XPost: can.scout-guide, it.sociale.scout, ba.motss   
   XPost: alt.society.conservatism   
   From: faggots@motherjones.com   
      
   And they've been replaced by a Christian alternative.   
      
   Poor Boy Scouts. Earlier this year, their leadership made a   
   fairly dramatic change in policy to allow gay people to become   
   troop leaders, following on the heels of last year's decision to   
   stop kicking out gay Scouts. The move to end discrimination has   
   cost the organization some members and donations from religious   
   groups that were outraged about the change. But it's also   
   suffered smaller, pettier indignities—like its banishment from   
   this weekend's Values Voter Summit, the premier political   
   conference for evangelical Christians.   
      
   The DC summit, organized by the conservative Family Research   
   Council Action, is headlined by no fewer than seven GOP   
   presidential candidates. For many years, the Boy Scouts have had   
   a place of honor at the event, presenting the American flag as   
   the color guard. This year, though, the Scouts are nowhere to be   
   found. In their place are boys from Trail Life USA, the outdoor   
   adventure and character development group created last year as a   
   Christian alternative to the Boy Scouts. Joining them were   
   American Heritage Girls, the religious alternative to the Girl   
   Scouts.   
      
   Trail Life was founded by a religious-right activist from   
   Florida, associated with James Dobson's Focus on the Family, who   
   was active fighting the Boy Scout policy change. The group's   
   official policy on gays says:   
      
   We believe that homosexuality is sinful and immoral, as is any   
   sexual activity outside of the sanctity of marriage between a   
   Man and a Woman. Consistent with this belief, we have specific   
   policies that address membership and sin in both youth and adult   
   members.   
      
   Trail Life also excludes Mormons and Jews because they don't   
   subscribe to the group's particular theology.   
      
   A spokeswoman for the summit's organizers didn't respond to a   
   request for comment. But Trail Life CEO Mark Hancock, at his   
   booth in the convention hall, said his group was invited to   
   replace the Boy Scouts color guard because of "the direction the   
   Boy Scouts have taken. They think we're a better fit." Asked   
   specifically if it was because of the acceptance of gays,   
   Hancock demurred, saying it was simply the Boy Scouts' "general   
   departure from their traditional values" that prompted their   
   exclusion.   
      
   Kim Luckabaugh, the DC-area coordinator for the more established   
   American Heritage Girls, said her group replaced the Boy Scouts   
   at the conference last year, when Trail Life was just getting   
   off the ground, because "we are aligned ministerially. We are   
   aligned in our values." She says the FRC organizers have "been   
   very kind and gracious to us."   
      
   The booting of the Boy Scouts from the event isn't all that   
   surprising. The Family Research Council, which sponsors the   
   Values Voter Summit, has been an ardent opponent of the Boy   
   Scouts' acceptance of gays. Earlier this year, FRC head Tony   
   Perkins lamented that the Boy Scouts were moving "away from   
   their moral standard of being morally straight and clean and   
   moving into open homosexuality." He claimed that both the Boy   
   Scouts and Girls Scouts "are done" as organizations because of   
   their acceptance of gays.   
      
   A regular speaker at the event, Mat Staver, with the legal group   
   Liberty Counsel, said last month that the change in policy at   
   the Boy Scouts meant that "you are going to have all kinds of   
   sexual molestation. This is a playground for pedophiles to go   
   and have all these boys as objects of their lust. This is   
   insane, and we need to literally abandon the Scouts because the   
   Scouts, unfortunately, have abandoned us."   
      
   The Values Voter Summit has long been a hotbed of anti-gay   
   activism, but this year, organizers are going to great lengths   
   to honor people who've personally discriminated against LGBT   
   people, such as Kentucky clerk Kim Davis, who refused to follow   
   the Supreme Court edict and issue marriage licenses to gay and   
   lesbian couples; a florist who dissed her friend and refused to   
   do flowers for his gay wedding; and a pair of bakers who refused   
   to make a cake for a lesbian couple's wedding. The organizers'   
   exclusion of the Boy Scouts seems only fitting, but perhaps   
   they've done them a favor: The boys will be spared from   
   associating with people who will be remembered on the wrong side   
   of history.   
      
   Comments:   
      
   Satch of Bridgend • 18 hours ago   
   My God! They look like a bunch of Nazis! Or are they Russian?   
   11  • Reply•Share ›   
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   1Pokey4  Satch of Bridgend • 13 hours ago   
   Nazis for Christ! That's the big difference.   
   15  • Reply•Share ›   
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   belseth  1Pokey4 • 9 hours ago   
   The Nazis claimed to be a Christian movement. People tend to   
   forget that particular aspect of Nazi Germany.   
   15  • Reply•Share ›   
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   yankee dandee  belseth • 8 hours ago   
   People have no knowledge about WW2 because they don't care--it's   
   all about burgers and beer with their marijuana.   
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   Liz  yankee dandee • 5 hours ago   
   Do you speak from experience?   
   2  • Reply•Share ›   
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   ydnas639  yankee dandee • 3 hours ago   
   uh . . . can there be onion rings, too?   
   2  • Reply•Share ›   
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   Mike Meagher  yankee dandee • 3 hours ago   
   Sorry dude: i'm a docent at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front   
   National Historical Park in Richmond CA, a vegan, a wine drinker   
   and a pot smoker.   
   2  • Reply•Share ›   
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   Edward Mumpster  yankee dandee • 2 hours ago   
   I prefer mountain dew with my meat and pot, otherwise I fall   
   aslee...   
   1  • Reply•Share ›   
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   didactic1  yankee dandee • 2 hours ago   
   And they are all going into "IT". Great idea. When the climate   
   collapses, no electricity, water or food. I guess some of the   
   rednecks might have an advantage. Oh. And knowing how to use an   
   AR15 and a few shotguns might help too. Like "gun control" is   
   like the LAST thing you want with what's goin' down.   
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   d-Democrat  belseth • 7 hours ago   
   No . . . they replaced it with their own religion, Nazism . . .   
   for example, "Gott" was replaced with "Got" . . . particularly   
   amoung the SS.   
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   Kyler Phoenix  d-Democrat • 2 hours ago   
   No, they were Christians.   
   1  • Reply•Share ›   
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   didactic1  belseth • 2 hours ago   
   No they were a pagan or neo pagan movement.   
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   dagobarbz  didactic1 • 2 hours ago   
   Nope. Gott mit uns means exactly what it says. But they DID   
   dress it up with pagan trappings to capture followers' Inner   
   Odin.   
      
   But no, despite the occultism and paganism, they were at core   
   just another flavor of asshole Christian.   
   2  • Reply•Share ›   
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   didactic1  dagobarbz • an hour ago   
   They were pagan.   
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   jmtaylor700  didactic1 • an hour ago   
   So you're argument is that 64 million Germans quit the Christian   
   Church and joined a pagan movement.   
      
   And boy did they raise all those old Christian Churches... oh,   
   never mind, that was the Allies that bombed all those old German   
   Churches that the Nazi's apparently glorified.   
      
   The usual right wing trappings - take an outlier and declare it   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)