormon Church announced on Thursday that it was partially ending its participation in the Boy Scouts in the United States and Canada as it realigns its youth programs with its own teachings. 

In a letter addressed to church authorities, the leaders of the Utah-based Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said that the decision to end its sponsorship would affect boys between 14 and 18 years old, starting on Jan. 1, 2018, for units in the Boy Scouts of America and in Scouts Canada. Cub Scout and Boy Scout programs for boys 8 through 13 would be allowed to continue for younger church members, it said. 

“In most congregations in the United States and Canada, young men ages 14–18 are not being served well by the Varsity or Venturing programs, which have historically been difficult to implement within the Church,” a separate church statement said. “This change will allow youth and leaders to implement a simplified program that meets local needs while providing activities that balance spiritual, social, physical and intellectual development goals for young men.”

The Mormons have been treating the Boy Scouts as their own little indoctrination and recruitment center for decades, what could have suddenly soured them on continuing to work with the older scouts?

In recent years, the Boy Scouts have changed policies that once prohibited gay and transgender children and leaders from taking part in their programs. Those changes, while at odds with church teachings, did not directly lead to the decision to end the program for the older boys, a spokesman said, but they did inform it.

Ahh, now I get it.

Besides isn't it much easier to trick younger kids into believing in your superstitious nonsense than older boys with access to the internet?

Personally I haven't been a fan of the Boy Scouts since I was asked to leave back in the 70's.

Back then it was more Hitler youth than Children of the Corn, but it was still very oppressive and militaristic.

Perhaps now the Scouts can find new sponsors, who won't make them pray every time they get lost in the woods or ask them to play that secret spanking game that they are not supposed to tell their parents about.

Oh the possibilities are endless.

Though the Boy Scouts are now accepting gay scout leaders there is one group that is still banned. Can you guess which one?

Courtesy of Pink News:  

The BSA confirmed this month that it would end a ban on gay adult leaders, after agreeing to lift its ban on gay youth back in 2013. 

However, the organisation – which moved to change its policy after a warning that it could lead to costly legal action – has not shifted to remove another ban. 

The BSA will continue to enforce rules that ban open atheist from serving – meaning you can be open about being attracted to men, but not about not believing in God. 

All members of the Boy Scouts must sign a ‘Declaration of Religious Principles’, which states “The Boy Scouts of America maintain that no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing his obligation to God.

You want to talk about oppression? Try being an Atheist. 

However we are learning from the example set by our LGBT brothers and sisters, and someday we will also be able to come out of the closet and practice our critical thinking skills openly without fear of losing our jobs, being ostracized by society, having our families turn their backs on us, or being rejected by the Boy Scouts.

#thestruggleisreal

#openlyatheist

Mormon father upset that his son in the Boy Scouts may not grow up sharing his same prejudices.

Courtesy of NPR: 

The church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, has used the Boy Scouts as its official program for young men for more than 100 years, according to Quin Monson, a political science professor at Brigham Young University. 

"The church took the Boy Scout program and decided its values and mission aligned closely enough with that of the church's program for young men that they just wholesale adopted it," says Monson, who is Mormon, the father of a Boy Scout and a former Boy Scout himself. "Basically, if you are a young Mormon male, you join the Boy Scouts."

For me the idea that scouting and the Mormon religion align so closely is almost reason enough to keep your kid out of Boy Scouts.

This father was then asked how the upcoming changes allowing gay scout leaders was impacting his Mormon son:

His reaction was interesting: It's not a concern to him. He's a pretty deep thinker, and a thoughtful kid, but his reaction was, "Well, I don't see why it matters, dad. Why is this such a big deal?" 

That's the hard part about all of this, is that it impacts a group of young men who don't necessarily understand why.

If you listen to the audio of this interview, you can hear Mr. Monson become quite choked up while answering that last part.  As if the very idea that his son is too young to recognize how wrong it is to allow men who love other men to participate in scouting was incredibly troubling to him.

