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
Hey. How's the troop?
The critique of the founder is revisionist tripe and a favorite tool of marxists.
Doing very well! Bill keeps forgetting to bring me his uniform to sew on his First Class badge, though :-). I think I'll teach him to sew them himself. Do the Boy Scouts have a Home Ec badge? How about Child Care?
He's done a couple of the activities for the Gardening badge, and should get that completed this summer. You were right about younger boys' needing a nudge, er, guidance, in the direction of one manageable activity at a time!
Her real argument is that Boy Scouts should accept the values of 2% of the population as normal for the other 98%. In addition, any recognition of the values for the other 98% should be completely disregarded and discarded in favor of the perversions of the 2%. Finally, anything even remotely standing in the way of complete access of homosexuals to innocent Boy Scouts should be eliminated. As an added plus, legislation requiring any Boy Scout members or potential recruits to be dropped off in the care of a willing homosexual for "weekend indoctrination camp" should be passed immediately. If the parents of said Scout protest, they should be shot, with the Boy Scout becoming the property of...err...placed in custody...of the homosexual.
There I said it for her, and it didn't take more than a single paragraph.
I'd like to know where in the constitution it decries discrimination against sexual preference.
It's in the penumbras and emanations, along with the prohibition against discrimination based on anything else.
The judges don't look solely at the US constitution nowadays. They look outside US borders to international court opinion and apply this to prop up their leftist opinions.
What's so scary about your 'tongue in cheek' post is that it's basically true, from what I understand. It seems that homos having access to boys is a priority, no matter how they try to disguise it with arguements of 'equality'.
There is a very dark sexual undercurrent that drives this agenda which the democrats support.
Y'know, I'm just not getting enough "satisfaction" to contribute to the disease pool :)
If you need any help with the Gardening badge, let me know. I MBC it and my younger son did it last summer. It's a lot of fun but a looong one, I think.
So how goes the leadership position and service time to reach Star from here? My younger son has the service time but missed elections when he made First Class so he is waiting now. (Older son is all set for Life on Aug 1st.)
I think it's a Two-Fer.
Is she going to do an article on the beliefs of the founder of Planned Parenthood?
What else do liberal fat chicks have to do?
Hitler didn't invent the Swastika, he adopted it. It is just a stylized wheel, and so is seen in both Indian and Red Indian drawings.
What's the big deal? Conservatives have their Scouting program and Liberals don't have to pay for it. There are plenty of other more inclusive clubs and organizations for kids to join these days. Seems like everyone should be happy with this arrangement.
My oldest daughter can't sew worth a darn, but that's one of my projects for summer. Five kids and my husband in Scouting, and I have to sew *everything*!
Gardening has several projects that have to be ongoing for three months, but it's the right time of year for it. I hope to get him to do composting; we have plenty of organic waste for it!
I think Bill is planning to run for Patrol Leader at the next elections. If he's not elected, he has the opportunity to be a Den Chief with the Cub Scouts in the fall. The Troop worked at our parish's spring cleanup day, and they'll also work at the parish festival in October. If he needs more hours after that, I'll just ask the Grand Knight if he can use a boy for anything!
Congratulations on the Life Scout. Girl Scouts don't have rank advancement in the same way. They do their badges and service work, but advance to higher levels by age.
Ouch. I feel for you!
The composting project is the easiest to take on, I think.
Sounds like he will have enough service hours, and I hope he makes patrol leader. It's such a nice opportunity for leadership skill practise. How often do you have elections, and when are your next ones?
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