Scoutmaster

U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

Ask Scouts how they observe their "Duty to God" and you are sure to get a wide variety of answers.

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently released their U.S. Religious Landscape Survey. Results based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans age 18 and older find religious affiliation is increasingly diverse and fluid.

The survey finds that a growing number of Americans are unaffiliated with any religion. 28% of American adults left the faith in which they were raised in favor of another religion or no religion at all. 44% have either switched religious affiliation, moved from being unaffiliated with any religion to being affiliated with a particular faith, or dropped any connection to a specific religious tradition altogether.

Every major religious group is simultaneously gaining and losing adherents. Those that are growing are simply gaining new members at a faster rate than they are losing members. Conversely, those that are declining in number simply are not attracting enough new members to offset the number of adherents who are leaving those particular faiths.

My own religious journey is mirrored by these statistics, so I may be allowed the conclusion that my experience is being shared by a growing number of Americans. I was raised attending two different protestant churches chosen by my parents based, not any denominational loyalty, but on their own evaluation of the church's articles of faith. Our first church was an independent congregation, our second was an established denomination.

In my teens I began reading and studying on my own and made my own affiliation with much more independent, fundamentalist groups that I retained into my mid to late twenties. By the time I reached thirty I had basically ended any affiliation with any religious body. Further searching, reading and independent study have led me to observe Buddhist teachings.

This evolution has changed my view of that part of the Scout Oath pledging duty to God and the point of the Scout law aspiring to reverence. For example there is no God in Buddhism; the Buddha is not a deity. We follow a robust philosophy or set of teachings called the Dharma that encourages us to sharply question even its own basic teachings. We do not worship or pray, in the traditional Judeo-Christian sense, to the Buddha or anything else for that matter. Though my practice has changed I am still an ethical and moral person. Functionally some would identify me as an atheist but thankfully the BSA has accepted the moral and ethical underpinnings of Buddhism are sufficient for a Buddhist to fulfill the Scout Oath.

I would venture to guess that our Scout Troop is almost a perfect microcosm of the Pew Study findings with commensurate percentages of religiously observant and non-observant families. One of the finest aspects of Scouting is plurality and tolerance of this kind.

Organizations like Boy Scouts of America will continue to be relevant in a society that is evolving and changing by embracing these changes. We must maintain and advocate the highest ethical and moral aspirations for our membership without compromise. But we cannot continue to deny membership to a growing number of people who's interpretation of "duty to God" is changing.

Associated posts at Scoutmaster
Duty to God
Reverence

New Chief Scout Executive

Roy Williams, Chief Scout Executive since 2000, has retired and will be succeeded by Robert (Bob) Mazzuca.

Roy Williams presided over an embattled BSA and had little more to say other than he was going to stick to his guns. Leadership is more than doggedly holding fast to a position - it is also a process of consensus building, reflection and listening. I believe, as do others, that William's intractable stance is, at least partially, responsible for the precipitous drop in membership over the past seven years. Perhaps there has been enough of a drop at this point that his successor will revisit our discriminatory policies.

When we most needed an open, frank dialog about our collective future. Our national leadership, with Williams at the helm, saw any discussion of its decisions as an attack. Their response was cold and mechanical - they simply dismissed or threatened dissenting individuals, units and Councils. Perhaps our new leadership will find a better way to deal with dissent. Perhaps they will recognize the corrosive, immoral effect of discrimination and lead by bringing it to an end.

Our new executive officer should encourage dialog within our own organization at the most basic levels. He should not be reluctant to test every aspect of the program, structure and direction of the B.S.A. against the simple promises we extend to the youth we serve. Healthy organizations thrive on the process of vigorous reviews that end policies and procedures no longer serving its goals and strengthening those that do.

Looking at things from the top down is important - but seeing things from the bottom up is equally so. Looking from the inside out and the outside in are quite different too. Hopefully we have named a Chief Scout Executive with the fortitude to take a hard, honest look at things from all perspectives.