However what I took from this was that his son was too young to be indoctrinated fully into the homophobia that permeates the Mormon community leaving his mind open and accepting, and that it was his father who was too old and rigid in his thinking to recognize why a church supposedly based on the teachings of Jesus Christ should open its arms and hearts to all people regardless of skin color or sexual orientation.

Perhaps once this new rule pertaining to scout leaders is fully implemented it might help to provide a counterbalance to Mormon indoctrination. And that would be a good thing.

Monday the Boy Scouts officially decided to stop discriminating against gay scout leaders, however they allow church affiliated scout troops to continue hating "teh gays." Still not good enough for the Mormons though.

Another idiot who equates homosexuality with pedophilia. Not true.

Courtesy of The New York Times: 

The Boy Scouts of America on Monday ended its ban on openly gay adult leaders. 

But the new policy allows church-sponsored units to choose local unit leaders who share their precepts, even if that means restricting such positions to heterosexual men. 

Well that is very good news indeed!

Now the Boys Scouts can finally join the21st Century and start treating people like people instead of focusing on their sexuality.   

Wait, there's a catch isn't there?


Despite this compromise, the Mormon Church said it might leave the organization anyway. Its stance surprised many and raised questions about whether other conservative sponsors, including the Roman Catholic Church, might follow suit. 

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is deeply troubled by today’s vote,” said a statement issued by the church moments after the Scouts announced the new policy. “When the leadership of the church resumes its regular schedule of meetings in August, the century-long association with scouting will need to be examined.” 

Dammit! What is with the Mormons and their fear of  all things non-heterosexual?

Wait didn't they say earlier that they would go along with this decision? 

Only two weeks ago, the Mormon Church hinted that it could remain in the fold so long as its units could pick their own leaders.

Gee, the Mormons lied, how unpredictable.

Well I guess we can look forward to another hundred or so Mormons making a mass exodus from the church in the near future.

One Colorado Republican lawmaker was so outraged by this change that he has suggested that gay scout leaders should be "drowned in the depths of the sea."

Seems a bit severe, don't you think?

Personally I think the Boy Scout charters should be restricted to secular sponsors and never be associated with any religious institutions. But hey that's just me.

Boy Scouts of America change rules to allow gay scout leaders for the first time.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

The Boy Scouts of America Executive Committee unanimously approved allowing gay adults to serve as leaders, officials said on Monday, in a major step toward dismantling a policy that has caused deep rifts in the 105-year-old organization. 

The group’s National Executive Board will meet to ratify the resolution on July 27, the Boy Scouts said in a statement. 

“This resolution will allow chartered organizations to select adult leaders without regard to sexual orientation, continuing Scouting’s longstanding policy of chartered organizations selecting their leaders,” it said. 

The resolution approved by the Executive Committee on Friday follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June to allow same-sex marriage nationwide and a call in May from the Boy Scouts president, former U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who said the ban on gay leadership needed to change. 

The Boy Scouts said in the statement the move reflected “the rapid changes in society and increasing legal challenges at the federal, state and local levels.”

Man I tell you every day seems to make this country just that much more progressive. 

Girl Scouts openly accept transgendered children. Just another reason why the Girl Scouts are far superior to the Boy Scouts these days.

This from the FAQ page of Girl Scouts.org: 

Q: What is Girl Scouts' position on serving transgender youth? 

A: Girl Scouts is proud to be the premiere leadership organization for girls in the country. Placement of transgender youth is handled on a case-by-case basis, with the welfare and best interests of the child and the members of the troop/group in question a top priority. That said, if the child is recognized by the family and school/community as a girl and lives culturally as a girl, then Girl Scouts is an organization that can serve her in a setting that is both emotionally and physically safe.

Well that is certainly light years away from the homophobic attitudes expressed by the Boy Scouts, now isn't it?

I also found this on the FAQ page:

Q: Does Girl Scouting support families of faith? A: Yes. Girl Scouting supports girls from all backgrounds and beliefs. While we are a secular organization that refrains from teaching religious or spiritual beliefs or practices, we believe that the motivating force in Girl Scouting is a spiritual one, and we greatly value our longstanding partnerships with religious organizations across many faiths that share the values of the Girl Scout Promise and Law.

