I disagree.
One might as well ask "Why have an organization?" Why have society? Why have rules? Why have standards? Why make distinctions?
Why not just have anarchy?
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
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?
As to Pogo, I never liked it. It was the South Park of its day. Sarcasm and true humor are incompatible. Sarcasm is a tool for the feeble minded.
It's not just a "litmus test", it's their BELIEF SYSTEM. They believe in a Supreme Being and feel that acceptance of the sovereignty of such a Being is part of their mission in this world.
You might just as well ban a Buddhist hiking group from using public facilities until they drop that "litmus test" about following the teachings of Buddha.
For heaven's sake, start your own atheistic scouting group if it's that important to you, but leave other people alone.
Their parents do. Too bad you can't raise everyone's kids for them.
I'm not advocating barring anyone from doing anything the next guy can't do. Just no special perks, no freebies. Is that so anarchist?
I disagree.
One might as well ask "Why have an organization?" Why have society? Why have rules? Why have standards? Why make distinctions?
Why not just have anarchy?
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
Doesn't matter. What matters is that you would refuse to permit users who profess their faith while granting access to those who refuse to do so. I guess discrimination is in the eye of the beholder.
Honestly I don't believe you will ever get it.
It is to more greatly enjoy the many activities with the understanding of a higher power.
That they are inseperable.
It's clear that you believe you are the highest power.
That is why you are so unhappy and feel a need to complain about which you have no understanding.
Thank God you are not the pinnacle of humankind.
They are not kicking anyone out.
Anyone can belong as long as they believe what makes the Scouts great.
Any organization should not allow those that want to undermine it.
That's common sense.
Something your hatred of others has prevented you from exhibiting
Our troops are not "kids."
You've still got that freedom. The KKK willingly takes new recruits on campouts and marches.
Just don't expect polite society to consider you or your children very popular if you make such associations.
5 Legislative Days Left Until The AWB Expires
They are selling 300 acres for $30,000? That is Canadian money right? What is that, about $5 US?
Where can I get in on this deal?
"You are obsessed on me, Chuck, but I'm not the issue. The issue is - are you comfortable discriminating against kids in a nonchurch environment using a religious criteria?"
You obviously are. You get to handle the internal conflicts that may create. It has nothing to do with what I think.
The Libertarian position makes more sense with every passing day, doesn't it. Everybody funds their own activities, and the State does not own more land than is necessary for its minimum basic activities
I couldn't agree with you more.
I get it. If my arguement finds the holes in yours and disproves yours then I must be obsessed???
If you think your arguement has nothing to do with what you think then I can only recomend a psychologist to help you sort things out.
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