Posted on 08/15/2004 9:05:41 AM PDT by BraveMan
Scouts Canada ceased to serve any useful purpose the day they became all-inclusive, all-sensitive, and all-tolerant.
Big Canadian real estate is on the market. A rather sizable chunk of Lord Robert Baden-Powell's Empire is available for investors, homebuilders, fishing resort prospectors, or blacktop barons. Scouts Canada is pounding in "for sale" signs at the entrances of a number of Scout camps across the country, including at least twenty camps in Ontario. But don't worry. No Boy Scouts will mourn the loss of their summer camps, for the Boy Scouts of Canada no longer exist.
Thinking they could become more inclusive, the Boy Scouts of Canada Board of Governors decided in November 1998 to admit females, atheists, agnostics, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals into troops. Although established troops were not even allowed to remain all-male groups, Scouts Canada approved the establishment of the world's first all-homosexual troop in 1999. The troop marches in homosexual pride parades and loudly symbolizes what Scouts Canada calls its commitment to diversity.
Scouts Canada's new non-discrimination code reads: "Scouting is a worldwide, multicultural movement. We welcome people to membership regardless of gender, race, culture, religious belief, sexual orientation or economic circumstances. Youth members are strongly influenced by the behavior of adults. We need to be sensitive to the traditions and beliefs of all people and to avoid words or actions which "put down" anybody."
And so, in its attempt to include everybody and everything, Scouts Canada is effectively dead.
Budgets have run dry. Troop halls and old campsites sit vacant. Professional staff salaries are severed. Membership is mostly decimated. In the past, membership roles consistently exceeded 300,000. Around the peak in 1965, there were 320,000 Boy Scouts. Today, despite a one third population increase in Canada over four decades and a doubling of the demographic possibilities (with female members), Scouts Canada has dwindled to a puny 130,000 and it is rapidly declining.
Open to all, there is a certain liability that accompanies the mixture of sexes and sexual preferences at Scout Camp. It is no coincidence that Scouts Canada's costs for liability insurance against sexual molestation claims increased dramatically by 2002 when, lacking adequate finances, Scouts Canada canceled its sex abuse insurance, and with it many "high risk" activities. Without the insurance, a single pedophile could potentially annihilate Scouts Canada forever.
Esprit de corps has evaporated. Last year, wearing a uniform at official Scout events became optional. Scoutmasters were deprived of the authority to demand the wearing of uniforms. "It's time to stop bickering about the clothes we wear," said Ms. Bonita Brick, chair of the National Scouts Youth Committee that handed down the uniform decision. "Accept the reality of change."
It seems that change is not so attractive to the traditional core of Scouts Canada. "It is disheartening. Everything seems to be going down and down," laments veteran Scouter Bill Stauttener, who manages Union Marsh Scout Camp which is set to go on the chopping block.
Eastern Ontario's Camp Apple Hill is expected to sell for just $30,000, a bargain considering that it is 300 acres. "It's very heartbreaking and very distressing," says three-decade Scout leader Pat Tugwood.
It may be a sad affair for some who've been around Canadian Scouting for a while, but I say good riddance to Scouts Canada. They ceased to serve any useful purpose the day they became all-inclusive, all-sensitive, and all-tolerant. The Scout Oath and Scout Law are obliterated in the land of the red maple leaf north of Parallel 49.
It is doubtful that this organization can be resuscitated. Political correctness, having infected whole institutions, does not easily reverse. But we Americans might well consider this malady and contain it at the border.
"In meeting the challenges of a multi-faith society which is increasingly gay-positive, the [Boy Scouts of America] might follow the lead of Scouts Canada," urges a writer at ReligiousTolerance.org. And thus the far Left attacks the Boy Scouts of America, relentlessly for the past two decades.
There are prices to be paid by the BSA for standing on traditional moral values, but none so severe as this eulogy of Scouts Canada. In America, United Way funding may be cut, cities and school districts may abandon the Scouts, courts may order the Scouts to leave public property. But so long as the Scout Oath and Law remain intact, the Boy Scouts of America can survive.
