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Boys' Life Bible Stories?


Kahuna

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I think Trev has the right take on this. The BSA does have a religious aspect and I don't think any offense is intended by publishing religious stories related to Judeo-Christian religions. And I agree I would not be suprised if they have published stories or parables based on other religions in the past. I'm near certain they have published stories related to Native American beliefs in the past and I think if offered they would be willing to publish stories based on other faiths. Such an approach would be in keeping with the Declaration of Religious Principles.

 

FYI, If you did try an bring a copy of Boys Life into Saudia Arabia that contained Judeo-Christian content or stories, it could be confiscated at customs and you would be fortunate if you were not prosecuted bringing banned religious materials into the Kingdom. You could tell the religious police that in the US we do not take away the Koran from Muslims entering the US, but it probably wouldn't do much good.

 

SA

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SA, that's a good point. Boy's Life seen as a seditious publication!

 

I've never thought of this before, but I wonder if Saudi disallows the Old Testament? If so, how do they tell the sacred story of Abraham? The Quran does not retell that bit, so does Islam have another text that parallels the Old Testament?

 

(oops, sorry OGE; I'm off topic again ...) ;)

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One thing this topic proves is that too many of you have way too much time on your hands, which could be better used in your troops or packs.

Scoutlder is right, these cartoons have been in BL since the beginning. I have a BL from 1937 and Bible stories are in there, so all I can say is : GET OVER IT ALREADY!!!!

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My YOUTH Boy's Life subscription lapsed in 1974. The Bible story was about Joseph and his brothers.

 

FAST FORWARD 30 years.

 

David is fighting the Philistines.

 

First, from what I can see, BL only uses OT. OT is common to Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Yes, the NT and the Koran offshoot from the OT. Yes, there are different theologies and interpretations on Messiah.

 

Is this really worth our time debating? I'm far more upset with the growing Abramoff scandal and how people in positions of trust took the buck instead of thinking the solution through.

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Yeah, but Merlyn, they balance off the Bible stories with Koran stories (oh, wait, I guess they don't), and Mormon stories (oh, wait, that's not there, either), and Hindu stories (oops). Well, at least there's a whole collection of....oh, I guess there isn't.

 

I guess I don't really care that much, but don't you think that people of other faiths that are in Scouting might be a bit bothered by not getting equal time? It's almost like some religions are more equal than others in BSA. Nah :)

 

Seriously, it wouldn't be a bad thing for BL to maybe rotate the stories in order to provide some exposure to the legacy and history of other faiths.

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Seriously, if I were a better artist, I'd love to contibute some comics to Boy's Life about Native American myth-heroes. I honestly think that's all they need, good content and good art. Of course, they'd have to rename the feature from "Bible Stories" to something along the lines of "Faith-based Stories". I think that more fellows would read the feature if it periodically told exotic tales about Coyote Trickster or Monster-Slayer.

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