Mary Anne,

Your son should be applauded for sticking up for his convictions. Bravo for good parenting.

The issue of Faith in Boy scouts is one in which I am likley less qualified to address.

The Boy Scouts are chartered by community organisations, schools, libraries, and mostly churches. Since I have never been a part of any charter except by my church, i am not sure how things are run on that end. Likely you will find as many different ways to run it as you find churches as charters.

Being LDS (mormon), we run our Boy Scout troops somewhat different than others. If you read what i posted from tha manual, and compared it to the teaching of the LDS faith, you would find them to be nearly identical. The reason is probably that LDS troops comprise about 60% of charters in the BSA. Suffice to say the church has a lot of pull. Now before everybody gets all upset that the BSA is a front for the mormons, don't. The BSA is its own organisation that dovetails nicely with the mormon faith. If the BSA were forced to accept gay scout leaders, then you can bet the Mormon church would be the first to pull out and form its own organisation. The catholics and others would likely be not far behind.

If a boy not of my faith came to me and asked to join, I would b more than happy to let him join. Even if he were athiest. I would not change curriculum for him however. This doesn't happen too often though, because there are always non-LDS troops to join everywhere except possibly Utah. Also truth be told the Boy Scouts has kind of a nerdy stigma attached, that some kids just can't handle. I never wore my scout uniform to school after I turned 11. I did show up to raise the flag at City Hall every 4th of july in my class 'A's. (It was kind of a small town, but the free breakfast afterwards always drew big crowds).

So back to the faith thing...I guess i just don't know whether kids are kicked out for being athiests. I know it isn't scout policy being enforced by those at Council levels. At the charter level, I'm sure some are, and that isn't right.

I would also be surprised if a scout would be kicked out just for "coming out". Again, i'm sure it happens, though. If a scoutmaster came out as being openly gay, then he will be kicked out, and i have nothing against that. I am not a homophobe. I do not hate gay people. Am I against them being leaders? Hell yes. I would not feel comfortable sending my son on an outing with a gay scout leader. I also would not send my son on a scout outing with a straight skirt chaser or alcoholic either for the same reasons. I would only send him out with adult men that i trust, will be positive role models and provide safety for my child. That is my right as a parent, and I will be hellbent at holding on to that right.

I got a very good look at what type of people lead youth organisations as a teenager. I had 2 uniforms, BSA and CAP (civil air Patrol, a civilian auxiliary of the USAF). In BSA I had leaders from my church. In CAP, I had leaders from all over the community. At a wing conference I attended, they had the obligatory "happy hour", that attends such events. That did not bother me so much as the fact nothing was planned for the teenagers during the time that the adults got stone drunk. We had to sit around and wait, then watch them stagger out of the room, then guess who they asked to get the room ready for the Cadet dance? it was a stark difference from a LDS Boy scout troop. I stayed in CAP, but did voice my opinion as to what I thought of the whole affair.

Also on another note, I don't think the BSA should recruit in a public school either. Then neither should public schools have gay and lesbian clubs. Just my opinion.

Nice talking with you,
Steve G.