And I think their popcorn is way overpriced. No way I’ll buy it to support discrimination.

But the Religious Right and the Mormon Church have hijacked the organization. Instead of progressing the BSA into the 21st Century ideals of inclusivity and equality, they have actively retrograded its policies into medievalistic religious patriarchialism and bigotry. Penn and Teller had a great episode about this on their series Bullshit!, where they cited the statistic that the Mormon Church actively sponsors more than 30,000 Boy Scout troops in the US. They use the BSA as a recuitment and indoctination tool.

The whole thing makes me very sad and outraged. If I ever have daughters, I’ll have no reservations about them joining the GSA, but if I have sons, you can bet I’ll be looking for alternatives to the BSA for them, or at least looking for a troop that refuses to discriminate or indoctrinate. Such troops do exist, as Kevin pointed out, and this is further born out by an experiment Penn & Teller did. They composed a letter from fictional atheist parents asking if their teenage son (who shares their secular views) would be welcome in the BSA, and sent the letter to troop leaders all over the country. Most leaders responded in the negative (albeit politely), but many leaders responded that although the son’s atheist views were at odds with the organization’s official policies, they would be happy to have him join, and would respect his position. It might not be too late for such fair-minded, conscientious members to speak out and reverse the trend. If that doesn’t work, then I’d like to see them break away, and form a better alternative to the BSA.

I agree with your sentiments. I’m still active in Scouts mostly because much of my entire council is for gays and atheists. I’d say that over half of the summer camp staff, when I worked there, were either gay or atheist. We also have a lot of females in our council as staff and scouts. Many leaders and youth in my troop, district and council wear one of the “Scouting for All” patches somewhere on our uniforms.

Most of us believe in working to better the organization from the inside, infiltrating and getting as many gays and atheists their Eagles and setup as Adult Leaders as possible.

If anyone else believes that there is still good in the Scouts and would like to help end their discrimination, Scouting For All is a good place to start… http://www.scoutingforall.org/

Dear Post Office,

I hear you’re going broke. Here’s a thought, stop freaking spending money on stamp designs and pick one — one nonreligious, one not endorsing anything but the nation, how about the forever stamps or a flag no under “god” b.s. — already. Especially all the religious ones you endorse at holiday times. Read the Constitution. You are not supposed to be endorsing religion.

And while you’re at it — don’t sponsor the Olympics. I don’t give a flying fig about sports and don’t buy the bull about them building bridges and would rather not have to pay more for my postage to support them.

Thank you,
Patriotic Godless American

I was joking around but maybe I just will send that short note to the Postmaster General or something — for all the good it will do. Of course, the Christians would feel prosecuted if the Post Office stopped advertising them for free.

So whatever you use you boy scout stamps for, make sure you accord them the same disrespect… that’s quite subtle though, so stuff the envelope with gay porn as previously suggested of course…

At any rate, I’ll buy the stamp…if just to drawn in what the guy w/binoculars is looking at…

*teehee*

if/when you do, you must share

perhaps you’ll be able to inspire a whole ‘Slash’ series of stamps