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Earth Scouts and Scouting For All

Link: http://scoutingforall.org/

I was excited to learn about the Earth Scouts a long time ago.

"Scouting for all" had a booth at the SD Earth Fair... there was a very interesting woman (Not really sure she was born as a woman) dressed in full scout regalia. I think she was 6 feet tall. FYI BSA has stances against atheism and homosexuality.

I think the atheism part is important---but not as important as openness to homosexuality/gender variants. "On my honor I will do my best to God and my country... and to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight."

"a scout is trustworthy ... brave, clean, and reverent"

The basic crime I see committed with respect to religion is the lack of awareness and acceptance of more than one path--The BSA currently accepts and embraces multiple religious paths... and at that point you begin to see "God" is what you think it is....

The crime is when the child is raised among those who believe there is only one way, i.e., "I am the way, the truth, and the light"... and when that same child sees that all those around her profess to believe what doesn't make sense, and that moreover, all those around her hardly exemplify the kind of life she would dream of living...

That sets the child up for a crisis of isolation/peer pressure to deny her own evaluative capability in favor of what others tell her to think, feel, and believe.

Now homosexuals may get the same crisis... only far more so: imagine growing up with an identity that is not even recognized to exist. See Cristina Peri Rossi's "El Culpable":

"Ha cometido una falta, pero no sabe cuál es." --- He committed an offense, but does not know what it is."

and Luis Cernuda's "No Decía Palabras":

"Porque ignoraba que el deseo es una pregunta / Cuya respuesta no existe," --- He/I was not saying words: ... because he/I was ignoring that desire is a question whose answer does not exist.

Because homosexuals may weather this crisis, and develop faith in listening to and not rejecting their own evaluative capability, they may tend to become vital and creative people.

Now supposing we had a society of full religious/gender/sexual tolerance... would this crisis opportunity and the character formation it may cause be lost? Some Jewish people seem to maintain it by emphasizing and marking their difference throughout their lives.

I think there will still be plenty of other crisis opportunities for those who begin to question and to dream independently of what they have been fed as children.

But the fewer barriers we place in the way of dreaming, questioning, and listening, the more wonderful and amazing our world will become.

What do the earth scouts get to pledge? Maybe they don't? Here's something:

12. Uphold the right of all, without discrimination, to a natural and social environment supportive of human dignity, bodily health, and spiritual well-being, with special attention to the rights of indigenous peoples and minorities.

4. Secure Earth's bounty and beauty for present and future generations.

2. Care for the community of life with understanding, compassion, and love.

1. Respect Earth and life in all its diversity.

1b. Affirm faith in the inherent dignity of all human beings and in the intellectual, artistic, ethical, and spiritual potential of humanity.

I don't think the BSA can be reformed. I think it has to slowly fade away. If I had children, I would want there to be a co-ed group, and with values more like the Earth Scouts. That said, I think the BSA will continue to change to more closely support earth charter-like values.

Added by colin #442 on 2005-05-09. Last modified 2005-05-11 03:19. F0 License: Attribution
Location: World, United States
Topics: education, Gay + Bisexual + Lesbian + Transgender (GBLT) Issues, spirit


Colin Leath <>    

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