Bligbi » boy scouts

Obama’s talk is good, but his walk is crooked

Karen — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:25:44 +0000

Much ado was made about President Obama’s mentioning of non-believers in his inaugural speech, but now that the rubber has hit the road, Obama has decided to accept the title of Honorary President of the Boy Scouts:

Obama was meeting with a delegation of the Boy Scouts in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, at which time he was to accept the group’s 2008 Report to the Nation.

A Boy Scouts spokesman said Obama has indicated he will accept the title of honorary president.

“We believe one of our greatest strengths as a nation is that we can disagree on a number of issues while agreeing to support the common good,” Deron Smith, a spokesman for BSA, told FOXNews.com.

“We’re a voluntary, private organization for families that share our values,” he added. “While many may disagree with our policies, there’s no question that we’re part of the common good and have been for 100 years.”

And one of those values is continued discrimination against non-believers and gay people. I’m not surprised, but I am sick of the hypocrisy when it comes to dealing with bigotry against atheists and gay people.

Possibly Related Posts

Boy Scouts blaming gays, atheists for logging?

Karen — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 17:39:18 +0000

A few days ago the local newspaper carried a story about the Boy Scouts of America getting in trouble with supporters over land deals that seem irreconcilable with the public perception of the BSA as land conservationists.

And though this story has popped up in many newspapers, only one has a council leader appearing to blame we atheists and gay people for the questionable deals:

"The Boy Scouts had to suffer the consequences for sticking by their moral values," said Eugene Grant, president of the Portland, Ore., Cascade Pacific Council’s board of directors.

"There’s no question" that the Scouts’ anti-gay, anti-atheist stance has cost the organization money, he said. As a result, he said, "every council has looked at ways to generate funds … and logging is one of them."

In other words, we evil atheists and gays forced the poor and rather defenceless Boy Scouts into selling land given/sold to them under the impression that they’d keep it safe from land developers to land developers.

Stop reading if you’ve heard this one:

A Jewish man was on a train one day when a friend of his noticed that he was reading an Arabic newspaper. Upset, his friend approached him and asked why he was reading it.

He replied, "I used to read the Jewish newspaper, but what did I find? Jews being persecuted, Jews being attacked, Jews disappearing through assimilation and intermarriage, Jews living in poverty. So I switched to the Arab newspaper.

Now what do I find? Jews own all the banks, Jews control the media, Jews are all rich and powerful, Jews rule the world. The news is so much better!"

Sound familiar?

Possibly Related Posts

Boy Scouts: Enemy of Equality

Karen — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 16:13:02 +0000

What else can you say about an organization that fought for the right to discriminate against atheists and gay people?

Oh, I know.

Ignoring the fact that the Boy Scouts (BSA) chose to discriminate , is suffering the consequences of it’s choice and could easily get out of it’s self dug hole if it decided to quit discriminating against atheists and gay people, you can say that the BSA is, in fact, the victim in the situation.

You can also insist that we must abandon our principles ASAP and cease denying the organization access to public funding, property and support because, well, much like reason kills gods dead, our principles will kill the BSA dead.

To that, I have to say “if only” as I’m of the mind that an organization that wants to teach children that one can be both a unprincipled bigot and a respected member of the community without suffering the consequences of one’s bigotry needs to die (of natural causes, of course).

How about you?

Possibly Related Posts

Boy Scouts evicted over Anti-Gay Bigotry

Karen — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:48:10 +0000

Negotiations have ended and come June 1, 2008 – the Boy Scouts will have to have vacated Beaux Art Building.

For three years the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America held its ground. It resisted the city’s request to change its discriminatory policy toward gay people despite threats that if it did not do so, the city would evict the group from a municipal building where the Scouts have resided practically rent free since 1928.

Hailed as the birthplace of the Boy Scouts, the Beaux Arts building is the seat of the seventh-largest chapter of the organization and the first of the more than 300 council service centers built by the Scouts around the country over the past century.

But over the years the fight between the city and the Scouts was about more than this grandiose structure in Center City.

Municipal officials said the clash stemmed from a duty to defend civil rights and an obligation to abide by a local law that bars taxpayer support for any group that discriminates. Boy Scout officials said it was about preserving their culture, protecting the right of private organizations to remain exclusive and defending traditions like requiring members to swear an oath of duty to God and prohibiting membership by anyone who is openly homosexual.

This week the Boy Scouts made their last stand and lost.

I, for one, say good riddance. Any group that discriminates against any member of the American public for any reason should not receive official public support. It really is that simple. The scout leaders, being the paragons of responsibility they are, are blaming the city.

“With an epidemic of gun violence taking the lives of children almost daily in this city, it’s ironic that this administration chose to destroy programming that services thousands of children in the city,” Mr. Jubelirer said. [emphasis added]

Yes, it’s the city’s fault that the Boy Scout leaders chose to defend bigoted practices knowing full well that a defeat would impact their ability to help children, well at least children who are heterosexual theists. I think this irritates me most of all. They could at least have the courage of their convictions.

Possibly Related Posts

Georgia Accuses Bank of America of Discrimination

Karen — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 17:20:40 +0000

Bank of America, a national bank here in the United States, recently abstained from donating to the regional Boy Scouts in Valdosta, Georgia because of the ongoing discrimination against homosexuals (and atheists!). In response, Representative Ehrhart and Senator Wiles have vowed to introduce bills that would forbid the state from dealing with companies that discriminates against youth clubs.

“I can’t understand why a business would want to discriminate against an organization that takes young men and turns them into good citizens,”Wiles said. “It’s just wrong.”

Is he that dense? The fact of the matter is that it’s now becoming socially unacceptable to treat homosexuals like second-class citizens. Any large corporation would be foolish to continue to support organizations that have a policy of discriminating against them.

As for making young boys and making them “good” citizens, if he means teaching them to be obedient dogs who hate who they are told to hate – then sure. The BSA does make them good citizens. They’ll still be sucky humans though.

What is wrong is using the authority of the government to force the public into supporting an organization that continues to discriminate against the public.