Author: Pat Liberty

Scouts of America: New Information, Still a Wrongheaded Decision

Pat Liberty

So, it turns out I had some wrong facts when I wrote last week’s blog post.  Thanks to local Scout leaders I have an opportunity to correct my errors.  Here are the facts.

First, the Boy Scouts of America is not changing their name.  It will remain the Boy Scouts of America.  The program name will change in February 2019 and become “Scouts BSA” and will begin serving girls as well as boys.

Second, boys and girls will not be in the same troops.  Each will have their own single gender troop.  Girls as well as boys, age 11-17, will be able to work toward the Eagle Scout rank.

Third, boys and girls will be referred to as Scouts following the program name change.  Good to know, I would hate to see girls called Boy Scouts.

Fourth, Cub Scout troops will continue to be called Cub Scouts and will have all girl and all boy troops.

Those are the facts.

This seems like bs from the BS.  Changing the program name without changing the organizational name keeps it a male dominated organization that adds girls on as an afterthought. I believe Girl Scouts are undercut by this action and the value of Girl Scouts is diminished in the public eye.

Girl Scouts has specific goals that are geared toward girls becoming strong, independent and self-confident young women. Young girls learn what it means to be female in a male dominated culture. Is the curriculum for the Boy Scouts going to change?  Or are girls going to learn to have male focused character building? To think that young men and women do not face different issues in growing into mature adults is pure nonsense.

The Boy Scouts of America says on its website, “Our priority is to bring the benefits of Scouting to more youth while remaining true to our mission”.  The BSA mission is (in part) “…to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and the Scout Law.

It seems this is an effort on the part of the Boy Scouts of America to shore up dwindling participation. Given the number of Boy Scouts who have exited the organization since the announcement, it just may backfire.  It’s still a lose/lose for Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts

 

 

Scouts of America: A Wrongheaded Decision

Pat Liberty

When the Boy Scouts of America opted to include girls and changed their name to Scouts of America/BSA, a few tectonic cultural plates shifted.  The Boy Scout movement began in the United States in 1909 and was incorporated in 1910. The movement soon spread throughout the country. The Girl Scout movement began in 1911 with a group of 19 girls.  It also spread quickly throughout the country.

Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts helped generations of girls and boys define and redefine what it means to grow up with integrity, courage and character.  Each organization has a (mostly) noble history.  Recent sex abuse scandals and leadership conflicts about homosexual participants and leaders in the Boy Scouts has rocked that history.

I can’t help but wonder if some of the decision to admit girls is connected.  Boy Scouts suffered a pretty severe black eye in the public eye as these scandals came to light. Might this be a hopeful action to increase membership, a way of redeeming themselves in the eyes of the public?

Both Scouting organizations have dwindling memberships because of competition from other organizations, school sports, theme-based camps for just about everything, and a host of other things.   Still, it’s not clear that making the Boy Scouts into Scouts of America  and going co-ed is the answer.

Where it really goes off the rails is at the intersection of contemporary gender roles and missed opportunities.  Boys need places where they can be formed into young men with character and integrity.  Historically, Scouting has been such a place.  The Eagle Scouts I know are fine young men who do not follow mainstream culture and live by the Scout’s code.

Similarly, girls need places where they can be formed into strong young women with integrity. In a culture that objectifies women’s bodies, girls need a safe place to develop strength of character in order to not buy into that culture.  The Silver Bar, the Girls Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout award celebrates young girls who become strong young women who are self-assured, self-identified and resistant to our often morally bankrupt culture.

When girls and boys are put together in scouting, some of the same gender roles they face in school are reinforced.  The “cute” girls and “cute” boys may well act out of their awakening hormones while socially awkward or differently-abled boys and girls are left on the same sidelines they are at school. 

Finally, the perspective of a friend who has been involved with Girl Scouts her whole life, sees the loss of gender-based scouting as the loss of a safe place for boys and girls to fail.  With the addition of gender dynamics failure takes on a new meaning, as does competition. It undercuts the spirit of collaboration and cooperation that includes everyone, even the socially awkward, differently-abled girls and boys.  Being together, girls with girls and boys with boys, levels the playing field and takes gender-based competition out of the equation.

In a time when gender specificity in youth organizations can be a great aid to development of self, androgenic Scouting is a lose/lose.

 

 

They Don’t Speak for Me

Pat Liberty

White Evangelicals don’t speak for me.  I have a hard time calling them Christians.  That’s okay, they probably have a hard time calling me Christian too. By White Evangelicals I mean the socially and politically conservative lobbying group that is focused on ramping back civil rights, women’s rights and equal rights for all. 

Perhaps White Evangelicals don’t speak for you either.

I believe in the love of God for all people.  I try hard to live that belief every day.  Of course, I fail miserably which is why I also believe in grace.  I believe that my faith should inform my opinions on what happens in the world.  I identify myself as a Progressive Christian with social and political views that benefit the poor, the dispossessed and the voiceless.

