SO MUCH FOR PREVIOUS TRADITIONAL MORALS

by REBORNAGAIN 78 Replies latest jw friends

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  REBORNAGAIN

  The city of Philadelphia has decided to punish the Boy Scouts of America because it will not allow homosexuals to serve as Scout Leaders. City officials said they will charge the Cradle of Liberty Scouts Council $200,000 a year to use the city-owned headquarters. The Council was paying $1 per year (since 1928). The city owns the land on which the Council's 1928 Beaux Arts building sits.

  The city says it is charging the scouts $200,000 a year because the scouts discriminate against homosexuals. But the city finds nothing wrong with their discrimination against the scouts because of the scouts' belief.

  The action by city officials means that 30 new Cub Scout packs won't be organized, and that 800 needy kids will not be going to the Council's summer camp if the city charges them $200,000.

  The Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the scouts, as a private group, have a First Amendment right to bar homosexuals from membership. Philadelphia officials, in an effort to appease the homosexual activists, began searching for a way to punish the scouts. The rent increase was the vehicle to do that.

  The Cradle of Liberty Council serves about 64,000 scouts in Philadelphia and its suburbs.
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  JeffT

  If I was on the Scout concil there I'd make a motion to disband the program. The city could then think of some other free way to keep 46,000 young boys occupied.
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  Frequent_Fader_Miles

  I suppose they view the rule more as discriminatory than protective, but where's the wisdom in giving a homosexual man free access to young boys?
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  Insomniac

  Why can't the scouts just do away with their anti-gay stance? It seems a bit antiquated in this day and age.

  Frequent Fader Miles- Homosexuality and Pedophilia are two separate things! I'm a heterosexual woman; just because I find men attractive doesn't mean I'd ever feel attraction for a child!
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  mrsjones5

  If I was on the Scout concil there I'd make a motion to disband the program. The city could then think of some other free way to keep 46,000 young boys occupied.

  Oh I really don't think that will happen, the city starting some new program for the disbanded scouts. That $200,000 will go right in the coffers and fund some other less needed program.

  Josie
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  Frequent_Fader_Miles

  Frequent Fader Miles- Homosexuality and Pedophilia are two separate things! I'm a heterosexual woman; just because I find men attractive doesn't mean I'd ever feel attraction for a child!

  They certainly are separate things. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that a homosexual man would be a pedophile as well, but there's just a chance it could happen. You never know what ideas would pop into the human mind if the circumstances permit.
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  Gopher

  The "traditional morals" were discriminatory, and people have become more aware of that.

  In 2003 the Philadelphia "Cradle of Liberty Scouts" chapter briefly adopted an anti-discrimination policy which went against the national Boy Scouts of America policy to exclude gays from being scout leaders. The BSA National organization told the Philadelphia group they were out of line, and the Philadelphia group succumbed to the pressure rather than going independent.

  People are coming to understand that sexual orientation has nothing to do with someone's moral integrity. People should be judged on their qualifications and performance rather than sexual orientation or nationality or any other factors that have been used to discriminate in the past.

  The city of Philadelphia is reflecting the will of the people (as governments often do). They're saying "we are against discrimination on government-owned property".

  That puts the Cradle of Liberty Scouts in a tough position -- caught between what society wants them to do and what the national BSA organization currently demands of its local chapters.
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  REBORNAGAIN

  I too would be afraid if my son was young and was in the BSA. These guys would be with young boys in a tent out in know-where land. I'm sorry, but there are times when homosexuals have their place and not within the BSA. That's my opinion.

  LINDA
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  nvrgnbk

  Not a few "heterosexual" Scoutmasters have sexually abused young boys in their trust.

  Thinking that the policy of barring homosexuals from the BSA will protect boys is as foolish as thinking that the policies of the Roman Catholic Church and Jehovah's Witnesses regarding homosexuality will protect their respective members.

  Keep in mind that the BSA has close alliance with the Lutheran Church.
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  Gopher

  Linda ,

  I don't know much about scouting, since I never was one. And I don't know the interviewing process, and whether parents can meet their boy's scout leader ahead of time and get some sense of what he's like.

  I can say that if I had a young son, I'd always be a bit wary about who he's with in this day and age. Your caution indicated in the prior post would be well applied to anybody of any orientation or background.