Jeff Stahler for January 30, 2013

Instead of learning skills and respect, they should be more like other kids who spend their day getting high and playing violent video games all day. Get with it Scouts!

Keeping up with the New York Times.

I kept my boy out of the scouts because of their out-of-date bigotry. It could be a great program, but this “you’ve worked hard and done everything to qualify as an Eagle scout, but you figured out at 16 that you’re Gay, so tough beans you don’t get a badge” is cruel and unAmerican.

Ooooh! I need one of those!

I’m waiting for the Scouts to define “Duty to God” before I let my kids join.

The BSA and GSA are fantastic organizations run by humans. Therefore, it will have flaws. The BSA/GSA should be looked at like a school. Lessons are learned, homework is given, assignments are turned in however, not everything a school teaches a child finds agreement with an involved parent. Just as a parent MUST work hand in glove with teachers to get the best results from their child (and to know if the teacher is qualified at theirs) the parent MUST be involved with the troop in which their child participates. My brother was well on his way to being an eagle scout but because he was unwilling to kill a rabbit as part of a survival exercise, the troop master was not going to allow him to advance. With hindsight, I know that could have been contested and my brother could have shown how a survivalist could find edible plants, grubs, bugs, and catch fish for a patch.Science will teach the universe is epochs in age, and a family who holds the universe to have been created 7k years ago will explain why they believe what they believe without demanding their child answer a test paper with those answers. Likewise, a student attending a Christian school will likely be taught gay marriage is a sin before God. It will be up to the parent to decide if they want to keep their child in that school, which could be the best school in their area in all other respects, or to tell their children to answer the test as taught, but to say, “We believe….:” and why.Over the years, news stories have revealed that homosexuality does exist in the BSA, as has pedophilia. The hypocrisy of criticizing the former while continuing a practice of denying the latter has done a great deal of damage to the BSA. Sexuality of any form for children under 18 is inappropriate. It is medically proven children are unable to make truly logic driven decisions until after the age of 19, and often until 24. That also supposes a child brought up with education and positive role models.My daughter was in the GSA for four year. My son was in Pathfinders, a church run scouting organization, because my wife began attending a Saturday church and that conflicted with the BSA meetings. My son went far in his own scouting and I went on some of the camping trips as well. I knew everyone involved and practiced the suggestions I made above.I confess I don’t really know what the badge to which the boy in the toon refers might mean. I believe it might be hard for too many of us to earn THAT kind of badge.Respectfully,C.

I was not even a first class scout, let alone earning any merit badges at all. What I do remember was all of the incredible fun I had with other boy clowns of my own age. Going camping was something I probably would never have been able to do otherwise.

I would like to think that I must not be the only man here that remembers just what a hoot and holler playing “Capture The Flag” was.

I especially and very fondly remember Camp Whitsett in the Sierra Nevada mountains. There each group was given an area with a table and stone barbeque, and not much else (no cabins or other impediments to a true outdoor experience). And for all practical purposes NO supervised and organized activities. The only rule I remember is that if you wanted to go hiking you must take along at least one buddy.

Everything else was totally impromptu. Good Lord, but did a group of sub teen and teen age boys have fun with that!!

“And this badge is for ranting…”Ha! Can I get one of those?

I guess I should appreciate your attempt at being relatively kind to me (especially for you), but I just do not understand what on Earth in my post should ever make you think that I was ever abandoned by my scout troop?

In fact, I was happily stating just how much fun I had while in the Boy Scouts!

Are you sure that you are all right?