Damn, I may have to buy extra boxes of thin mints this next time around. 

(H/T to danthropology.)

Boy Scout at summer camp found dead of gunshot wounds.

Courtesy of NBC San Diego:  

The deadly shooting of a Boy Scout at a summer camp in San Diego appeared at first to be self-inflicted but investigators now say they are interviewing witnesses and examining forensic evidence to determine the cause of death. 

San Diego police were called to a suicide attempt at the Fiesta Island Youth Camp and Youth Aquatic Center in Mission Bay at 7:35 a.m., Lt. Mike Hastings said. 

Inside a tent, officers found a 12-year-old gunshot victim with a handgun nearby. 

Paramedics tried to revive the child, but he was pronounced dead at the campsite, according to a spokesperson for San Diego Fire Rescue. 

In an afternoon update, investigators would not say where the scout was wounded or how many times he was shot, only that the boy may have been shot more than once in the "upper torso." Earlier, police said the boy had shot himself in the head. 

This is a child whose parents had every reason to believe would return safely from a trip to a Boy Scout camp with his fellow Scouts.

But now thanks to America's "gun culture" the next time they see their child he will be laid out on a slab in a morgue instead of bouncing off the bus anxious to tell them of his adventures.

Just another example of the 2nd Amendment keeping our citizens safe.

(H/T to Raw Story.)

Boy Scouts ban gay troop leader. Local pack refuses to force him out, so the BSA revokes their charter. Just like Jesus would do.

Courtesy of TPM:  

The Boy Scouts of America has revoked the charter of a Seattle troop over its refusal to remove an openly gay troop leader, according to Scouts for Equality. 

Geoffrey McGrath, believed to be the first openly gay troop leader, was banned from the Boy Scouts at the beginning of April. 

Rainier Beach United Methodist Church's Troop 98 and Pack 98 defended their Scoutmaster, however, and refused to force him out. 

"Based on our religious principles, we will continue to act as an autonomous church that does not discriminate," the church's Rev. Monica Corsaro said in a statement to Scouts for Equality. "We will continue to have our Troop meetings here, every Thursday night, with business as usual."

So to be clear the BSA wants this guy discriminated against becasue of his sexuality, and the church that sponsors the local troop refuses to do so.

Well let's hear it for the Rainier Beach United Methodist Church of Seattle, for being so open minded and accepting.

You know it so rarely happens that I am moved to give a positive shout out to a church or religious group that this feels pretty cathartic for me.

Nice to know that not everybody's Bible tells them to hate gay people.

Walt Disney World cuts ties with Boy Scouts over ban on LGBTQ troop leaders and volunteers. Ouch, that's gotta hurt!

Courtesy of Salon:  

Walt Disney World has ended its financial support of the Boy Scouts of America over its ban on openly-LGBTQ troop leaders and volunteers. 

The company had previously supported the organization through an employee grant matching program; Walt Disney World would make donations to the charitable organizations where employees volunteered their time, including the Boy Scouts. 

The Central Florida Council’s board president alerted troop parents of the change in a recent letter: 

"We recognize that many Scout Units have received financial support over the last several years from this [Walt Disney matching] grant opportunity and are sad to see it go. The National BSA Council has reached out to WDW to try to resolve the situation, however, according to WDW, their views do not currently align with the BSA and they are choosing to discontinue this level of support. We will continue to keep an open line of communication with them, but at this time, are unable to reverse their decision." 

As Josh Israel at ThinkProgress notes, the Walt Disney Company’s corporate standards prohibit “any form of harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identification, national origin, age, marital status, covered veteran status, disability, pregnancy or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.”

Wow! I cannot imagine that the Boy Scouts can continue to stand up against this kind of pressure from organizations as powerful as Walt Disney World. 

And besides if the Scouts re going to allow LGBTQ kids into the program, shouldn't they also have role models there that the boys can relate to?