I realize that some of you reading this will not see this as I do. Most recently I have been accused of being unfaithful to the BSA because I disagree with its discriminatory practices. I have been told that I should leave the movement, that I don't belong, that I am a traitor, that I should start a new organization

I don't want to destroy the BSA, I don't even want to change your mind . I simply want to advocate we develop the positive potential within our own creed. That we decentralize the decisions over who can and can't lead scouts to where it belongs; in the hands of local people.

The founding principles of our nation: the peaceful tolerance of many systems of thought and the freedom to express ideas,  finds no clearer  expression than the scout oath and law. Let's live up to that incredible potential for good

The African American Scout - A History

An interesting article from the African American Registry on a somewhat troubled chapter in the history of the Boy Scouts of America.

It is telling that an organization like the Boy Scouts of America, dedicated from its inception to raising men of high moral strength and conviction, supported racism. But at the same time, on a national and local level, the Scouts did have certain leaders that pressed against the grain of society for racial change.

Read the full article here

Early on the BSA argued internally over admitting African Americans. While some argued  service to African American boys was desirable it was finally agreed that the BSA would observe segregation. The BSA was slow to respond to civil rights era changes when we should have been leading the way.

It seems sad that we have a history responding to rather than pioneering social change. We missed another opportunity to be inclusive when faced with the question of gay or atheist leadership. I admire the
"leaders that pressed against the grain of society for racial change." and hope to emulate them when addressing these questions in the future.

Associated posts:

Unite or Divide
Reverence
The Best Kind of Citizen
Answering Bob Barr
Checkpoint
Steven Spielberg and Scouting

Catherine Pollard Scoutmaster Dies at 88

               

The Associated Press

       

Published: Thursday, December 14, 2006

MILFORD, Conn. (AP) - Catherine Pollard, who became the Boy Scouts of America's first female U.S. scoutmaster after a years-long legal fight, died Wednesday. She was 88.

Pollard, who volunteered with the Scouts in Milford, died in Seminole, Fla., said Shawn Smith of Smith Funeral Home in Milford, which is handling arrangements.

Pollard ran a Milford troop from 1973 to 1975 when no men volunteered. But her application for a leadership position was denied when the Boy Scouts contended a woman was not a good role model for young boys enrolled in Scouting.

The state Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities sided with her, but state courts reversed its ruling. The state Supreme Court in 1987 upheld a lower-court ruling that boys need the guidance of men "in the difficult process of maturing to adulthood."

In February 1988 the national Boy Scouts of America did away with all gender restrictions on volunteer positions. Pollard, who was 69 at the time, became a scoutmaster in Milford and praised the Boy Scouts leadership.

"I do think that this is marvelous because there have been women all over the United States, in fact all over the world, that have been doing these things for the Boy Scouts because they could not get a male leader but we could not get recognition for the things we've done," she said.

Lou Salute, the Scout executive at the Yankee Council of the Boy Scouts of America, in Milford, said Pollard was the first female scoutmaster in the U.S.

A message seeking comment from the national organization was not immediately returned Thursday.

See  an analysis of the Pollard case at B.S.A. discrimination.org.

I remember following Catherine's case and the subsequent changes to leadership qualifications. It took us all some time to adjust to the idea of women as Scoutmasters. From the perspective of nearly twenty years thousands of women have proven that they are perfectly capable of making effective, vital and valuable contributions to Scouting.

Unfortunately we seem not to have learned from the experience and continue exclude gay or atheist  adults from leadership positions.  I remember dire predictions that  allowing women to  step into  leadership  roles would  result in Scouting flying apart at the seams. When the first woman candidate showed up at an O.A. ordeal weekend some of the men staged a walkout (almost all of them came back eventually). In my experience the women who assumed leadership roles in Scout Troops were not militant usurpers, they simply had the same desire to serve as their male counterparts. Why we think that the acceptance of gay or atheist leaders would compromise our movement is beyond me.

