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demiurgentSo, as a Boy Scout who is a professed Agnostic (they'll let me know if they strip me of my merit badges, I expect), I've had some interest in the vast shift to the Right of an organization that used to be about teaching boys. And it's horrified and humiliated me to see what has happened with it.
So here's my question.
Why aren't we putting together a new organization? One based on the core ideals of community, tolerance, wisdom, woodcraft and the like? Lord Baden-Powell's writings and manuals are mostly long into the public domain, and are ripe to be adapted.
We could call it Youth Scouting, for both boys and girls. It wouldn't be the enemy of the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but exist along side them -- an alternative that gives all children and young adults a place to learn honor, and courtesy, and how to tie knots they'll never use again.
And yes, to learn Reverence. I learned Reverence with the Boy Scouts. I have never taken it to mean I have to believe in a specific God -- I have always taken it to mean I had to be respectful towards Faith. Which I am. Faith impresses me. I denigrate some of the things done in the name of faith, but I won't ever denigrate the possession of it.
The Boy Scouts don't want us. That's their right. Rather than try to break them down, let's create someone that wants everyone instead.
So here's my question.
Why aren't we putting together a new organization? One based on the core ideals of community, tolerance, wisdom, woodcraft and the like? Lord Baden-Powell's writings and manuals are mostly long into the public domain, and are ripe to be adapted.
We could call it Youth Scouting, for both boys and girls. It wouldn't be the enemy of the Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts, but exist along side them -- an alternative that gives all children and young adults a place to learn honor, and courtesy, and how to tie knots they'll never use again.
And yes, to learn Reverence. I learned Reverence with the Boy Scouts. I have never taken it to mean I have to believe in a specific God -- I have always taken it to mean I had to be respectful towards Faith. Which I am. Faith impresses me. I denigrate some of the things done in the name of faith, but I won't ever denigrate the possession of it.
The Boy Scouts don't want us. That's their right. Rather than try to break them down, let's create someone that wants everyone instead.
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Date: 2005-03-30 08:03 pm (UTC)Man, and with how unpopular Scouting is here in the U.S. among middle and high school students, it was incredibly strange to see, on a normal weekend, 50-75 Scouts of both sexes, all packed and ready for a couple of days in the Ardennes.
The problem we have with Scouting here is that it's both stigmatized for any of a dozen different reasons, along with the fact that, well, it's not that cool in today's world. A kid that age either plays sports, plays videogames, or is forced to study like a madman by his parents. My dad's a Scout leader--loves Baden-Powell--and almost all of the new scouts their pack gets are sons of former scouts; there's just not as much impetus to do it.
The only way I see a solution now is the BSA completely going out of business entirely due to bankruptcy and being bought by another organization, or even some rich ex-scout, and turned into a better version of itself.