Makes sense to me, unless of course the BSA is still being guided by the belief that homosexuality and pedophilia are connected in some way. Which it is not.

Starting January 1st the Boy Scouts will be just a little bit gayer.

Courtesy of The Big Story: 

The Boy Scouts of America will accept openly gay youths starting on New Year's Day, a historic change that has prompted the BSA to ponder a host of potential complications — ranging from policies on tentmates and showers to whether Scouts can march in gay pride parades. 

Some churches are dropping their sponsorship of Scout units because of the new policy and some families are switching to a new conservative alternative called Trail Life USA. But massive defections haven't materialized and most major sponsors, including the Roman Catholic and Mormon churches, are maintaining ties. 

"There hasn't been a whole lot of fallout," said Haddock, a lawyer from Wichita, Kan. "If a church said they wouldn't work with us, we'd have a church right down the street say, 'We'll take the troop.'"

Of course the Boy Scouts have already openly accepted the idea of LGBT members as demonstrated by the fact that Sand Lake City Boy Scouts brought pizza to city workers who were working through lunch to process marriage licenses for gay couples.

I think this is going to be a REALLY big year for progressive agendas. 

I just feel that in my bones.

My liberal, liberal bones.

Salt Lake City Boy Scouts, wearing rainbow kerchiefs, bring pizzas to worker skipping lunch in order to process hundreds of gay couples lining up for marriage licenses.

Boy Scouts deliver pizza for SLCO Clerks while they continue processing marriage licenses. #utpol pic.twitter.com/tHykc9BKrm

— Matt Lyon (@MattLyonSLC) December 23, 2013

Courtesy of The Gaily Grind:  

A picture tweeted by @MattLyonSLC, shows boy scouts in Salt Lake City wearing rainbow kerchiefs, delivering pizza to county workers who are skipping their lunch break to keep serving the hundreds of gay couples lining up around the block for marriage licenses.

The Boy Scouts, an organization famous for being overtly religious and hating on the gays, working to help county employees in Utah, the home of the Mormon Church, an organization that has worked quite hard to oppress the LGBT community and deny them their civil rights, in order to help gay couples make a life long commitment to one another.

They may be one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen.

God I love progress!

In response to the Boy Scouts new accepting attitude toward gay scouts the Anchorage Baptist Temple kicks them to the curb.

(Source)

Courtesy of KTUU:

 A group of local Boy Scouts learned Tuesday they will no longer be allowed to use facilities at the Anchorage Baptist Temple. A school on the church's campus is currently home base for Troop 1316, but their last meeting will be Thursday. 

The church informed scout leaders their relationship will end September 1, and the last meeting of the troop will be Thursday. 

What prompted the move is a decision earlier this year by Boy Scouts of America to allow openly gay members. 

Pastor Jerry Prevo said in an email to Mark Schneider, whose 12-year-old son is a longtime member of the troop, that Boy Scouts have "'tucked and run' from taking a stand since I was a scout." 

"ABT has not changed," Prevo wrote. "The Boy Scouts have." 

Prevo believes allowing scouts to meet in the building is akin to an endorsement of homosexuality, he wrote in the email. He pointed to Leviticus 18:22 and 1 Corinthians 6:9, verses of the Bible commonly cited by Christian opponents of homosexuality. 

Schneider does not entirely agree with the new Boy Scouts' policy, but he believes ABT is putting kids at the center of an issue that should be left to adults. 

"The noise of this issue has overcome what scouting is," Schneider said. "It's not just about camping and going out and learning to start fires. It's so much more than that, and it's completely lost in this one issue and the screaming back and forth." 

What is worst about the situation, Schneider believes, is that the core group of eight kids who have been members of the troop for years will dissolve if they are unable to find a new organization to function as a sponsor. And the message it conveys is amiss of a key Christian value, he said. 

"Jesus didn't walk with the rich, the wealthy and the pure," Schneider said. "If you don't want sinners in your building, why did you build (a church)?"

