Downey called "wackjob" for equating Boy Scouts to Hitler youth club.
Online http://www.phillyburbs.com/news/news_details/article/92/2010/april/08/scout-leader-fires-back-at-atheists-attack.html
It is an apt description. The adult leaders are institutionalizing a form of blind "nationalism" the same mentality that has some politicians calling other politicians unpatriotic for not wearing a flag pin.
If you read the article the advocate for the Boy Scouts says basically "we have our standards". Oh, so that means those who don't kiss Jesus's ass are incapable of "standards" and therefor are substandard and cannot be part of god's club.
FINE, if they want to act like bigots, then they cannot call themselves a secular club and should lose public funding.
Hilter had oaths and expected blind loyalty to the club. While oaths, by themselves are not always bad( a rental contract is a written oath that you promise to pay your rent on time)......Oaths should not be about blind loyalty and can only be rational when balanced with oppeness, scrutiny and criticism.
I take personal umbrage to the commenter calling Downey a "wackjob" for simply calling out a an organization who has the same "chosen people" mentality that Hitler did.
If the children in the Boy Scouts are merely children and not "chosen" then there should be no exclusivity to join. If we today rightful find it absurd to exclude blacks from that club, then why would being Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist or atheist prevent a child from joining.
The idea of the club is to teach kids structure and planning and responsibility. Not bad concepts, but certainly concepts that can be taught to all kids and are not dependent on a blind loyalty oath to a deity.
The Boy Scouts need to drop their Jesus crap, and open the door to all, or keep their clubs in Sunday school. What they cant do is use tax payer dollars to promote bigotry.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
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When I was 10, I joined the cub scouts. When some kids found out I was an atheist, someone told the parent in charge of the group, and they came to me to ask about it. When I honestly told them that I had no belief in deities, they told me the organization and myself "were not the best fit" and how I should go somewhere where my beliefs would fit in more. All I heard was that the religious kooks didn't want me there, and as long as it was religious at the core of it's nature, I didn't want to be there any more then they wanted me there. So I left and haven't looked back since.
Bunch of crazy ultra-nationalistic bigoted religious kooks if you ask me.
"This may shock you, but not everything in the bible is true." The only true statement ever to be uttered by Jean Chauvinism, sociopathic emotional terrorist.
"A Boss in Heaven is the best excuse for a boss on earth, therefore If God did exist, he would have to be abolished." Mikhail Bakunin
"The means in which you take,
dictate the ends in which you find yourself."
"Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government! Supreme leadership derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony!"
No Gods, No Masters!
Honestly, on the whole boy scout issue, I'm waiting for someone to get the idea of starting a new organization with no god myth involved.
Faith is the word but next to that snugged up closely "lie's" the want.
"By simple common sense I don't believe in god, in none."-Charlie Chaplin
Challenge them to a duel!
Yea, I don't understand how the scouts can get away with being so blatantly religious. They are a religious organization, they aren't even shy about it.
http://www.princeton.edu/~lawjourn/Spring97/weinberg.html
Yuck.
Everything makes more sense now that I've stopped believing.
When I was that age, Boy Scouts were boys. I could be either a Girl Scout or Camp Fire Girl. Somehow, I was Camp Fire. But I don't remember any of the organizations being aggressively religious. My husband's scout troop was real kicked back he tells me. His dad and some other dads would take them all out for camp outs and the dads would get shit faced around the camp fire and the boys would run around wild. No one ever mentioned religion in my group or in his.
Fast forward. My oldest wanted to be a scout - fine, no mention of religion. My second son was antisocial, no scouts. But when the youngest wanted to join, the entire introductory talk to the parents was about "this is a religious organization and if you don't like it, maybe you don't want to join." WTF?? We walked out, totally flabbergasted.
So somewhere between 1980 and 1990, there was a change. DIIK
-- I feel so much better since I stopped trying to believe.
"We are entitled to our own opinions. We're not entitled to our own facts"- Al Franken
"If death isn't sweet oblivion, I will be severely disappointed" - Ruth M.
Because the zeitgeist of time is not stagnant and also depends on local. But the collective organization itself was started by Christians for Christians.
The Boy Scouts has always been a "wink wink" Christian organization and give or take pockets of inclusion over history, it was never a big issue because the majority had the power without challenge so the issue never came up. It was assumed.
Why things changed over time is that minorities who WERE Christian had problems joining, or holding positions of power. Those people either through courts or simply using their own voice broke the barriers
If you are the majority, you don't have to talk about it, it simply is assumed.
The Boy Scouts as a nationally publicly funded institution has to call itself secular if it want's Uncle Sam's money. But like all laws, and organization, you can call yourself a duck even if you are a crock. It all depends on marketing and so far the Boy Scouts are nothing but a front.
They can't indoctrinate on their own with their own money, so they have to water down their club to make it appear they they are open to all.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog