Because I see no reason to wait until the BSA's final capitulation (that's the one where "morally straight" is taken out of the oath because it is homophobic, and all troops are required to accept sodomites), I packed it up today, with this letter:
July 17, 2015
Wayne
Brock
Chief Scout Executive
Boy Scouts of America
PO Box 152079
Irving, Texas 75015
Mr. Brock,
Chief Scout Executive
Boy Scouts of America
PO Box 152079
Irving, Texas 75015
Mr. Brock,
Please
find enclosed the Eagle Scout medal and certificate that I earned in 1984. I am also returning my Ad Altare Dei emblem, because it would seem rather a farce to keep a
religious medal earned in the BSA at this point.
I have
been concerned for some time as the BSA has drifted along the wave of political
correctness and replaced its traditional values with modern ones, just as the
Girl Scouts had done in the 1980s and 1990s.
A couple of years ago, I declined to enroll my own boys in a local troop,
because I was uncomfortable with the alterations in the BSA’s orientation since
my own boyhood, and I feared that BSA was about to go through more disturbing changes. Sadly, the organization’s two recent capitulations
regarding homosexuals have validated those concerns.
Your organization
has fallen into the hands of cowardly or corrupt men (or men who are both). I no longer wish to be associated with it,
nor do I have any use for its trinkets. If you keep a central registry of Eagle
Scouts, do my strike name from it (earned in Troop 88, Llano Estacado Council,
Amarillo, Texas, June 20, 1984, #562). If
I’m still on the rolls of the National Eagle Scout Association, do strike
my name from that list as well. They say “once
an Eagle Scout, always an Eagle Scout.”
It will not be so in my case.
I feel
fairly certain that Lord Baden-Powell, despite his own Victorian tendency
towards the political correctness of his day, would condemn the BSA more
strongly than I do.
Sincerely,
Curmudgeon
cc: Scoutmaster, Troop 88
c/o Knights of Columbus Council #4621
c/o Knights of Columbus Council #4621
5 comments:
I'm glad you still kept them! I used to be a member as well. I came across your blog looking for some old scout sayings to see if there where any blogs that had some. Found some good slogans about scouting I can share with you: Boy Scout Slogans
Well, notch up a win for ancient ignorance.
I don't recall Jesus saying "Love your neighbor, except..."
I do remember the Boy Scouts giving me a sense of teamwork, a spirit of international cooperation, and helping each other through life.
When Constantine sponsored the church and encouraged thousands of the learned believers from all over the known world to hash out their differences and agree on a single catholic system of belief, he was being quite super-progressive. Then Theodosius effectively outlawed 1000 other gods and replaced them with Yahweh and Jesus (under penalty of death) from Britain to Spain, to Turkey to Libya). Hence, over 1600 years, Christianity became the default white guy religion, all the other gods having been forgotten.
The medals you earned attested to you being one of the best young men in America. But it appears that the very fundamental precepts of Jesus (and Madison and Jefferson) were not included in your training.
--Mike Greene
I am fortunate to have earned my Eagle Scout from Troop 88 in Amarillo in 1967. All the scout leaders then were outstanding men, most having served in WW2. The idea of any leader sexually abusing any scout is repugnant. It takes good men to continue a great program. To cry foul and heap scorn due to the acts of a few, and throw away your years of scouting is sad.
Hmm,
Unknown, I passed through Amarillo last week and stopped by St. Joseph's Church, where I learned that Troop 88 folded a few years ago. Despite the virtue of past leaders and members and the good intentions of the present crop, the organization has been rotted from the top down (intentionally, and on principle by the folks in control nationally...not because of the misconduct of any particular leaders at the troop level). And it's time to let it die--perhaps so it can be reborn (my boys participate in an unaffiliated scouting program that is much more like the pre-woke BSA of the past than the program of today). And I'm glad of it.
Oh, and Mr. Greene...when you dump Jesus, Madison, and Jefferson into the same bucket, you says more than I could ever say in reply.
--Curmudgeon
So what's going on now in the Boy Scouts (other than Bankruptcy, of course)?
Let's look at the program updates for the Scouts as of June 2021:
https://www.scouting.org/topics/program-updates/program-updates-scouts-bsa/
"Keys to a Successful Launch for Girl Troops - March 17, 2021"
"Proposed Eagle Scout Required Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Merit Badge Delayed - Jan 7, 2021"
"Inaugural Class of Female Eagle Scouts"
Huh. A required "Diversity, Equity and Inclusion" merit badge? Yeah, sounds great. Still no regrets on mailing back my Eagle.
-Curmudgeon
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