"ABT has not changed, the Boy Scouts have." Well that is certainly the truth.

Jerry Prevo has a long and sordid history of fighting to oppress the gay community in Alaska and was a driving force (Along with his lap dog Mayor Dan Sullivan) in defeating an ordinance that would have ended discrimination against the LGBT community in Anchorage.

He is a hatemonger from way back and has had an inordinate amount of influence over Anchorage politics for decades. Something that I hope we will see come to an end in the very near future.

I wish that the Boy Scouts would do more, such as allowing gays to serve as scout leaders, but this step has, at the very least, allowed those who were not terribly aware to identify which Christian leaders are following and espousing the Biblical message of Jesus Christ, and which ones are using the power of their pulpit to push their hateful agenda onto others.

By the way for those just now tuning in, that second part is describing this guy in the gray jacket to a T.

In response to the Boy Scouts welcoming of gay scouts some homophobic parents are now pulling their children out. Apparently the scouts don't offer a merit badge for good parenting.

Courtesy of US News:  

The father of a Cub Scout sat his son on his lap late last week and told him news that tore up both their hearts: The family was leaving the Boy Scouts. 

Aaron Butler, the leader of his 8-year-old son Evan’s Cub Scout Wolf den in Roseau, Minn., said he didn't explain to his eldest son exactly why they were walking away from an organization they loved so much, but he told NBC News that it was because of last week's controversial decision by the Boy Scouts of America to allow gay youth to participate. 

“It was a big disappointment ... he cried for about 10 minutes because I told him that the Boy Scouts were not honoring their own law," Butler said, referring to the BSA oath that he interpreted as barring gay people. "They say it -- '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,'” he said. 

“If the BSA cannot honor their own law, then how can I stay with an organization that just does not care anymore?” he said.

I think he is saying this wrong. Instead it should be, "How can we leave and organization that has finally started to care so much?"

I have confidence that for every homophobic jerkwad that pulls his boy out of scouting due to this new policy there will be two that will put their children in because they now have renewed respect for the scouts.

Now if they could only get rid of their overbearing religiosity they could start hundreds of new packs all over the country.

By the way isn't THIS how people responded when they first did away with segregation? How did THAT work out for the racists?

For any of you who wondered how the Religious Right might respond to the news that the Boy Scouts are now allowing gays into the organization. Pretty much as you would expect.

You know you learn something every day.

I had NO idea that Jesus had left a message for the Boy Scouts in the Bible. Totally missed that part.

Oh and don't think that his asshole is the ONLY one to lose his shit over this either.

Courtesy of Wave 3 News:

WAVE 3 News took calls from viewers who want to know why one of the area's largest churches will no longer allow a local scout troop to meet there. Southeast Christian Church is one of the BSA's biggest charters with 100 scouts and 200 Cub Scouts meeting there each week. 

Church leaders tell WAVE 3 this decision was not a knee jerk reaction. They tell us it was made months ago when the Boy Scouts of America first began talks of ending the ban. Southeast Executive Pastor Tim Hester says it was a difficult decision for the church to sever its relationship with the Boy Scouts. 

"No question about that," Hester told us, "A lot of prayer, a lot of thought and a lot of discussions." 

Some 300 kids from Troop 212 come to the church campus. 

"We have enjoyed our association with Boy Scouts for a lot of years," said Hester, "and our local leaders are great leaders and we are with them in sharing their disappointment of the direction the National Boy Scouts have decided to go."

This is my favorite part, "This decision was not a knee jerk reaction.' Oh yeah, definitely the result of calm rational thinking.


 Yep the churches are there to provide a welcoming atmosphere and to provide comfort and understanding to all people. Just so long as you do what we fucking tell you to do that is!

Boy Scouts of America vote to allow gay scouts. But once they become adults they are out of there!

Courtesy of Think Progress:  

The roughly 1,400 voting members of the Boy Scouts of America’s (BSA) National Council voted 61-38 percent Thursday to end the ban on gay youth participating in the program, but reaffirmed their policy of mandatory discrimination against LGBT leaders and volunteers. 

