BSA has been getting a lot of bad press lately. I'm not sure how much the general public pays attention to Scouts in the news but having a daily Google News alert on it I see quite a bit. Whether its the Ineligible Volunteer files (just one of the youth protection tools that I think are being twisted out of context) or the recent reassertion of the Scouts (US only) policy on no homosexuals, every day I see more and more.
I think Doug has some great points here... worth the read no matter what your opinion is on this issue. Something to think about as we go through our Scoutmaster lives dealing with these young men that look to us as teachers, coaches, and mentors.
The simple solution is to allow the Charter Organizations who “own” the units and are responsible for selecting and vetting units to truly “own’ their unit. A religious organization could select leaders based on their moral compass. A community organization could then choose leaders based on their organizations policies. This would solve the debate, and also reopen Scouting to many of the “public” charter organizations that have dropped Scouting due to this one issue. I think removing this one controversial issue would get Scouting back into the public school system with PTO’s and PTA’s coming back on board. I fully believe Scouting has the right to choose what path they take, why not take a path that could open Scouting to more families overall.
The problem with the policy is that it interprets the 12th point of the Scout Law to be based on a specific religious point of view (and even that point of view is not agreed upon by all within that religion) and that interpretation is being laid out for ALL in scounting, while all other things religious in scouting are generic or left to be handles by the local council, district, unit. That is truly where the hypocracy lies.
Basically, while national proclaims that we as scouters can’t change or add to any requirements for rank advancement, that is exactly what they have done here.
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