Blogtrek

Philly Boy Scouts: A good group or discriminatory?

I read with interest a story this week that a national conference of the Boy Scouts of America took place in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and that the host council, the Cradle of Liberty Council, has defied the national organization and has included sexual orientation in its definition of non-discrimination. This means that the council has forbidden barring a boy or a leader from joining the Scout organization because that boy or leader is gay, contradicting the national organization's forbidding of gays from joining the Scouts.

This is a good sign. This means there is one place where Scouting is a good organization for a boy to belong to. Scouting has many virtues, namely, introducing boys to survival skills and an appreciation for nature and the environment while helping them develop a set of values for life. However, I cannot recommend most Scout troops for boys, because the national organization chooses to discriminate against gays and atheists. However, the Philadelphia scouts do not discriminate against gays. So is this a good organization for a boy to belong to?

I would like to think so but I am not sure. The problem is that I have found no evidence that the Philly Boy Scouts has barred discrimination against a boy or a leader because he does not believe in a God. It may be that a boy or leader must profess belief in God before joining a Philadelphia area Boy Scout organization. If that is the case, they are better than the national organization but they have gone only halfway.

In fact, in this case, they are discriminating in a second-order sense. They are discriminating against atheists and agnostics and in favor of gays. Two groups of people have an issue with the Boy Scouts: gay people and atheists and agnostics. The Philadelphia council apparently has decided to discriminate in favor of gays over atheists and agnostics, and so I can't recommend them either.

I hope I am wrong and that the Philadelphia Boy Scouts have barred discrimination based on a belief in a God as well.