So I type this with a little bit of sadness- not that I regret my decision or feel I am making it in haste. Surely I have prayed about it at length and spent weeks discussing it with my wife and my son. I have decided as a father that I will not have my son continue from cub scouts into boy scouts. This blog entry is an effort to capture the 'why'.
For anyone who doesn't know me personally, I want to explain why this is such a tumultuous decision for me. I am earned my Arrow of Light award as a youth, Eagle Scout with three palms in 1989, served on summer camp staff... more recently I was the committee chair for the first 4 of the last 5 years in a startup cub scout pack and watched them grow from 20 to nearly 50 boys in that time. I have completed WoodBadge, taught district BALOO classes and a course on running a great cub scout pack for Circle 10 council at their University of Scouting. My own son went through the cub scout program from Tiger through earning his Arrow of Light and Super Achiever award. My point is I have been heavily invested in scouting up to this point.... and I haven't even begun to talk about the friendships I and my son have developed during our time in the program- many of which I hope I am able to retain.
I have long been troubled that the Boy Scouts equalizes all religious belief systems as equally valid. I told myself that while I disagreed with this tenant of faith, I could continue as long as I was part of a Christian based unit. Then along came the decision of the BSA to no longer oppose open homosexuals if allowed by the chartered organization (just for the record this has NOT been approved yet). My first reaction was to look at the homosexuality debate in the same light as the religious belief systems- as long as my unit is conservative, I and my son are okay.
HOWEVER....
As I continued to prayerfully seek the best course of action for my son going forward, I came to realize i cannot with clear conscious support the BSA as I have in the past. The clear fact remains that the Boy Scouts is *not* a Christian organization AND adult leaders are prohibited by BSA policy from providing religious instruction to the youth.
So here lies the crux of the issue. My concern with the BSA- and reason I have chosen a different path- is not because of their position on sexual orientation- I find that to be a symptom of the problem... not the problem itself. The problem I perceive is that the BSA has no underlying foundation to call something right or wrong. The position of absolutes is failing quickly. If you equalizes beliefs, then one person can say open homosexuality is wrong (and be right) AND someone else can say open homosexuality is okay (and be right). This doesn't pass the most basic test of logic. You can't have two opposing positions and BOTH be right. I can't flip a coin and have it be heads and tails at the same time. There MUST be a foundation that guides our opinions and beliefs. As a Christian, that bedrock is the Bible. I can respect other people and their belies- and even defend their right to believe it- but I can not and will not say they are equally correct. I find myself resenting that I am trying to teach boys Christian principles absent the person of Christ... and for that reason I can't entirely commit myself to their cause.
So what is my replacement plan for scouts? Short answer: Family trips, church youth group and sports.
Longer answer... The value I see in scouting is that is builds character, provides adventure, promotes teamwork and develops leaders. To each of those points:
Character:
As I look at the points of the scout law (trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent), I find the person of Jesus was the greatest fulfillment of these attributes. I would so much rather devote myself to raising my son (and other boys) to recognize the value of these personal attributes (along with others) but as they pertain to allowing ourselves to be conformed to the image of Christ. My goal is to build character by ensuring my son is mentored by men of strong Christian character.
Camping/Adventure/Outdoors:
There are few adventures done within the BSA that we can't perform as a family- or at an even greater level. There are few arguably few outdoor skills taught by the BSA that I am unable to teach my own son. As I look at pictures of the past 5 years comparing our family trips to our scout trips, the difference is night and day (with family trips easily the more memorable)- and we had some pretty great scout trips. You also have summer camp through church, periodic church retreats and mission trips available.
Teamwork:
We'll do sports. We are looking to enroll our children in a private christian school next year and my son will be in football, basketball and track.
Leadership:
Truly great leaders emerge from servant leaders. As I get older, the more I realize just how true it is. I am looking to work with the youth pastors at my church to discuss how we can develop more youth leaders- even to the point of having them plan and implement mission trips and inspire the youth group to plan and perform acts of service for our community, state and nation.
