The BSA and the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA):
The relationship between the UUA and the BSA has not been without conflict.
That is to be expected because there is a strong thread of religious
conservatism running through the BSA, whereas the UUA is to the left of even the
most liberal Christian denomination in the U.S. -- the United Church of Christ.
In 1992, the UUA Board of Trustees passed a resolution opposing the
BSA's anti-Agnostic, anti-Atheist and anti-gay policies.
In 1993, the UUA revised its Religion in Life award manual to
include information on their position on these matters.
Some Scouts proudly wear the Religion in Life religious emblem on their
uniform. They obtain permission to show this emblem by completing a course given
by their faith group. The BSA has recognized courses in religion given by the
Bah'ai Faith, by Buddhist, Islamic, Jewish, Unitarian Universalist,
Zoroastrian religious groups, and by dozens of denominations within
Christianity.
In 1998-MAY, the BSA sent a letter to the Unitarian Universalist
Association (UUA) announcing that the UUA could no longer award its
religious emblems to its Boy Scouts. In addition, no Unitarian Universalist Boy
Scout was allowed to wear his earned emblem. Their Religious Relations
Committee objected to two references in the 1993 edition of the UUA
Religion in Life manual:
One mentioned that individual UU youth might have difficulty with the Boy
Scout oath which pledges duty to God. Many UUs are
Agnostics
(undecided whether God exists) or
Atheists (do not
believe that God exists). Pledging duty to God implies an acceptance that God
exists. The UUA does not require its members to hold specific beliefs about
the nature or existence of any deity or deities. A 1997
survey of almost 10,000 adult UUs showed that about half were either
Humanists or Buddists, and thus had no believe in God. The beliefs of
boy scouts is probably similar.
The other was a reprint of a 1992 UUA General Assembly resolution
which disapproved of the BSA policy which bars persons with a homosexual
orientation from membership. (The UUA had withdrawn from the BSA movement in
1992; however, many individual UUA congregations still sponsored troops and
many UU youth were members of troops sponsored by other organizations). The
manual referred to an "ongoing concern regarding the homophobic and
discriminatory attitudes of the national leadership of the Boy Scouts of
America"
The UUA initially refused to modify its manual, because such an action would
violate its "First Principle" which declares that all people have equal
worth and dignity. The Rev. John A. Buehrens, president of the UUA commented "I
think I would encourage people to understand that teaching kids to treat others
with fairness, teaching kids not to discriminate just on the basis of someone
belonging to a particular group, requires the stand we have taken vis-à-vis the
Boy Scouts."1
Many Unitarian Universalist Scouts continued to wear their "Religion in
Life" and "Love and Help" emblems in defiance of the BSA prohibition.
Following a compromise reached at a meeting on 1998-SEP-29 between the BSA
and UUA, the UUA made a complete revision to its course material. This was
submitted to the BSA in advance of its Religious Relationships Committee
meeting of 1999-FEB-11. The clauses that the BSA found offensive had been
removed. After some additional changes requested by the BSA, the Religious
Relationships Committee endorsed the new course on APR-23.
However, the compromise fell apart a few weeks later, over supplementary
material which the UUA now provides with its Religion in Life packet:
a letter from the President Buehrens which mentions that the UUA will
continue to award the Religion in Life emblem even if the BSA
disapproves.
a pamphlet also written by Buehrens entitled "When Others (Or You) Say
'God'." This addresses the topic of religious pluralism.
6
a pamphlet written by Keith Kron entitled "In Support of All People."
This
outlines UUA support for bisexual, gay, lesbian, and transgendered people.
The BSA cried foul, claiming that the supplementary material had not been
mentioned in the earlier negotiations. 2 However UUA president contends that he had previously told two BSA senior
officials about that material.
The basic split between the two organizations continues. The BSA teaches that
both homosexual behavior and sexual orientation is incompatible with the "morally straight" clause of
the Scout Oath, and that an oath to God must be taken. The UUA teaches that it
is homophobia, not homosexuality, that is the sin; they allow their members to
hold diverse beliefs concerning God.
