Eagle Scout... are you...

My husband was an Eagle Scout. I used to tease him when he put the Christmas tree on top of the car that tornado could fling the car and still not get the tree off! He had quite the system of ropes and knots.

 

Happy aniversary, Boy Scouts of America!

This may sound wierd, but I don't remember how far I made it in scouting (too many years ago). I remember my Cub Scout days a LOT more than Boy Scouts (probably had a lot more on my mind as I got older, not the least of which was cycles, girls, cars, girls, shooting, girls, band and girls).

Henry Repeating Arms has a beautiful BSA Aniversary commerative which I saw at the gun show this weekend, if you are into such things:

Henry Repeating Arms Rifles

 

Full fledged Eagle Scout here!!!

Almost didn't make it though. Scambled near the end, but got it all done.

 

I wanted to join the Boy Scouts. But it turned out you had to say a pledge with "god" in it. As an atheist, I was faced with a choice between lying about my belief or not joining. I did not join. Since then I have always regarded the Boy Scouts as an organization bigoted against atheists. Many years later I learned that they are also bigoted against gays. So I kind of see them as a homophobic right-wing Christian church that takes kids camping.

Perhaps they've changed since then.

 

Full fledged Eagle Scout here (Can anyone guess the date i finished it?).


I'm sorry you view the program that way Daniel. From what i remember of my time in the Scouts, there wasn't really any religion in it - just the occasional reference like you mentioned in the pledge. To me, it struck me as a similar situation to the Pledge of Allegiance. But there was never any preaching or any of that type of crap you have to put up with in a church.

 

I joined at the age of 12 for about a year and only made it to tenderfoot. I joined with the idea that I would be doing lots of camping, hiking, canoeing etc. I was attracted to the outdoor activities. Instead my troop mostly just meet at the local civic hall once a week for 2 hours. We only did two outdoor activities in the time I was a member:

• An overnight father / son canoe trip
• 3 days / 2 nights of winter camping.

I quit after a year because I had better things to do than sit around for a couple of hours a week doing crafts to earn badges.

 

The really sad part is your experience with scouting entirely depends on the troop you join. My troop had at least one camping event every month during the year, all with different goals - hiking, backpacking, canoeing, horseback riding, etc. All in all, a very active troop that practically filled the troops bus (an old school bus the troop bought a while back, painted with troop colors and numbers, etc) and the trailer every time. Heck, you know you spend a lot of time using that thing when one of the parent volunteers can parallel park the bus/trailer combination on demand!

 

Three of my good friends all made Eagle Scout before we graduated from HS. I don't think I even qualified as a tenderfoot. I went to a couple meetings and one overnight trip then quit. I've never been a big fan of camping, etc, so it wasn't for me.

 

I was a boy scout for a few years (Made it to First Class, I think), before going on to join the Sea Scouts, which no one has ever heard of, but was a vastly superior experience for me. I think it had a lot to do with the people. My boy scout experience was mostly with suburban rich kids in a town that's stuck in the 50s (at least when I was there in the 90s); obnoxious class divisions, etc. On the other hand, my Sea Scout shipmates were almost all from a more urban setting (Berkeley and East Oakland, CA) and I found them to be much more enjoyable people to spend time with. A little ironic that the people that were from a lower socioeconomic class were the ones doing the "boating."

I still remember Sea Scouts incredibly fondly. It was probably the best singular experience of growing up. Also, it's Co-ed, which was a huge deal for me as a 14 year old boy. Actually, my ship wasn't co-ed, but there were other all-female ships and some co-ed ships. Good times. . .

 

It's a shame that your preconceptions gave you such a twisted view on what scouting is all about. Scouting is completely non-denominational by charter.

I and my family are all non-religious as well. Both my young kids are active in scouts. Our troop includes every spectrum of beliefs. Our troop leader is Buddhist. The religious aspects of scouting are basically non-existent. The word "God" appears once below. "God" means many different things to many different people, even non-religious ones, and we are comfortable with the oath.