   

 

Caught Between the Scouts and the Deep Blue Sea

Anne Perrone, Scout Leader, mother and lay preacher relates the story of her and her son's journey through Scouting in a touching, insightful sermon:

Caught Between the Scouts and the Deep Blue Sea

It does not damage or undermine a local church-sponsored troop for the PTA-sponsored troop to allow a gay man to be a leader or a Cub Scout with two moms to feel that his entire family is welcome to participate in the Pinewood Derby. It does allow parents to choose the configuration that fits their family ethics, just as some parents take their kids out of baseball leagues that are too intense or too loosey-goosey. What it also does is signal to the youth of America that people with different beliefs and practices can work toward identical goals.

The good work that we can do for and with individual boys outweighs, in my mind, the narrow culture wars going on above and beyond us. Working along side wonderful men like my husband, Steve... ...belonging to an extended family that includes boys and adults with whom I shared an intense 11 days at the National Jamboree; attending the Eagle Scout Courts of Honor ...  that’s my motivation and my justification. We, the supporting adults, can debate the competing pressures all the while making sure that in OUR troop, and even in OUR Council we teach and model and promote acceptance and inclusion. It’s not a long-term solution, because, left unchecked, National Scouting will drift so far to the right that the essential nature of the organization, right down to the local level, will dissolve out from under us. That’s the day when I’ll have to leave Scouting.

So here’s the good news. What the Lord requires of us is that we work right where we are, with the people given to us to do what we believe in. What the Lord requires of us is that we do justice, model justice in the face of bigotry and other complications. What the Lord requires of us is that we not lose one precious moment in the quest to raise our young people to be skilled and courageous leaders making positive choices in the world. Whether I do that as a member of the BSA or a former member, I will always stand with those who believe in dialogue, who model not just tolerance but a working relationship with those who hold opposing views, who speak truth to power and who wrestle with competing sets of values in order to wring out whatever is true and just and compassionate.

So long as people like Anne work to unleash the real potential of Scouting there is hope for us all.

Read the whole sermon here

Supreme Court refuses appeal in BSA case.

In what may be part of a collective signal that the BSA must change or perish the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal to the Berkeley CA. case that has drawn a fair amount of attention:

Boy Scouts Face Setback in Supreme Court

By MARK SHERMANThe Associated Press Monday, October 16, 2006; 4:01 PM

WASHINGTON -- Six years after the Supreme Court ruled the Boy Scouts could ban gay leaders, the group is fighting and losing legal battles with state and local governments over its discriminatory policies.

The latest setback came Monday when the high court without comment refused to take a case out of Berkeley, Calif., in which a Scouts sailing group lost free use of a public marina because the Boy Scouts bar atheists and gays.

The action let stand a unanimous California Supreme Court ruling that the city of Berkeley may treat the Berkeley Sea Scouts differently from other nonprofit organizations because of the Scouts' membership policies.

Two years ago, the court similarly rejected a Boy Scouts appeal of a case from Connecticut, where officials dropped the group from a list of charities that receive donations from state employees through a payroll deduction plan.

And in Philadelphia, the city is threatening to evict a Boy Scout council from the group's publicly owned headquarters or make the group pay rent unless it changes its policy on gays.

On a separate matter, federal judges in two other court cases that are being appealed have ruled that government aid to the group is unconstitutional because the Boy Scouts of America requires members to swear an oath of duty to God. FULL STORY

From Midtopia Blog

... I fondly remember my time in Scouting. But what Scouting has to offer is not tied to religious beliefs; it's tied to the values and citizenship it promotes. Some may argue that those values are rooted in religion. I disagree, but it's irrelevant. Whatever they're rooted in, they do not need religion in order to propogate. And the current Scout leadership, by emphasizing the religion over the common values, do a great disservice to both and to the value Scouting has provided to American society for decades.

So based on the values taught to me by Scouting, I conclude that they deserve everything they get. I only hope that they abandon their current folly before they do too much harm to future generations, for whom Scouting may not have the meaning or the value that it had for previous generations. ...