The move — suggested by the national leadership as an attempted compromise — represents a modest step forward, but still comes as a disappointment to the thousands of Eagle Scouts,1.8 million Change.org petition signers, and the 56 percent of Americans who want the BSA to end its anti-LGBT discrimination. 

While the policy change will permit openly gay Scouts like Ryan Andresen to receive their Eagle Scout awards, it will still prevent openly lesbian parents like former Cub Scout Den Leader Jen Tyrrell from volunteering with their parent’s Scout units. 

BSA President Wayne Perry wrote, in a USA Today op-ed Wednesday, that allowing LGBT leaders “would have conflicted with the majority of our partners, 70% of which are religious organizations, and would have disrupted our ability to deliver Scouting.” But in the same statement, he noted, the organization was “unaware of any major religious chartered organization that believes a youth member simply stating he or she is attracted to the same sex, but not engaging in sexual activity, should make him or her unwelcome in their congregation.” 

This admission and the rule change seem to contradict the BSA’s long-standing rationale that “homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the requirements in the Scout Oath that a Scout be morally straight and in the Scout Law that a Scout be clean in word and deed, and that homosexuals do not provide a desirable role model for Scouts.” By finally admitting that being LGBT is not, itself, incompatible with being “morally straight” or “clean,” the justification for excluding adults purely on the basis of their sexual orientation seems to now be reduced to “some religious organizations prefer discrimination.”

"Some religious organizations prefer discrimination." They are talking about you Mormons!

Personally I think this is yet another approach to reparative therapy where the assumption is that if the kids are encouraged to do "real man" like activities, while restricting their access to gay role models,  it will cleanse them of their gayness.

The same idea is what is behind the emphasis on sports, and the desire to keep professional athletes from coming out of the closet. After all how could a gay person have athletic ability, or enjoy banging their bodies agonist other men on the football filed, or grappling with them on the wrestling...wait.

Of course it demonstrates a lack of understanding and empathy to assume that gay kids don't like sports or camping, and that exposure to those activities will somehow "drive the spirits of gay-dom" out of their bodies.

However I applaud the Boy Scouts for at least opening the door enough to allow some kids who do not fit their cookie cutter image of what a moral American boy should be.

However if one of these gay scouts should suddenly come out as an Atheist? Oh hell, that's when shit gets real!

Oh well, our day will come. Count on it!

Mormon church gives its blessing to new Boy Scouts proposal to allow gay scouts while still vilifying gay adults. Oh yeah, that will work!

Courtesy of Wisconsin Gazette:

The Mormon church has given its blessing to the Boy Scouts of America on its latest proposal to lift the gay ban for youth members but continue to exclude gays as adult leaders. 

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints posted a statement on its website saying it is satisfied with the proposal, which the Boy Scouts announced last week and will submit to its National Council at a meeting in Texas the week of May 20. 

The Salt Lake City-based church said it is satisfied that the Boy Scouts of America has made a "thoughtful, good-faith effort to address issues that, as they have said, remain `among the most complex and challenging issues facing the BSA and society today.'" 

It added the proposal recognizes that "Scouting exists to serve and benefit youth rather than Scout leaders, a single standard of moral purity for youth in the program, and a renewed emphasis for Scouts to honor their duty to God."

Obviously the message here is we love you so long as you are young enough for us to manipulate and possibly indoctrinate, but once you get too experienced and set in your ways to change,you are out of here.

I think it is pretty clear that the Mormon church still sees homosexuality as a deviant "life style choice" and that they can possibly do their own version of conversion therapy by exposing these kids to the outdoors and "manly" typed of behaviors, something that they feel will be undermined by having gay scout leaders, as if THAT will somehow fundamentally change their sexuality.

It is ridiculous, it is scientifically untenable, and it is insulting to those young gay kids who are essentially being given the message that you are one of us until you turn eighteen but then you are dead to us.

Fuck the Boy Scouts!  And while we are at it, fuck the Mormons!