{"id":2014,"date":"2015-05-22T07:48:07","date_gmt":"2015-05-22T13:48:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=2014"},"modified":"2015-05-22T07:48:07","modified_gmt":"2015-05-22T13:48:07","slug":"boy-scouting-is-saved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/05\/boy-scouting-is-saved.html","title":{"rendered":"“Boy Scouting is Saved!”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So says Robert Gates, or, rather, that\u2019s a very loose paraphrase of his words at the annual meeting, as reported in the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking at the Boy Scouts\u2019 annual national meeting in Atlanta, Mr. Gates said cascading events \u2014 including potential employment discrimination lawsuits and the impending Supreme Court decision on same-sex marriage, as well as mounting internal dissent over the exclusionary policy \u2014 had led him to conclude that the current rules \u201ccannot be sustained.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the Boy Scouts do not change on their own, he said, the courts are likely to force them to, and \u201cwe must all understand that this will probably happen sooner rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a nod to the religious organizations that sponsor a majority of local Scout troops, he said they should remain free to set their own guidelines for leaders. \u201cI support a policy that accepts and respects our different perspectives and beliefs,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cI truly fear that any other alternative will be the end of us as a national movement.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So, what do you make of this? \u00a0Is this Gates\u2019 pragmatic evaluation of the situation, or is this him, as an outsider \u201ccelebrity\u201d president, pursuing an agenda of his own,\u00a0wanting to remake Boy Scouts?<\/p>\n

The article goes on to say,<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we wait for the courts to act,\u201d he continued, \u201cwe could end up with a broad ruling that could forbid any kind of membership standard,\u201d such as the belief in a duty to God and the goal of specifically serving the needs of boys.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Is Gates right? \u00a0Is a local-decision compromise the best the Scouts can manage, and the best hope for retaining the Boy Scout identity at all?<\/p>\n

Back in April I wrote<\/a> that the New York council had hired an openly and activist-ly gay young adult as a camp counselor, seemingly daring the national organization to say \u201cno,\u201d and I said,<\/p>\n

It\u2019s all the other adults \u2014 the council leadership \u2014 who are pushing the issue, and risking bringing about a schism of sorts, and who, many of them, may not even be particularly dedicated to Scouts, so much as having landed in their roles due to general non-profit work, and see this as an opportunity to further their greater cause of LGBT non-discrimination.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

(Yeah, I know, bad form to quote oneself, but at least I\u2019m not trying to push this as a \u201cviral\u201d image on twitter.)<\/p>\n

Is there a real risk that the court would rule against Boy Scouts? \u00a0I doubt it, since it was long ago decided that as a private organization they could continue with their requirement of at least a nominal theism. \u00a0The bigger issue is that some local councils are pushing the issue themselves, and, of course, donors are fleeing, as donating to the organization becomes politically risky.<\/p>\n

Would such a \u201clocal decision\u201d approach be any more stable than the \u201cgay youth only\u201d compromise? \u00a0There\u2019s a chance that concerns that have already motivated some\u00a0units to\u00a0peel off to found \u201cTrail Life,\u201d wouldn\u2019t be assuaged, since this would presumably mean that bans on employment as, in the above example, camp counselors, would be lifted \u2014 though Boy Scout camping, as I know it anyway, is a little different than other sorts of summer camp, as the whole troop goes together, so it\u2019s adult leaders from the troop who camp with the boys, and the counselors just run the activities. \u00a0And the bigger problem is that \u201csocial justice\u201d activists are likely to see this partial victory as nothing other than a sign that they should keep pressing their cause.<\/p>\n

You know, in Germany, the Scouting model is entirely different. \u00a0I don\u2019t know enough about the history, except that, as Wikipedia reports<\/a>, scouting was strong before the Nazi era and re-established itself afterwards, but with a much smaller presence than in the U.S., for instance. \u00a0But here\u2019s the deal: \u00a0there isn\u2019t just a single Boy Scout organization, but, instead, a federation comprised of three different groups (per the same Wikipedia article):<\/p>\n