*sighs*

[conuly]

Two boys ended up leaving the Boy Scouts recently. Apparently, the parents of the other boys in their troop were worried that their good Christian sons would be preached to by the two Wiccans.

It's a little bit of amusement in a sad, sad article.

Comments

[stejcruetekie.livejournal.com]

Tolerance does NOT equal acceptance. I "tolerate" being around athiests - I sit beside them, I talk with them, I eat with them, I treat them like every other decent human being. That doesn't mean I accept their belief. As such, a group doesn't need to accept members that fall outside of its beliefs - but it can teach tolerance (be nice to "those other people" instead of kicking the shit out of them).

The Boys Scouts have a committee that determines whether or not a group is appropriate. Likely this matter will get bumped up to them and in a few weeks/months/years we'll get an official stance on Boy Scouts and Wiccans.

You're right, this does suck for the kids. But it's not their fault - it's their parents. THEY should have been the ones smart enough to see the problem here.

[worldmage.livejournal.com]

You're right, tolerance does not equal acceptance, but tolerance DOES mean not purposely excluding them, especially in a group that is not expressly Judeo-Christian. As conuly pointed out in her response to you, the Boy Scouts have been billing themselves as "American" more than Christian. Unless you know the history of the Boy Scouts chances are you wouldn't think of them as exclusively Christian because that's definitely NOT how they present themselves. If they ARE, in fact, an exclusively Christian organization, they should be up front about it and promote themselves that way. Claiming that the pre-requisite for joining is a belief in "a god" when the actual pre-requisite is "my god" is fraud by any other name. They are either misrepresenting themselves to the public or this group has broken the rules.

And I'm sorry, but it's not the parents' fault that the Boy Scouts aren't living up to their own philosophy either.

[stejcruetekie.livejournal.com]

Perhaps we should notice that it was the decision of a few individuals, which was overturned by those higher up. So actually the Boy Scouts IS still living up to their philosophy.

[worldmage.livejournal.com]

Yeah, after the damage was already done. And there are plenty other ways they aren't living up to their philosophy, but they aren't directly related to the article.

[satyrblade.livejournal.com]

ICON LOVE!

[kynn.livejournal.com]

It's not a matter of whether the Boy Scouts have the right to be bigots, it's whether being a bigot is wrong.

And, well, it is wrong.

Likely this matter will get bumped up to them and in a few weeks/months/years we'll get an official stance on Boy Scouts and Wiccans.

That worked so well with the Boy Scouts' official position on gays.

You're right, this does suck for the kids. But it's not their fault - it's their parents. THEY should have been the ones smart enough to see the problem here.

Which parents? The bigoted parents, or the former Eagle Scout who sent his kids to scouting even though they're OMG WICCANS?