Therefore, I believe:

  • the entire creation is God’s doing and God is in all of creation.
  • climate change is real.
  • it is okay to be gay and Christian.
  • housing and health care are basic human rights.
  • access to free and equal education is a basic human right.
  • the world is millions of years old.
  • in marriage equality.
  • that a fetus remains a fetus until it is viable outside the mother’s body.
  • no one should be excluded from adopting a child based on religion, sexual orientation, marital status or the color of their skin.
  • our social order benefits from common sense gun control.
  • in a living wage for all workers.
  • profits before people is a sin.
  • in equal pay for equal work.
  • authentic faith has no place for hatred, bigotry and intolerance.
  • the loudest voice doesn’t have to win.

The bible I read speaks of a God whose steadfast love endures forever, a God who is relentlessly just and infinite in mercy. 

In the bible I read:

  • Jesus calls the rich to accountability; Jesus talks more about the poor and the hungry that any other single topic.
  • Jesus condemns the collusion between religious and civil leaders
  • God speaks through the prophets. For example, “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to talk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8)
  • God’s love is for all people; there are no “in” groups or “out” groups
  • Love wins, always.

White Evangelicals have besmirched the word “evangelical” which means Good News. I believe they give loving evangelical Christians who genuinely desire to share the Good News of Jesus Christ a bad name in the world. What White Evangelicals are peddling has nothing to do with God, Jesus and the bible.

If they don’t speak for you, speak up and speak for yourself.  Speak for the God of love and justice and grace and peace. Find a like-minded community where your faith is nurtured and challenged.  Subscribe to publications like Sojourners and the Christian Century to feed your spirit with points of view that are consistent with your faith and that challenge your faith. Speak to social issues from a place of faith and bring a broad loving perspective to the conversation.  They are the loudest voice only because we are not. 

 

And A Little Child Shall Lead Them

Pat Liberty

Her name is Naomi Wadler; her name is Emma Gonzalez; his name is David Hogg. They are survivors of the Marjorie Stoneham Douglas School shooting. They were joined by a host of children around the country. (for the complete list click here).

These are the children leading. And we would do well to follow them. Amidst cries that “they are too young, they don’t understand, they are so emotional” they are leading. Of course they are too young; children should not be shot at in their classrooms (no one should be shot anywhere). Of course they are emotional; getting shot at tends to do that people. Holding a classmate while she bleeds out on the floor tends to stick in your mind for, say, the rest of your life. Looking into the eyes of someone holding an assault weapon wondering if you are next tends to burn itself into your brain.

While still having nightmares, still having flashbacks, living with and through the trauma; they are leading. Passionate, articulate and calling for action; they are the ones reminding us that we are the adults and it’s our job to fix it.

These young people make me hopeful for our future.

The title for this post comes from Isaiah 11:6 (read the whole verse here). It speaks of a time when there is peace, which is more than the absence of war. The biblical notion of peace is well being for all people and all of creation. Throughout scripture there are references to women, children and the physically infirm as the ones in particular need of care from others. It is code language for the most vulnerable members of society.

The measure of a society’s humanity is how well it cares for the poor and those most in need. Our grade as a nation is rapidly approaching failing. As social programs are being slashed we are sentencing a large part of our society to a life of privation and need.

Congress sent a bill to the Mr. Trump (which he signed) repealing a law that was intended to make it easier to prohibit gun sales to people deemed “mentally defective” by requiring Social Security to provide disability information to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. In the meantime mental health programs are being gutted and insurance is paying for fewer and fewer drugs to treat mental illness. Go figure.

The inability of congress to pass any meaningful gun legislation rests in a long history of (many) legislators taking contributions from the NRA. 42 of 50 states have legislators who have taken money from the NRA (click here for list). The numbers are staggering; tens of millions of dollars invested in campaigns to get NRA friendly candidates elected. For example, John McCain has received over 7 million dollars from the NRA over the course of his political career.

This is not an entirely partisan issue. While the majority of legislators receiving money from the NRA are republicans, there a are few Democrats. At a time when we desperately need bipartisan support on many issues, I don’t think selling your soul to the NRA is a good place to start.

As my father says, “Who pays the fiddler calls the tune”. Bought and paid for legislators assure no meaningful gun legislation will be passed. And while we often sit around bemoaning our powerlessness to do anything, nothing could be further from the truth.

Most states have some form of common sense gun legislation working its way through the morass of the political process.

If there isn’t pending legislation, lobby your representatives and senators to begin the process. Get informed. Talk to your representative. If s/he takes money from the NRA, vote for their opponent in the next election. The power of the vote is the single largest contribution we can make to seeing change happen. Entrenched politicians who are beholden to special interest groups like the NRA are not going to rock their comfortable little boats. So it’s up to us to start making waves.