Goodbye, Scouts Canada. Political correctness is sure grand, eh?
I see nothing wrong with a PRIVATE group discriminating on the basis of religion, sex, or any other criteria as far as their membership is concerned. They are private and have the right to preserve their organizational culture by admitting only those who share it.
If a bunch of straights joined a gay group, or a bunch of Gentiles joined a Jewish group, with the viewpoint of taking over the organization and seizing control of organizational assets, for purposes hostile to the original aims of the organizations founders, what would your opinion be?
By that logic, there should also be no taxpayer support for gay groups, womens groups, and no taxpayer support for things like "historically black colleges".
BTTT!
For the record, I think "atheist" children SHOULD be admitted to the Boy Scouts, for their own good ... exposure to the Scouting program in the company of religious adults and youth could help them to grow out of the delusion of atheism.
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING is stopping the atheists, agnostics, wiccans (fill in the blank) from forming their own version of scouting. So go do it.
No different than joing the PGA, or NFL, then showing up with baseball bats, batting helmets etc. You join the BSA, and you must play by their rules, not whatever you want to do as a member.
And if you are offended by this, go pout somewhere else.
SemperFi, USMC. 1970-1981
How about the State's taking money from believers to fund anti-religious organizations, or public school curricula that exclude religion entirely.
Perhaps the solution is to exclude the State from all activities except providing police protection, courts, etc.
"On my honor, I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
And to obey the Scout law.
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake,
and morally straight."
The Canadian version:
On my honour
I promise that I will do my best
To do my duty to God and the Queen
To help other people at all times,
And to carry out the spirit of the Scout Law.
Yes! Suppose some Australian kids joins a Boy Scout of America troop. Wouldn't it be discriminatory to not let him join? Of course it would only be fair that some meetings would be held "down under." If that were not possible, then you have to admit that they should disband the troop rather than force such hardship on the poor kid.
If they're meeting on public property, then you are one violating their rights based on your discrimination against their religion.
What the hell are "special public priveleges" ? Does that have something to do with Gay Pride parades?
The picture the article paints is not complete. Scouts Canada has become a very PC group of idiots, but individual troops do not have to share in the idiocy. The sponsor of a troop has the right to set rules such as restricting membership in the troop to only boys, and to set a moral standard for membership in the troop (both for boys and leaders).
My church sponsors the 78th Ottawa Troop. It's all boys, Scout leaders must be practicing church members, we require them to wear the uniform, and the troop is doing well. It's the non-church sponsored troops that are dropping like flies.
The picture the article paints is not complete. Scouts Canada has become a very PC group of idiots, but individual troops do not have to share in the idiocy. The sponsor of a troop has the right to set rules such as restricting membership in the troop to only boys, and to set a moral standard for membership in the troop (both for boys and leaders).
My church sponsors the 78th Ottawa Troop. It's all boys, Scout leaders must be practicing church members, we require them to wear the uniform, and the troop is doing well. It's the non-church sponsored troops that are dropping like flies.
So what? They can use public property for free for all I care.
I think it is wrong for a private organization like the hospital to pay for illegal alien treatment with my dollars while charging me full price. They pay little attention to my concept of wrong or right. They simply roll their "feel good
concepts" into my health premiums or property tax bill. I am sure it feels good to you to destroy the great organizations for some "feel good" concepts from some attorney somewhere.
Apparently you miss the blaring obvious hipocrisy of your arguement.
What gives you or anyone else the "right' to discriminate against an organization that doesn't conform to your idea of inclusiveness?
Aren't you discriminating?????????
Why shouldn't they be able to use "public" facilities that they also pay taxes for?
Does that mean that if I don't open my house to anyone who wants to come in then I can't use the public roads and other "public" facilities that we all pay taxes for???????
Can I go into any girls locker room or spa because it is illegal to discriminate against me on the basis of gender?
What about stores that discriminate against me on the basis of time? Why can't I go into any store any time of day because to deny me access would be discriminatory against me on whatever basis bothers me?
You are like a person on a patch of ice lighting a fire to stay warm instead of jumping to land.
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