Scout Oath
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Scout Motto
Be Prepared

Scout Slogan
Do a Good Turn Daily

In the past 5 years of scouting, the only thing remotely religious my son has done is have meetings at the local church, which volunteers it's use free of charge. No church people are there at the time, they just give us a key. My non-religious son, based on what he has learned in scouting, has done things such as set up local collections for Katrina victims (without adult assistance at 8 years old) that collected over $2,000 dollars, among many other similar activities. Our troop spends most of it's time doing community service, we recently repainted several buildings at a local pre-school, planted new landscaping and fixed a retaining wall at a retirement home. Now that he is in middle school and is unfortunately starting to be exposed to bullies, drugs, teasing for getting good grades and other "bad kids", he has a core group of scouting friends that he can socialize with.

The gay thing has to do with parents, not religion. Many parents are uncomfortable with the idea of openly gay adult scout leaders spending time alone in the woods with underage boys. This is an unfortunate prejudice but it exists, and the scouts, as a private organization, have the constitutionally protected right to make that decision. Gay scouts and kids from gay families are welcome of course.

I don't mean to be overbearing about this, but prejudice and intolerance like in your post are pet peeves of mine, and I wanted to set the record straight.

Cheers.

 

You had a bus too? I thought my troop was the only one who had a bus. We even rigged it to carry 12 canoes on top.

 

I was a Scout at Troop 6, Far East Council in Tokyo.

As a Tenderfoot on our first camping trip, we boarded a bus in the pouring rain. We arrived at the foot of Mt Fuji and hiked a couple of miles to our campsite each footstep a higher elevation that the former. The weight of the good old BS of A canvass backpack drenched in rain made it heavier with each step . Some of us barely made it. Then we set camp in the pouring rain starting by digging a drainage trench because we were camping on a slope. Then we tried to start a fire and cook food. I don't remember how we did it but the scout master must have had a Zippo. After the prayers and dinner we were so exhausted all we could do was crawl into the tent change our wet uniform into clean wet clothes and sleep in our wet sleeping bags as the rain pelted the canvass tents all night long. It was like that for the entire 5 days and on the morning we were leaving, the sun finally came out.

Despite all this, we all stayed with the program. Some made it to Eagle. I only got to the rank below (forgot name). What I experienced and learned being a Boy Scout far outweighed the religious stuff, which only happened when saluting the flag and reciting the pledge. I encourage all boys to at least experience being a Scout once. Congratulations on the Anniversary. :clap2:

 

I do not take oaths involving god, since I do not believe in god, and to take such oaths would be dishonest. Without taking the god oath, I was barred from scouting. I did not refuse to join on the grounds that they were religious. They would not allow me to join unless I swore a god oath. They excluded me. I also do not take the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

When I testified in court, they asked me: "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you god?" I replied: "There is no god. But I will tell the truth." They accepted that.

As for the Boy Scouts, their policy of discrimination against gays is what really damns them in my mind. Before that, I just saw them as an outfit that barred me for being an atheist, and honest about it. (I could have joined if I had lied about my beliefs.) But when they banned gays, they moved into the bigot category.

You might be comfortable defining god in a manner that you feel is non-religious. To me, the word "god" by definition is a supernatural being with volition, and I don't believe in such a thing.

 

My Scout Master taught us how to play poker, smoke cigars and shoot a Model 1911 .45 what else do you need to know? :noidea: His name was Fred Steiner and he was also our 6-8th grade Science Teacher, great guy, wasn't into knots or religion.

But Daniel WOW! You are obsessed with religion, it's like those Anti-Gay politicians they can't get it off their minds and then the next thing you hear about is the foot under the latrine side wall. LOL! ound: Next thing we'll hear about Daniel will be on the CBN station and it will be called "Daniel's Curbside Televangelist Hour" and there will be Daniel on some side street with a sandwich board on, wild hair and wild eyed declaring the "End of the World" "Send Money Now Before It's Too Late and You Burn in Hell for Eternity" from one extreme to the other, man I can hear the fire and brimstone already. ray:

 

I thought you had me on ignore! You were lying to me.

I'm not obsessed with religion. But I won't lie about what I believe, and taking a god oath would be a lie.

And when you do see me on a street corner with a religious placard, it will be for the Flying Spaghetti Monster, not some stupid make-believe god who sends people to hell.

 

I was a Cub Scout Den Leader for years and popcorn chair for the pack. My oldest son didn't do much beyond WEBELOS (he's a city boy) but my youngest made Eagle and is working his dream job as a ranger at Philmont this summer.