By Matt Barber
In coming days, the Boy Scouts of America will decide whether to violate – eliminate, really – its own mission statement, oath, and law by changing its policy to allow, within its ranks, Scouts and Scoutmasters who are open practitioners of the homosexual lifestyle. Sadly, to do so would destroy BSA’s credibility as a “morally straight” organization. Such foolhardy capitulation to extremist pressure groups would spell the demise of Scouting as we’ve known it.
The Prince of the Earth seeks to corrupt and ultimately destroy all that is righteous, honorable, and good. It’s little wonder, then, that for years, the Boy Scouts have faced a malicious and unrelenting assault at the hands of those “who call evil good and good evil.”
These attacks have played out in both the federal courts and in the court of public opinion. Still, notwithstanding multiple decisive victories at the U.S. Supreme Court, left-wing bullies appear to have worn the BSA leadership down to such point that this hitherto honorable organization is seriously deliberating a move most dishonorable.
If the BSA, with its proud tradition of teaching millions of young boys how to become honorable young men, gives in on this, the organization is toast. Oh, it might limp along as something else – something entirely different, worldly, and weak – but its long history as an upright, ethical, and God-honoring safe-haven for boys will come to a disgraceful close.
With her characteristically thoughtful analysis, Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute lays out the Boy Scout mission statement and oath in a column headlined, “Save the Boy Scouts of America.” She then demonstrates how the BSA’s proposed policy change does violence to both:
The BSA mission statement:
The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.
The Boy Scout Oath:
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight. [emphases added]
“How does the BSA promote fidelity to God,” asks Higgins, “if it permits men or women who affirm that which God views as detestable (i.e. homosexual acts) to serve as role models and leaders?”
“There exist objective truths regarding sexual morality,” she continues, “truths which if violated mar the image of God imprinted on men and women. When men have sex with men or women have sex with women, they demonstrate a profound disrespect for God and for themselves, which, although less important, violates the Boy Scout Law, which asserts that ‘a Scout is … reverent.’”
Indeed, like Higgins, millions of parents with young Scouts prefer to bask in the white glow of objective truth, rather than drown beneath the dark mire of political correctness. The homosexual lifestyle and sexual morality are unambiguously incompatible, notwithstanding a morally relative, postmodern zeitgeist that proclaims otherwise. Such morally minded values amount to “hate” or “homophobia” to the same degree that acknowledging earth’s roundness amounts to superstition.
“No one is arguing that homosexual men and women are devoid of admirable values and traits that boys would be well-served to emulate,” concludes Higgins. “What many are arguing is that the affirmation of a homosexual identity is not one of them.”
In the past, the BSA has recognized this simple reality – a fundamental truth observed by every major world religion, thousands of years of history, and uncompromising third-grade biology: Homosexual behavior is always wrong in every way.
Still, under immense socio-political – indeed, spiritual pressure, the Boy Scouts appear poised to play a very dangerous, self-deluded game of “the Scoutmaster wears no clothes.” They’re flirting with the queer idea of an about turn – of betraying both absolute truth and the very boys they serve.
Instead of teaching young men to stand up to the bully, they would model surrender – teach them that, when you reach an adversarial fork in the road, take the primrose path of least resistance.
But it’s much worse than all that. We mustn’t ignore the pink elephant in the room: the Penn State factor. Should the BSA cave beneath the weight of sexual anarchist intimidation, Scoutmaster Sandusky joins the jamboree.
Of course, not every “gay” man – self-identified or otherwise – is a pedophile, but studies indicate that homosexual assaults against boys occur at an alarmingly disproportionate rate when compared to heterosexual assaults. The very act of a man molesting a boy unquestionably involves both same-sex attraction and homosexual behavior (a “gay” by any other name…).
Consider, for instance, a study published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, of over 200 convicted pedophiles. It found that “86 percent of offenders against males described themselves as homosexual or bisexual.” This demonstrates, as noted by Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council, that “homosexual or bisexual men are approximately 10 times more likely to molest children than heterosexual men.”
No loving, self-respecting father in his right mind would leave his son in the care of – allow him to go camping with – an “out and proud” man whose very identity is somehow defined by the fact that he craves sex with other males.
I pray the Boy Scouts will remain faithful to their cause. I pray they will stay “morally straight” and not allow themselves to be bullied – “immorally bent” – by child-corrupting “gay” extremists.
To be sure, the biblical model instructs that we both love and pray for those caught-up in homosexual sin, as with any form of sexual immorality. But to openly affirm such medically, emotionally, and spiritually self-destructive behavior runs counter to all for which the BSA stands.
Don’t give in to the bullies, Boy Scouts of America. Honor your oath. Do your duty to God and country. Stay physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.
Don’t give up on our boys.
Otherwise, we’re giving up on you.
(Contact the BSA Board of Directors.)
Matt Barber (@jmattbarber on Twitter) is an attorney concentrating in constitutional law. He serves as Vice President of Liberty Counsel Action.
Photo Credit: Hoffman Estates, IL
