by VorJack
From a New York Times story about the lengths that the Boy Scouts are going to in order to attract new members:
An inflatable mosque provides a place for Muslim scouts to worship.
There’s just something about the concept of an inflatable mosque…
It’s just really sad that kids can’t participate in these organized activities unless they profess a religion. I was a Girl Scout, and there was never any hint of religiosity, except for singing Xmas carols in a nursing home. Nobody ever asked me if or what I believed.
That article didn’t even mention the exclusion of atheists.
“So what did you do on Scout Camp Jimmy?”
“Oh we blew up a mosque!”
If only…
The words “inflatable mosque” immediately leads me to picture an inflatable ball pit.
They should set it up only after going through compass training. A mosque is no good if it’s not oriented right. Get it a little bit off and you can never tell what you’re praying to.
Compass training can also be done with a pyramid.
But for a pyramid to work you need to make sure its height is precisely 1/48,346,276.23 the circumference of the earth.
Inflatable priests and nuns might be fun for the boys too and most assuredly for the scoutmasters.
Not really… wouldn’t a priest be a bit too old for the scoutmasters?
you mean the scoutmasters would be too old for the priests…
i thought one of the convenient things about islam is that you don’t even need a mosque, you just need a prayer rug and to know which way mecca is. and all the scouts learn to use compasses anyway, right?
i get that they’re trying to be inclusive, but an inflatable mosque is just silly.
I’m a bit surprised that they’re allowing Muslims to join.
Most Scout troops meet in a church. That or a military base.
A significant amount, if not the majority, of their membership is Mormon. The BSA had to ban gay scout leaders because they’d lose their Mormon backing, a crazy number of members, and get the troops that meet in LDS buildings tossed out and looking for new homes.
Atheists are banned from the BSA. The oath requires that they swear to “…do my best to do my duty to God and my country…”. Note that the God part comes before the country part.
Now the Muslims and Christians can hate the gays together and sing about it at camp.
http://www.inflatablemosque.com/
I think their inflatable pub will be a better value for money.
What I want to know is whether kids can bounce in this mosque.
If this is what it takes to get Muslim children into the Boy Scouts, then it’s a great idea. The thought of sending my child to a monoreligious group where everyone (even the atheists, of course) is considered Christian by default gives me the creeps, even though that is precisely how it was when I was in the organization. It would be pretty damn refreshing if some of the Boy Scouts were obviously not Christian, and instead of just letting them mumble around the oath part (as I did), these boys were encouraged to express their non-Christian faith freely.
Yeah, the inflatable mosque is silly (a mosque tent would be cooler), but I can think of two good reasons for it right off the top of my head: 1) to assure parents that the decision to worship is not left to the kids, who may feel too awkward about being different to initiate it on their own, and 2) to make sure worship is done respectfully, and not off in some corner of the camp with all the other kids staring at them.
Obviously I think it would be better to just get kids together to do cool stuff like camping and learning skills without bringing religion into it. But I also recognize that in the current climate of religious assumptions and inter-religious distrust, that is not really possible. The route to secularization is through tolerance, and tolerance requires making space for people to feel comfortable being themselves. I congratulate the Boy Scouts for making an effort to welcome people of different faiths and, presumably, lack of faith.
Inflatible mosques, inflatible sex toys, inflatible dollar, inflatible religions…..isn’t there anything out there that is real? I must remember to carry a safety pin around with me.