First point, I don’t ever remember seeing a single scoutmaster’s wife / girlfriend or anything else in all of my years in scouting. Nor did any of my scoutmasters ever mention their family life in all honesty. While I understand that people of some faiths have issue with homosexuality and I don’t want to get into that here. I think if a person is willing to donate their time to the betterment of youth then they are a good person. Secondly pedophiles are predominantly heterosexual. Scouting’s failing on this matter has been the lack of a profound response when allegation of misconduct have been made in the past. If an allegation was made Scouting should have thrown itself at the case trying to make sure that the boys were protected, not the abusers.

Concerning atheism, reverence and respect of another’s belief is something that transcends your choice of faith or lack of faith. Any implication otherwise, or assertion that a person is less intelligent for believing differently doesn’t help the situation. Much like name calling never solved a disagreement. I respect that scouting has a lot to offer I don’t want to them to be forced to change. But I would rather they did so of their own accord, because I think that people who are willing to donate time and resources towards bettering young men are hard to come by.

First, the values Scouting teaches are based on the Bible and Christianity, which expressly teaches homosexuality to be an abomination. allowing homosexuals into the organization would be incredibly confusing for children you are trying to train in values. Putting someone in front of children, in a position of authority, who refuses to accept the way God made him, is not a good influence. In addition, while homosexuals and pedophiles are two different things, I do not see how you can exclude one without the other. All a pedophile has to do is say he is gay and he is in. Without a criminal record, it would be impossible to exclude him without discriminating.

As for atheism, I do not see how someone can be reverent about something they do not believe in. Boy Scouts requires a belief in a Supreme Being. Acknowledging one’s creator is a mark of basic intelligence. Part of the values training of the program is to teach a boy regular adherence and participation in his faith. An atheist cannot do that, because he cannot model it himself.

I propose this for you to think about: you have said you are disappointed in Scouting because it has not changed with the times. I am quite proud of scouting because it has refused to bend it’s morals to the rapidly changing and continually degrading morals of this culture that embraces death, unchecked self-gratification without consequences (which is a fairytale) and increasingly abandons it’s children to the state. Instead, Scouting embraces time honored morals and traditions that it has held from the beginning, and has been brave enough not to change them.

Here is to 6 year olds kicking butt on video games. Now go outside and find a snake!