BSA Membership Down 6.6%

The most recently available statistics from the BSA reveal membership numbers continuing to drop;

	% Change
	2005 vs. 2004
	Tiger Cub Scouts															243,609	-8.1%
	Cub Scouts															834,562	-5.7%
	Webelos Scouts															667,153	-8.0%
	Total Cub Scout-Age															1,745,324	-7.0%
	Boy Scouts															879,789	-4.6%
	Varsity Scouts															63,637	-4.6%
	Total Boy Scout-Age															943,426	-4.6%
	Total Venturers															249,948	-10.9%
	Total Members															2,938,698	-6.6%

Reportedly the total membership decline since 1997 is approximately 24%. The numbers here are the BSA's own reporting with no external audit. These figures must be seen in the light of an organizational reputation (unfortunately well earned) for putting the best possible face on statistics.

What are the reasons behind this decline? The BSA is silent on the subject. My admittedly imperfect and biased opinion based on what I hear from District Executives is the BSA's strenuous insistence on their private status as a religious organization with the right to discriminate. I believe this is a key reason predicted by our own Chief Scout Roy Williams in an interview when asked about the BSA's embattled exclusionary policies in The Oregonian September 10, 2000:

"The single most important person in this controversy is the parent: they chose Scouting to help their children be better people, and when they start walking away from us, that's the signal to tell us to revisit the issue. I don't see that on the horizon."

There isn't much public discussion about "the issue" in or out of Scouting any more. Frankly I think most Councils are handling this by functionally ignoring  National Policy excluding gay adults as leaders as they scramble to shore up the precipitous drop in membership.

The BSA's continuing ham-handed handling of legal challenges, tacit refusal to revisit any policy modification from its own local Councils let alone outside groups and the absence of any appeal to its adult volunteers for an open discussion on "the issue" has effectively established a peevish intractability. In many minds we are no longer identified as an organization that, in the terms of our Congressional charter:

...promotes, through organization, and cooperation with other agencies, the ability of boys to do things for themselves and others, to train them in scoutcraft, and to teach them patriotism, courage, self-reliance, and kindred virtues...

Rather we are cast in the role of an exclusive, discriminatory, monolithic entity that eschews even the discussion of change.

In an increasingly fractious society we are missing the opportunity to be a model for the uniquely American ideal of common effort that unites disparate personal beliefs, acceptance of and reverence for our differences as inconsequential to the greater goals of serving youth.

Distraction from the Mission

David Yount, critically acclaimed author and columnist on the subjects of religion and spirituality, in an article Mainline churches attempt to find compromises on gays:

... denominations part sharply on the question of whether to accept active homosexuals in their ordained ministry... They  mirror the concerns of organizations such as the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts that gay clergy may sway teens who are unsure of their sexuality.

Child abuse scandals suffered by the Catholic Church have complicated the issue, suggesting that gays are, ipso facto, pedophiles, which is untrue. (my emphasis) Still, conservatives on the issue are prone to lean toward "better safe than sorry."

In candor, many church officials admit that there have always been gays in the Christian ministry, but they most often followed the principle of "don't ask, don't tell" so long as gay clergy were silent about their orientation and were not active sexually. What has changed is that gay clergy are now open about their sexuality, and some are active sexually, living with same-sex partners ...

... The gay clergy debate distracts from the churches' mission to bring God to people and people to God. Just as Christians choose a doctor or lawyer for his or her effectiveness as a professional, we should apply the same test to the clergy who serve us.

Yount's observations ring true for the Scouting as well. The chief difference between denominations and the BSA is that the churches actually have open debates over such matters.

As we witness these debates unfold people of good conscience align their policies to accommodate the what honest debate reveals, and as Yount concludes, that the exclusion of people based on their sexuality is a 'distraction from the mission'.

Scouting risks increasing cultural irrelevance based on the refusal to open this question to it's membership. Scout councils are forced to thread the issue by issuing convoluted statements that satisfy some funding agencies but fall short of inclusion and are ultimately pointless.