The UUA has since entered into negations with the BSA to be represented on
the BSA Religious Relationships Committee. They commented that:
a large number of young Unitarian Universalists have been involved in
Scouting.
the BSA "will need counsel from groups like the UUA -- not just from
religious conservatives," -- to help it adapt to "the religious
pluralism of the 21st century." BSA will also need to change in order to
avoid future court challenges to its religious discrimination policies.
"Discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation should not be
allowed to continue as a national policy of the BSA. It will ruin the
organization, costing them the support of millions of people, of foundations,
and of the United Way in many areas."
2000-JUL-19: Representatives Lynn Woolsey
(D-CA) and six other sponsors introduced the House bill "Scouting for All
Act" H.R. 4892. This bill would repeal the 1916 federal charter of Boy
Scouts of America. It notes that "Federal charters are prestigious
distinctions awarded to organizations with a patriotic, charitable, or
educational purpose" and that charters imply "Government support for
such organizations." It recognizes that "Although the Boy Scouts of
America promotes the social and civic development of young boys through
mentoring, it also sets an example of intolerance through its discriminatory
policy regarding sexual orientation." It concludes that"A
policy of excluding homosexuals is contradictory to the Federal Government's
support for diversity and tolerance and should not be condoned as patriotic,
charitable, or educational." The bill was referred to the House
Committee on Judiciary on JUL-19, and to the Subcommittee on
Immigration and Claims on JUL-25. On SEP-12, it was debated and rejected
by a vote of the House: 362 to 12, with 51 abstentions.
2000-JUL-27: Representative Steve Buyer
(R-IN) introduced a concurrent resolution H.CON. RES. 384: "Recognizing the
Boy Scouts of America for the public service it performs through its
contributions to the lives of the Nation's boys and young men." There were
no co-sponsors.The resolution recognizes that the BSA provides "an
educational program for boys and young men to build character, train in the
responsibilities of participatory citizenship, and develop personal fitness."
It also "teaches the core values of duty to God and country, personal
honor, respect for the beliefs of others, volunteerism, and interdependence
with the environment, principles which are conducive to good character,
citizenship, and health." The BSA "is a model for inclusiveness, with 6
million boys and young men from every ethnic, religious, and economic
background, including those with disabilities and special needs, participating
in scouting programs across the United States." No mention was made in the
resolution concerning the BSA's refusal to allow homosexuals, atheists,
agnostics, and other non-theistic youth to join. On JUL-27, the bill was
referred to the House Committee on Judiciary. On AUG-8, it was referred
to the Subcommittee on Immigration and Claims.
2000-SEP-18: According to Focus on the Family, a Fundamentalist Christian
organization, "Rep. John Shadegg, (R-TN), has pledged to offer
counter-legislation that would specifically prohibit the federal government
from denying or withdrawing access to public property to the Boy Scouts. The
bill would also prevent the government from withdrawing or otherwise punishing
the Boy Scouts, or from expending funds to compel the Boy Scouts to accept any
given set of beliefs."3
2002: Some school districts
refuse to rent facilities to racist, sexist or homophobic community
groups. The U.S. Congress passed a bill which would withhold public school
funding from such school districts if their policy of non-discrimination
results in banning of Boy Scouts from using their facilities.
Scouts Canada is the national Scouting organization in Canada which
corresponds to the Boy Scout in the U.S. Canada has a relatively
gay-positive society. Its largest religious groups are the Roman Catholic,
United and Anglican churches. The latter two are quite liberal denominations and all
three have taken a strong position opposing discrimination based on sexual
orientation. Scouts Canada appear to have been influenced by the tolerance of
the society as a whole.
Scouts Canada require only that its members fall within certain age limits
and take the Scout promise. This does not contain a phrases such as in the BSA's
oath to be "morally straight" which could be interpreted as prohibiting
gays. The Scout Promise is"
"On my honour
I promise that I will do my best
To do my duty to God and the Queen
To help other people at all times,
And to carry out the spirit of the Scout Law." 4
Potential Scout leaders are not asked to reveal their sexual orientation.
