News
and Opinion
The following
is an opinion piece in response to Gustav Niebuhr's piece in the Saturday
Times reporting that Boy Scouts of America is for the first time denying
members of a major faith the chance to receive a merit badge in religion:
Forrest
Church, Senior Minister
August
4, 1998
As a born-again
fan of scouting and a Unitarian Universalist minister, I am twice saddened
by the Boy Scouts' decision to refuse Unitarian boys a merit badge for
religion. Apparently, we fail to measure up in two ways: we offer freedom
of belief to all our members; and we accept and affirm Gay people, including
young Gay people, as full and equal partners in our congregations.
I love the Boy
Scouts. Twelve years ago my congregation, All Souls Church in New York
City, established its first scout troop, ten homeless boys then living
at the Prince George welfare hotel. Five of these boys are now in college.
One of them was a top-ten winner in the Westinghouse Science Contest.
We now sponsor
150 scouts, most from East Harlem, in five troops, two of boys, three
of girls. Every time I attend an honors ceremony I am impressed both
by the accomplishments of these young people, and by the fine program
that inspires them to be more confident individuals and better citizens.
I am born-again
fan, because my own record in scouting is far from impressive. When
my friends and I enlisted in the Cub Scouts, all our uniforms looked
the same - midnight blue with gold trim. By the time I applied for and
received an honorable discharge, you wouldn't have known that my fellows
and I were part of the same troop. Mine was still midnight blue with
gold trim. Theirs were like Joseph's proverbial coat of many colors.
I earned only one merit badge as a scout: not a barbell, fish, gun,
or cross, but a needle and thread. My sole accomplishment during two
years of scouting was to weave a potholder for my grandmother.
Today, as a parish
minister, I have a much more positive view towards scouting. I rejoice
in what our Scout leaders accomplish, especially with young people at
risk. The gold and silver with which these boys and girls adorn themselves
are not drug prizes but proud emblems of character and service.
The sad thing is,
with Boy Scouts of America's decision to deny Unitarians religious badges,
we and our five troops are now in jeopardy. As both a scouting fan and
a Unitarian, I know that by excluding our religion, the Boy Scouts hurt
themselves far more than they do the handful of boys whom they will
turn away. But they also betray, if not the letter, at least the spirit
of their great tradition.
Go back a hundred
years. If you were to select a poster boy for today's Boy Scouts, it
would have to be Horatio Alger. In Alger's stories, little boys filled
with wile, pluck, and derring-do heroically demonstrate that virtue
is its own reward. Employing faith, hope, prudence, temperance, and
fortitude one "boy scout" after another proves his mettle,
establishes moral fiber, and makes his way in the world, often from
the basement to the penthouse.
Horatio Alger began
his career as a Unitarian minister. He also happened to be Gay.
If the Boy Scouts
hold fast to their rejection of Unitarianism as the one faith unworthy
of a merit badge, and continue to fight court rulings that support the
inclusion of homosexual boys in their packs, they will fail to accomplish
their stated mission: to build character, not deny it; to lift up all
boys, not to diminish some by preferring others.
The Boy Scouts
should be especially careful when it comes to God. For instance, are
they going to exclude Buddhists? Twenty times more Buddhists than Unitarians
live in this country today, and a far greater percentage of their number
than of ours hold no belief in God.
I don't deny that
the Scouts' best work, now and over the years, is moral work. It stems
directly, if broadly, from Jesus' second great commandment: love your
neighbor as yourself.
Yet today, by trying
to exact fidelity instead to the first great commandment ("Love
to God"), they run the risk of becoming a theological rather than
a moral movement. Instead of taking an inclusive religious position
-- that every faith embraces some form of the Golden Rule -- by splitting
theological hairs they will exclude many fine young boys whom they could
help grow up to be men.
I am so proud of
our scouts, both our Boy Scouts and our Girl Scouts. They are wonderful
young people. Most of them are straight. Many of them believe in God.
But if one of our scouts happens to be Gay or not to believe in God
and is discriminated against, we may have to consider ending this wonderful
program, many times honored by the BSA itself as the first of its kind
for homeless children.
That would not
just be a shame. It would be a crime.
© All Souls 1998
