School SafeRides program continues without gods

[Merlyn_LeRoy]

Well Hunt, I come to a very different conclusion looking at the actual history of BSA and LFL.

 

First, do you realize that when LFL first started, even though it was started as a school-run program, the BSA tried to insist that leadership had to follow the same standards as the BSA and exclude gays and atheists?

 

Also, what is the distinction between a Venture Crew saferides program and an Explorer saferides program, other than the obvious, and obviously unneeded, discrimination?

 

BSA discrimination has never been coherent. Explorer Posts stop discriminating at the stroke of a pen in 1998, with no discernable change (except, of course, now gays and atheists are included). Packs and Troops, and in some cases entire councils, ignore the policy and include gays and atheists as long as National does not find out. The BSA charters discriminatory units to public schools. All of these show that the BSA''s discrimination is arbitrary.

[packsaddle]

Hunt, I guess I''m noting that if the distinction is so fine that it comes down to a point of view, then there might not be a real distinction at all. Just a point of view.

And if the distinction is that small, why make it at all? Other than to somehow preserve this divisive feature of membership for some members...but not others?

As Merlyn notes, BSA seems to be unclear as well, at least in history of application.

[Hunt]

Well, I can agree that the history of BSA''s membership requirements is muddled and inconsistent. But if you assume that the current leaders of BSA really do believe that the DRP is important--what should they do about LFL? Obviously, they can''t require the DRP for LFL groups, because they are in schools. I suppose they could drop the program entirely, but who benefits from that?

Here''s a thought experiment: Church Group is shipping care packages to victims of Katrina. The packages include food, toiletries, and a Bible. They ship some directly, and some through a government agency. The government agency tells them they can''t include the Bibles in the government shipments. What should Church Group do? If they think the Bibles are important, they''ll certainly keep including them in the packages they ship themselves. But they may think that the ability to ship food alone is important enough to take the Bibles out of the government packages and continue the program. Since I prefer not to think that BSA has some nefarious purpose behind everything they do, this may be the kind of calculation they''ve made: "Well, LFL is not as good as regular BSA units, because we can''t promote all our values, but it''s still better than nothing for the people we serve."

[packsaddle]

Unless those hungry people are giant termites, those bibles are not going to have much nutritional value. A thoughtful church interested in really helping the people, would buy food for their charity, not paper.