Posted on 05/12/2006 3:03:53 PM PDT by fgoodwin
Scout’s honor? Time to bring the Boy Scouts of America up to date
http://www.pasadenaweekly.com/article.php?id=3353&IssueNum=17 http://tinyurl.com/k96l2
By Hannah Naiditch
About two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America could use membership criteria that excluded homosexuals and atheists. It was a big victory for the Scouts, but its rules have backfired. Its donations have declined because it is in conflict with many of the donors’ anti-discrimination policies.
Recently the Boy Scouts made news again. The California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Berkeley did not violate the rights of the Scouts when the city revoked their free berthing privileges.
With all the recent and past publicity, it is interesting to look back at their founder, Lord Robert Baden-Powell, who started it all in Great Britain in 1907. Baden-Powell was a controversial figure. He was an officer of the British Empire and a hero in the Boer wars. However, some historians also see him as a militarist, an imperialist and even as a racist and a fascist. Two major books have been written on this subject and both were originally published in London. There is a harsh critique by Michael Rosenthal published in 1986: “The Character Factory: Baden-Powell’s Boy Scouts and the Imperatives of Empire.”
The other book was written by Tim Jeal: “The Boy-Man: The Life of Baden-Powell.” Jeal is critical of what he sees as some of Rosenthal’s excesses. For instance, Jeal addresses Baden-Powell’s anti-Semitism by asserting that Baden-Powell had several Jewish friends and a Jewish doctor and therefore could not have been an anti-Semite. He also points out that there was at that time considerable anti-Semitism, not only in England, but in Poland, Russia, Romania, Austria and Germany. He characterizes Baden-Powell as a man of conflicts and naïve on some issues.
Jeal explains that Baden-Powell was not alone in his admiration for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and that his feelings were based on his hatred for communism. Baden-Powell used the swastika symbol on his “Thank You” badges that were given to individuals who had helped the Boy Scout movement. According to Rosenthal, he used the swastika because he was a Nazi sympathizer, while Jeal blames it on Baden-Powell’s naiveté and his stubborn claim that the symbol meant “good luck” in Sanskrit. Both authors agree that Baden-Powell was deeply troubled by what he saw as lack of physical courage and military resolve.
Baden-Powell saw a moral decline of the British people, especially British youth. He believed in authority, obedience and conformity; hardly the values that qualify as a foundation for democracy. Baden-Powell denied that the slogan “Be Prepared” had anything to do with war, but he was a great believer in military might and saw the urgent need not only to defend but to expand the British Empire. He was also a great believer in maintaining the purity of the white race. He hated “niggers” (as he called them), Jews and homosexuals, and he admired Hitler and Mussolini.
What does this history tell us of the “traditional values” that the Scouts are so proud of? What kind of character are the Scouts trying to instill in their young charges? Whatever the truth about Baden-Powell may be, he was like most of us; a product of his time. Those were the days of declining empire and declining national pride. They were also days when fascism was rampant all over Europe and an accused homosexual could end up in jail. Interestingly enough, Rosenthal claims that Baden-Powell didn’t want to exclude atheists. He blamed atheism on an impoverished environment and hoped these boys would change their view when they joined the Scout movement.
Is today’s Boy Scout intolerance an echo of the past? Boy Scout leaders claim that their core values have remained the same since 1910, a claim that may be true but troublesome. Our Constitution, which reflects our democratic values, does not require a belief in God, nor does it allow discrimination based on sexual preference. The values of Baden-Powell are not the kind of values that form the basis of a free society.
Times have changed since the days Baden-Powell formed his Boy Scout movement almost 100 years ago. Those were the days of “manifest destiny” and empire, when Europeans called the blacks of Africa “primitive savages.”
Maybe the time has come for the Scout oath to represent not the values of the early 1900s, but to reflect the modern democratic values of our nation that are based on a system of inclusion.
04-27-06
"Facts are stubborn things"
I totally stopped my (PC) United Way contributions and give directly to the local BSA Council.
Embracing and promoting the homosexual disorder is embracing and promoting a morally corrupt self-destructive procreative dead end -a future of darkness...
That's a keeper.
Exactly where did you take history?
Maybe leftist secular humanists should stop using words like "diversity" and "inclusion" to confuse people and force their values on the rest of us.
Scouting is a good program and will benefit anyone who participates. Fresh air and good hard work never hurt anyone, I know, because I was a Scout. Lessons learned stay with a person their whole life, and being able to draw upon them when necessary is invaluable.
At issue, the view in question is of the scouts as fascist, essentially. In any event, if a group can't define itself, then there is no freedom of association, that's what's at issue here. It's really silly, but there's no arguing with certain folks. So, after being kicked out of any location however remotely or tangentially connected with federal tax dollars, look for nuisance suits, etc. Rinse, lather, repeat. Ergo, Scouting goes "bye-bye", even though technically legal. Fun bunch, huh?
Silly rabbit! You can't take history. You have to study it where it lies until it takes you.
Democratic values?? Democrats have no values, or character for that matter. (Most of them)
Never have I seen a group of people work so hard to bring down such a worthy and dignified organization. Nice try, but I would rather see them uphold their values and operate solely on donation if necessary!
Excellent summary. There's no end to the struggle with people like this.
I have to tell you, the subject editorial was not just bad, it was embarrassingly bad. Horribly bad. Pathetically bad. It's impossible to create a compelling argument based on history when you are utterly ignorant of history.
She claims that 1910 was the era of "Manifest Destiny." Manifest Destiny was a term coined by John L. Sullivan in 1839. Similarly, she seems totally ignorant of the fact that the Swastika had no implications whatsoever of Nazism in 1908, when Lord Baden-Powell founded the scouting movement. She cites sources claiming that he used the symbol because he was a Nazi sympathizer, but can anyone take seriously a claim that he used the symbol in 1910 because he admired a movement that didn't even rise to power until the 1930's? She also cites a source that claims he was naive because he believed it was a symbol meaning "good luck" in sanskrit. This claim is beyond idiotic, as it WAS a sanskrit symbol meaning good luck, and was used for over 3,000 years by many groups, back to 1000 BC, even predating the Egyptian symbol, Ankh.
I could tear apart the rest of her article as easily, but after looking at your web site, it is obvious that politics is more important than fact, to you. You will accept any argument, no matter how ludicrous, if it advances your agenda. To you, Boy Scouts=Bad, because Boy Scouts believe in God and heterosexuality. Therefore, any argument that supports the thesis that the Boy Scouts are bad is good, even if it is so pathetically false as to be embarrassing.
The Boy Scouts quit working along about the same time boys quit becoming men.
Tongue in cheek history.
Having read numerous books about him, I had never encountered this kind of accusation before.
LOL, doubled our FOS donation this year for the same reason.
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