Leaders who are determined to be gay or bisexual are not expelled. Individual
Scouts who are bisexual or gay are also not expelled.
If you feel strongly, one way or the other, about the policies of the BSA
towards religious and sexual minorities, you might want to write a letter to:
Personnel Services,
Public Relations department,
Boy Scouts of America,
1325 W. Walnut Lane,
Irving, TX, 75061.
The main BSA telephone number is 972-580-2000. The PR department's number is
972-580-2263.5
There appear to be two sources of conflict with the BSA's
membership criteria: intolerance based on religious belief, and intolerance of
persons with a minority sexual orientation. If the BSA is to fulfill its role to
provide a service to all boys, then it would need to reconsider these
policies:
We live in a
multi-faith culture
in which some religions and religious followers devoutly believe in no god;
some believe in one indivisible god, some believe in a Trinity, some in one
goddess, some in a pair of deities, some in multiple gods and goddesses, and
some are unsure of the existence of any deity. Some faith groups teach the
existence of a God with a defined personality; others teach that God is an
impersonal force; others teach that no God exists at all; others have no
teaching about God. It seems to this writer that it is unethical to
claim to offer to all the youth of the U.S.
membership in the BSA, with all its rights, privileges and obligations, and
then withdraw the offer from some boys unless they are first willing to
violate their personal religious beliefs. Alcoholic Anonymous has met
the identical problem and solved it by substituting the term "higher power"
for God. If the BSA adopted this terminology, then Christians and other
Trinitarians would give up nothing; they could interpret the term as referring
to their concept of a Trinity. Monotheists could believe that it refers to
their single, indivisible God; Polytheists could interpret the term as
referring to their pantheon of deities. Atheists could interpret the "higher
power" as the BSA itself, the concept of democracy, American society, or
whatever they wish to.
In its goal to provide a service to all of the youth of the
U.S., it will have to consider the approximately 5% of its Tiger Cubs, Cub
Scouts, and Boy Scouts members who may not be aware of their sexual orientation,
but who will eventually realize that they are gay. Homosexuals are not a group
"out there." They are 1 in 20 in the membership already inside the
organization. IMHO, the BSA needs to provide both
the 5% minority and the 95% majority with
good adult role models, tools to affirm their self-worth, and the ability to
understand the roots and evil nature of homophobia, racism, sexism, and
religious intolerance.
If the BSA maintains its current policies, they will probably
lose membership in the Methodist Church and other mainline and liberal
Christian denominations. However, if they offer gays and lesbians equal access to their
programs, then the BSA will probably lose membership from most conservative
religious groups. In each case, they risk the creation of a parallel Boy Scouts
organization. We expect
that the BSA will eventually adopt a local option over sexual orientation and
belief in God. This would allow the national organization to take a neutral
stance on both matters, but allow religiously-sponsored troops to continue to
teach belief in God, and promote homophobia and/or hatred of gays and lesbians
if they wish.
In meeting the challenges of a multi-faith society which is
increasingly gay-positive, the BSA might follow the lead of Scouts Canada.
We hope that the BSA will be able to make the transition to a prejudice-free
organization without a schism within the Scouting movement. They could probably
receive lots of assistance from Scouts Canada and the Unitarian
Universalist Association, both of which have made successful transitions of
this type in the past.
Statement of
potential conflict of interest: The author was once a Boy Scout and enjoyed
the experience immensely. Fortunately, he was a Christian at the time and was
able to recite the Scout Promise honestly. His conversion to Agnosticism came
after he left the Scout movement. Otherwise he would have been forced to choose
between exiting the organization or lying. Through Scouting, he learned about
religious diversity, and developed an interest in religious tolerance that
eventually led to the creation of this website. He is a heterosexual,
Agnostic, and a
Unitarian Universalist.
The term "pluralism" is ambiguous.
It is sometimes used to refer to religious diversity. Other times, it refers
to the belief that all religions are true.
