I had known of the issues surrounding the boy scouts. This is a conversation that started when I was in college. I remember sitting in the dining hall with recently graduated Eagle Scouts having a conversation about it. A few years later a young Boy Scout came to my door, and asking me to buy popcorn. I told him no, though I had bought Girl Scout cookies from his sister. Now there may be those of you that think, cookies versus popcorn, no contest, but there was a political statement underlying.
Now that I'm a parent of both boys and girls, I'm faced with this dilemma in a more magnified fashion. I happily enrolled my eldest girl in Daisies this year. We made pies, went caroling in nursing homes, sold over a 100 boxes of cookies, and plan to march in our little town's Memorial Day parade, all very radical socialist feminist activities, I tell you what. 'Radical' Girl Scouts out to destroy 'American family values'
This year I also got to see up close and personal what the Boy Scouts in our town do. The Eagle scouts built a pavilion and picnic tables for our newly reconstructed playground. The Cub Scouts were among the biggest showings at the Science Fair that I put on for the school's PTO. I dealt one on one with one of the den fathers over the use of a catapult. He's a great guy, has his scouts very engaged, and learning about science.
I began to realize how silly the attacks on the Girl Scouts were, and was thinking, maybe I could allow my son to be a part of the Cub Scouts locally. Then I saw the article about Jennifer Tyrell. Boy Scouts Dismiss Gay Den Mother. This troubled me a great deal. I could kind of understand not wanting to send your sons out alone in the woods with a gay man (no offense to my gay friends, you know I would send Antonio out with you in a heartbeat!) but to fire a lesbian, and one who works at a hardware store no less! All kidding aside, this makes no sense whatsoever. From the sounds of things she was the best Cub Scout leader ever. People from the gay community are criticizing her for being involved with the Boy Scouts in the first place. But I get it. Our kids come first. You aren't seeing this big bad overlord of an organization. You are seeing the face of your kid and several of their classmates. She was up front, and told the parents of her troop who she was and where she stood. They all seemed to love her. Maybe on a face to face basis, it is harder to be hateful.
So I wonder, are we putting too much social and political "stuff" on our kids. What we teach them at home and in church is going to go a longer way than stuff learned in scout meetings. But at the same time, can I allow my son to be a part of an organization that teaches hate? Or or those claims as ridiculous as the claims that we are teaching our Girl Scouts to have abortions? Thankfully I have a couple of years before Antonio is ready for Cub Scouts. In the meantime, I'll happily much away on my Thin Mints.
I have issues with all scouting. This is coming from a former Brownie/Junior Girl Scout. Do they teach valuable lessons? Absolutely. When I learned about their anti-gay agenda, I got pissed. As you know, I have two boys who may very well want to join up with the Boy Scouts. I stand STRONGLY with the LGBT community so I have serious issues with the Scouts' bigotry. It's a Christian organization, no? I thought that was where their agenda comes from. I just looked at their site and while I didn't see any overt religious ties, the oath they take mentions G-d immediately so that is clearly a driving force in some way.
ReplyDeleteI do think too much is put on our kids, politically. The homosexual issue should not even BE an issue in an organization with all of the other GOOD values the Boy/Girl Scouts have (the hippocracy of the whole thing really). In the end, let's face it...we're talking about raising our kids with the help of the Girl/Boy Scouts. As such we as parents research the organization (or some of us do) and just have to understand that our kids will be subjected to their beliefs if we let them join.
I can be a real hellraiser when I want to be. I think my way of thinking on this will be not to bring up the Boy Scouts to my sons. If they come to me with it, I'll let them join but encourage them to speak out if they ever see injustice being done and, depending on their age, explain to them why I don't particularly like the Boy Scouts. The decision can then be left up to them. I am confident that my husband will get involved and oversee things, should they decide to join.
Weighing the social/political ramifications of the groups we let our kids join is exhausting, but I think it's par for the course. This all wouldn't be such a damn issue if people would just drop the whole issue with same-sex relationships/marriages. It's the 21st century. Give it up, people!
I guess in the end, so long as they aren't working to get badges in "anti abortion advocacy" or "bigotry," the issue won't be coming up much and, when it does, we just need to teach our children to stand on the right side of the fence and SPEAK UP about it.