The Boy Scouts: A Case Study in Compromise

[CynicalScouter]

https://www.frc.org/updatearticle/20210712/boy-scouts

"After 100 years of teaching future presidents, explorers, and civil rights leaders to follow their moral compass, it's been sobering to watch the Boy Scouts lose their own bearings. And yet, the unhappy ending for one of America's proudest traditions was easy to predict once the organization started chasing the approval of critics it could never win. Now, eight years into this experiment in moral compromise, the country is watching one of the saddest "I-told-you-so" moments of a generation. Disgraced, bankrupt, unpopular, and on the edge of extinction, the Scouts' leadership is showing the world where cowardly conformity leads -- and it isn't where the culture promised."

Edited July 13, 2021 by MattR
Please quote what you haven't created.

[Sentinel947]

The BSA would've been in it's current position regardless of what it did regarding membership policies. The bill for sexual abuse was going to come due regardless. 

[CynicalScouter]

Just now, Sentinel947 said:

The BSA would've been in it's current position regardless of what it did regarding membership policies. The bill for sexual abuse was going to come due regardless. 

Yep. But it is interesting to me to see how much of this is being attributed to "If only we kept the gays out in 2013, everything would be fine."

[Eagledad]

It's one person's opinion. He may be right, but it is much more complicated than virtues taking the organization down. Through the whole process of challenges the last 25 years, the core of the organization, the volunteers, were never pulled in, queried, or even told what the folks at National were thinking. Even now they are a mystery. As some have said here, when they threw out the new Aim of leadership recently, they exposed their ignorance to the principles and virtues of the program. What are they thinking?  How can there be compromise if the guardians of the program don't even know the idealistic structure of the program? Who are these guardians? How did they get in the position of being a guardian? Most importantly, how are they held accountable for their performance?

Barry

[qwazse]

 

10 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

Yep. But it is interesting to me to see how much of this is being attributed to "If only we kept the gays out in 2013, everything would be fine."

Quote

For those who knew the Scouts in their heyday, the demise has been quick and painful.

More media churn.

• This article is not about BSA. If it was, it would admit that the "demise" is more of a "denouement" ... protracted over a half-century. It would talk about how membership began to decline in concert with policies intended to appeal to its (assumed) majority base.
• Nor is it about TL/USA. If it was, it would admit that this organization has not taken up the "slack" of scouts who left BSA before aging out -- in 2013 or any other year. It has not attracted the vast majority of Christian communities. It's a fun ride, but nothing "like wildfire."
• If it cared, it also would discuss the liability issues that are giving churches pause regarding endorsing any organization. It would give readers suggestions about how to donate to defense funds to help manage liability, do background checks, and generally lower the costs of managing the inherent risks to kids in these programs.

FRC cares about one thing: promoting a restrictive sexual ethic. They get donations from deep pockets every time they post an article that says those who hew to it (and oppose permissive sexual ethics) will grow and thrive. Nuance does not make them money. Guiding adults to lean in to their preferred organizations sends donations the other way. Talking about observed national rates of CSA gets them nowhere.

[fred8033]

Interesting article.  I've just never been a fan of taking cheap shots to prove your points.  "lose their way" ... "unhappy ending"   BSA has had 20 years of people taking cheap shots.  This is yet just another one.  

It's not very Christian.

It's not an example want my kids to follow. 

 

Edited July 13, 2021 by fred8033

[Eagledad]

1 hour ago, fred8033 said:

Interesting article.  I've just never been a fan of taking cheap shots to prove your points.  "lose their way" ... "unhappy ending"   BSA has had 20 years of people taking cheap shots.  This is yet just another one.  

 

Agreed. It hints of an emotional bias that takes away any integrity of reasoning. 

Barry

[MattR]

@CynicalScouter, in the future, please quote content that you haven't created. I didn't know whether the paragraph following the link was your synopsis of a credible source or just a random opinion from someone that's annoyed with the BSA. 

Just to make myself clear, I have hidden similar mistakes from other posts.

[CynicalScouter]

3 minutes ago, MattR said:

Just to make myself clear, I have hidden similar mistakes from other posts.

Ok, yeah, my bad.

[qwazse]

On 7/13/2021 at 12:24 PM, fred8033 said:

…

It's not very Christian.

It's not an example want my kids to follow. 

 

Whenever someone thinks “very Christian,” I think Byzantium.

[SSScout]

7 hours ago, qwazse said:

Whenever someone thinks “very Christian,” I think Byzantium.

Jesus was not "a" Christian.

 

[The Latin Scot]

On 7/18/2021 at 3:57 AM, SSScout said:

Jesus was not "a" Christian.

 

Well, linguistically, the answer would be no - the Luddites followed in the example of Ludd, who was merely their exemplar but not a Luddite himself. And The Old Pretender was no mere Jacobin; he was James Francis Edward Stewart himself, the desired ruler of his Jacobin followers, certainly not one of them. So in that sense, no, Jesus would be The Christ Himself, who stands at the head of His people. 

However, considering the intimacy He preserves betwixt himself and His people, I am certain He doesn't mind being placed in that grouping. ☺️ True, Jesus was Jewish both by ethnicity and nationality (well, half-Jewish at any rate), but as a part of His entire purpose was, as He said, to "do away with old things" and "to fulfil the law of Moses," in the three years of His ministry He established His own Church with its own organization and laws - and so by the time of His death and Resurrection, it would likewise be incorrect to say that He was really Jewish.

As for Byzantium, well ... they were many things. Christian in culture and art and prestige and power and conquest. But Christian at heart? in thought and word, and in charity? I know far too much about them to concur entirely with that assessment.