Scouts get pwned

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by glatt

This topic came up once or twice around the adult campsite at Scout camp over the last couple days.
The consensus seemed to be that everyone was relieved that the controversy is behind us
and that it won't change anything about what we do.

Sexuality was never a part of Scouting in our troop before and it still won't be going forward.
But we added on our to-do list talking to the church that is our charter organization
to see if they care one way or another what kind of leaders we get.
We suspect they are fairly liberal and won't have objections to bringing on
any one of the thousands of gay adults banging on the door offering to take on volunteer work for the troop.

@Glatt, I understand your immediate focus is on your own particular troop.
But saying the issue behind you seems a dubious notion.
You then say your to-do list is to contact the church to see how they feel.
What will you do if they are not as “liberal” as you may hope ?

The problem is that religious tenets are the domain of a church, but differ among various churches.
But if Scouting's leadership and/or volunteers must conform to the tenets of the sponsoring church,
it loses the open-to-all perspective. And to hope this is not important to each specific church,
look to the response and recent political actions of the LDS Church.

I do understand the necessity of screening volunteers and leaders.
But IMO… if rejecting all openly GBLT adults from Scouting in local units is based on the religious tenets of it’s sponsor,
then Scouting can no longer legitimately claim to be meeting it’s other important goals.

On the other hand, when it comes to “protection of youth”, I think Scouting has recently tried to deal with the issue.
I’ve read the policies about arrangements for sleeping, toilets, showers, cameras, smart phones, etc.
And all of this seems to me to be genuine efforts to set appropriate standards.

But at this point, I doubt anyone can document that gay men are
any more likely to molest or sexually abuse than heterosexual men…
whatever definitions are used for the men or inappropriate sexual activity.

The research data on this seems very complex and limited, often being criticized
based on it’s assumptions, it’s political orientations or religious beliefs, or study design.
So statistical rigor seems to be lacking…

To Wit: Facts About Homosexuality and Child Molestation

http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/facult...lestation.html