Are You A Boy? No? Would You Like To Be One? Then You Can Be A Boy Scout
By NBP Editorial Board | January 30, 2017, 23:12 EST
Memo to the Boy Scouts:
You will never go far enough.
It doesn’t matter how much you surrender. The Left will always find more ground for you to give up.
On Monday night the Boy Scouts of America announced that the organization formerly dedicated to boys will now accept applicants based on whatever is put down on the application when it comes to sex.
(Yes, we are aware that the word on the application is probably “Gender.” But it’s inaccurate. Sex refers to biological maleness and biological femaleness. It’s an objective fact. Gender refers to identifying with a biological sex. It’s a more fluid term.)
The Boy Scouts used to go by whichever sex was put down on the birth certificate. If it said “Male,” you were in. If it said “Female,” you were out.
“However, that approach is no longer sufficient as communities and state laws are interpreting gender identity differently, and these laws vary widely from state to state,” the Boy Scouts said in a written statement on the organization’s web site.
Did you catch that?
Some states are catering to gender nonsense. Some aren’t. So the Boy Scouts have decided to side with the ones that are.
Here’s another marvel of PR:
“Our organization’s local councils will help find units that can provide for the best interest of the child.”
So … can we expect transgender units?
Wouldn’t it be easier to just start accepting girls?
Either way, it’s high time for the word “Boy” to go. Who’s to say what a “boy” is? You could argue that the very term is offensive.
You could argue that if you’d lost your mind, that is.
The explanation for why the Boy Scouts are going transgender was vague, but an Associated Press story from about a month ago offers some clues. Apparently, an 8-year-old whose birth certificate says she’s a she wanted to join the Boy Scouts on account of somebody thinks she’s a he.
So after discussions “at all levels,” the organization’s president did what organization presidents do best: He caved.
Once upon a time, the Boy Scouts of America stood for clear principles of faith and morality. Against all comers, for instance, the Boy Scouts defended themselves successfully from people who insisted the organization must accept homosexuals.
Why? Here’s a statement from the Boy Scouts in 1991:
“We believe that homosexual conduct is inconsistent with the requirements in the Scout Oath that a Scout be morally straight and in the Scout Law that a Scout be clean in word and deed, and that homosexuals do not provide a desirable role model for Scouts. Because of these beliefs, the Boy Scouts of America does not accept homosexuals as members or as leaders, whether in volunteer or professional capacities. Our position on this issue is based solely upon our desire to provide the appropriate environment and role models which reflect Scouting’s values and beliefs.”
This is a clear setting forth of principles without rancor or disrespect. It’s a controversial statement, of course, because advocates of homosexuality will disagree with it. But it’s a simple moral standard: We don’t agree with homosexual conduct, and we don’t want to encourage it.
Then a few years ago, the standard began to erode, after corporate sponsors started withdrawing financial support.
Note: The argument set forth above was not defeated. It was just declared unacceptable. Most pressure groups do not deign to argue about this sort of clash of principles, on account that they might lose. It’s much safer to just declare such an argument bigotry and then threaten the equivalent of a sit-in.
So in 2013 the Boy Scouts decided to allow homosexual boys as members while still banning homosexual adults from serving as leaders.
That wasn’t enough for the pressure groups, of course. So in July 2015 the Boy Scouts caved on homosexual adults.
And of course, that wasn’t enough, either. It has been almost a year and a half since the switch. Time for another surrender.
This time the white flag is being raised to transgenderism. It’s a rare condition where a person who is born one sex identifies with the other sex or somewhere in the middle.
Transgenderism is an emotional disorder. People who have it deserve our sympathy, respect, and love. They do not deserve to have the rest of us rewrite the rules of society to make them feel comfortable in every possible social setting.
Nor should we act as if it’s anything other than an unfortunate condition, or that it’s something that should be celebrated or encouraged.
But that’s what the Boy Scouts are now doing.
“In summary, we’ve taken the opportunity to evaluate and update our approach,” said Michael Surbaugh, chief scout executive, in a video posted on the Boy Scouts web site.
So that’s how you get rid of a core belief of the organization? The one that says the organization is for boys? The presumption that boys are boys?
Make it sound as if cotton T-shirts are no longer state of the art for a winter mountain hike when you can have wick instead. “Update” your “approach.”
But here’s the key statement Surbaugh makes in the video:
“The BSA is committed to identifying program options that will help us truly serve the whole family, and this is an area that we will continue to thoughtfully evaluate to bring the benefits of scouting to the greatest number of youth possible.”
Ah yes, “continue to thoughtfully evaluate.”
So when’s the next cave?