In the end we are distracted from the mission, we see our relevance dissolve in a hypocrisy to our own values of inclusion.  We have already passed the point where the majority of families simply will not conscience organizations that fail to realize  sexual orientation is irrelevant to the effectiveness of a teacher, a coach, or a youth group leader.

Reverence

Reverence, the twelfth point of the Scout Oath, is expressed in  reverence towards God, faithful observance of religious duties, and respect for the beliefs of others. The faiths that make a God and Country award available have wonderfully diverse range of beliefs:

Zoroastrianism - Ahura Mazda (God) is the beginning and the end, the creator of everything which can and cannot be seen, the Eternal, the Pure and the only Truth.

Meher Baba - The first phase of God's journey is evolution. It is initiated from a totally unconscious God as if an infinite Ocean were in a state likened to deep sleep. This unconscious God speaks the First Word "Who am I?". This question disrupts the limitless, undivided, absolute vacuum, and its reverberations create individualized souls, compared to drops or bubbles within the Ocean.

Hinduism - For Hindus, there are many, many gods--but all as aspects to one divine reality, Brahman, to which each individual's soul, or atman, is also related.

Buddhism - Buddhists decline to argue about whether there is a soul or no soul, God or no God. Instead they see compassion and respect for the Buddha nature in all beings as leading to Enlightenment.

Bahai - God is described as "a personal God, unknowable, inaccessible, the source of all Revelation, eternal, omniscient, omnipresent and almighty."  Bahá'ís believe that although people have different concepts of God and His nature, and call Him by different names, everyone is speaking of the same one Being.

Islam -Muslims believe that God revealed his direct word for humanity to Muhammad and earlier prophets, including Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Jesus.

Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)-  Friends reject formal creeds and doctrines. They expect their community to be held together not by conformity of thought but by love. Their religious life is centered on seeking to discern and follow the divine Light.

It seems a shame that, in the midst of this diversity, the B.S.A. still insists that:

"the Boy Scouts of America believes that an atheist or agnostic is not an appropriate role model of the Scout Oath and Law for adolescent boys.  Because of Scouting’s methods and beliefs, Scouting does not accept atheists and agnostics as adult volunteer leaders."

I have argued elsewhere that this is a regrettable, unpatriotic and disrespectful policy. The BSA's history with the question of God is explained here by author Jay Mechling in an excerpt from 'On My Honor'. How do we resolve this issue? How about with a statement similar to what the Girl Scouts of America adopted to explain what the promise to God infers:

The word "God" can be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on one's spiritual beliefs. When reciting the Girl Scout Promise, it is okay to replace the word "God" with whatever word your spiritual beliefs dictate.

Related posts on Scoutmaster
Unite or Divide

An Unfortunate Association

An article in the San Francisco Chronicle outlines the conflict over a government subsidy (free berths at the city's docks) to the Berkeley Sea Scouts. In January the case was being heard at the California Supreme Court:

"Associate Justice Marvin Baxter asked the Scouts' attorney whether the Sea Scout's logic would allow groups like the Ku Klux Klan to demand public funding.

"It's unfortunate, but it's correct," answered Jonathan Gordon"

Unfortunate? It is a straight-up pity that we end up being associated, no matter how tenuously, with such an infamous group.

The logic the Justice refers to is the  argument that the city's refusal to give the Scouts a subsidy that it gives other nonprofit groups amounted to punishing the Scouts for expressing philosophical ideals.

To qualify  groups must provide an important service that outweighs the berthing subsidy, offer regular activities, comply with the city's nondiscrimination policy, show that the organization's presence and activities are of great importance, and not duplicate existing commercial services.

Once again the BSA's logic is paper thin; we are not being punished. Groups that require a religious pledge from its membership or cannot comply with non-discrimination policies should not receive Government subsidies. This does not unfairly restrict our right to association, expression, or religious practice; we simply have to do it on our own dime.