Sorry to have upset you DreadVentriliquist,My eldest daughter was born when I was 16. I lost her from the time she was 2 til she was 9 when her mother left the state and I received no letters. It wasn’t until Jimmy Carter’s creation of the Support Enforcement Agency contacted me 18 months after its creation I found out where my daughter was. Her mother had married and divorced and sought financial aid and to do so had to give info on me. While the man could give me little info, he told me in the year he had been working for this new department of the gov’t, I was the first father he’d spoken to who wanted to know where his child was and how to contact her. My message to her caseworker reached my daughter’s mother a few weeks later and she called me. My daughter has been in my life ever since. Last night, she called me because her daughter, my first granddaughter, wanted to talk to me. She’ll be 3 in May.If I had waited until I was an adult, maybe I would have been able to raise ALL of my children, instead of having to share one and my granddaughter with another ‘father’.^As one who believes God is infinite and doesn’t want to be bored, the concept of an expanding and contracting universe makes perfect sense to me. Each big bang is a do over with infinite possibilities to come. Now I’ve offended believers and non believers alike. I’ve often argued that if God created all of this in 7 days, he went to a lot of work to make it look like 7billion or trillion years, and the least we can do is respect the effort by trusting the tools we have to test such age. Ordering a scientifically based question to not be clinically answered in an academic environment is akin to ordering a faith based question to not be asked in place of worship. As you note, it puts the child and our nation behind countries who teach science only.It is a foolish parent who would disadvantage a child that way.As far as religious schools go, both of my younger children attended Christan school for high school because the school to which they were to be sent was not a good environment socially, though adequate academically. They were regular church attendees. Now adults, they both believe in evolution and one is still a regular church goer. My eldest went to public school, is a regular church goer, and believes the universe is less than 8k years. All of them are doing extremely well in their professional and personal lives. In a recent scarey moment, very scarey, I realized how much peace I had knowing the quality of my children and the adults they had become.^In a recent post, I mentioned it was Muslims who reintroduced the concept of zero to dark-ages Europe.^I could have addressed more of the concerns in your reply but I already feel most of my comments are so long they just make people’s eyes glaze over. I sympathize with some of your points and would debate other points. I’ve heard nuanced versons of all the points you made. However, if we are to remain a diverse people, we must respect the beliefs of our neighbors. That does not mean we have to teach religion in school. Faith cannot be taught in a classroom, it must be witnessed and experienced. Science cannot be denied – the math doesn’t lie. Faith can challenge science, but not deny it. Science can investigate “God” but it cannot currently disprove God’s existence. Barring the presence of a verifiable unexplainable miracle or the material appearance of a celestial being, the value of pi will remain the same and the half life a specific atomic particle will as well. And then there’s things like this…http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/12/us-space-quasars-idUSBRE90B01S20130112 ^I again apologize for upsetting you. I’ve not replied to your posts in awhile simply because I rarely have anything to add. You are a good voice for your positions when you’re not over passionate.^I have created a specific email address for those who wish to take these conversations further. It is^sanesaint@hotmail.com^If you would like to talk further about my non confrontational tendencies, create an email acct and write to me. I will reply and you can tell me in GC if you got the reply or not. I invite others who interested in a dialectic exchange of ideas to do the same. I’m still trying to figure out how to do a blog before wasting a lot of time starting one badly. Over preparation is my enemy.^You were one of the first to speak kindly to me when I started posting on these boards, DreadVentriliquist. I appreciate your words.Respectfully,C.

RV, you make assumptions.The JAMA provided the story on how the brain is subject to emotional decisions over logic until after 18. Children who feel they talk freely and openly with parents are less likely to give in to emotional rather than logical impulses. Claiming I suggest 24 as an age of consent is surprising, at best.^Two of my children went to a religious school, it wasn’t Catholic. And I liked all four of the young black men my eldest daughter dated. I had a gay roommate in the dormitory I lived in for a time and we were good friends. I find your suggestion I’m speaking from a prejudice disappointing, at best.^Religions have been trying to have their own way and causing millions of deaths in the effort for centuries, not decades. Why should "non religions’ start now?^Politically correct? Yeah, I can accept that.^Passive aggressive? : being, marked by, or displaying behavior characterized by the expression of negative feelings, resentment, and aggression in an unassertive passive way (as through procrastination and stubbornness)?Really??^I totally disagree. I seek dialogue and ways to move past the impossible issues and find agreement on issues where agreement is possible. I want to be able to let people live within their beliefs, except in very specific circumstances, while encouraging them to not demand an entire nation of diverse peoples to follow those beliefs.I know you can’t change a mind or warm a heart by ridicule. It’s hard enough to make people open their minds when presenting what may seem to you or me, as undeniable fact, but to them, is propaganda or even blasphemy. It is our duty to be our neighbor’s neighbor and to let them know if we see something is not ‘right’. It us up to the neighbor to make the final decision as long as it does not do harm to others. That is also a “blanket statement”, but specifics would just clutter the message.^Fertilizing a field is only practical if the earth has been properly prepared. My words are an effort to create a better environment for ideas to grow. I’m sorry you find my effort to be…lacking.I’ll check out Escape from Elba and Talkco soon.Being non confrontational, polite, and passive in the face of anger used to be considered a good thing. I think it still is, especially in a forum where words are the tools we use. When physically attacked, I’ve fought back. When verbally attacked face to face, I’ve responded with words, sometimes resulting in the physical fighting.Fighting back in these forums is too easy. From, “Oh YEAH?” comments to replies like your angry words, it is harder to build a bridge than to destroy it.^ Strong ideas will win out over weak ones with respectful debate, education, and time but most of all, but the example set by the people who hold to those ideas. I’m still building bridges. Be careful with that axe you wield, please.Respectfully,C.

fredgold you are a freak – just because someone or an organization belives in God’s infalible word and has moral’s that you don’t have – you are going to compare them to nazi’s. I say that you a re a nazi for trying to force your beliefs on others. One day every knee will bow-down…

Ok.C.