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发帖数: 703 | 1 NEW ORLEANS (RNS) For nearly a decade, hundreds of local Boy Scouts have
learned the virtues of the Ten Commandments on an annual Thanksgiving
holiday hike to churches, synagogues and mosques, where clergy and scholars
explained their faiths' take on the ancient code.
But this year, Touro Synagogue, a major Reform congregation and a longtime
partner, has told the organization it's no longer willing to take part
because the Scouts deny membership to gay troop leaders and gay Scouts.
For Rabbi Alexis Berk, who used to host the Scouts at Touro, it's a clear
justice issue that mirrors the civil rights struggle of a generation ago.
She sees public dissent to Scouting's membership policy as a moral duty.
Elsewhere around the country, Jewish organizations are similarly pushing
back against Scouting's membership policy, especially since July, when
Scouting reaffirmed it after a two-year study.
"This position has taxed Scouting's relationship with the Jewish community,"
said A.J. Kreimer, chairman of the National Jewish Committee on Scouting. "
Our committee's motto since 1926 has been'Scouting Serves the Jewish
Community' -- and that relationship has been strained."
The decision from Scouting headquarters also distresses Alan Smason, the
founder and engine behind the local Ten Commandments hike. Smason is a
former Boy Scout, the father of a former Scout, and an advocate for Scouting
. And he's Jewish.
"My personal opinion is the Scouting policy in place now is wrong. They're
discriminating, and there's no way to justify discrimination in this day and
age," Smason said.
But he favors changing Scouting from within. "It's like protesting Mardi
Gras by refusing to catch beads. You're not going to stop a parade by
refusing to catch the beads."
Smason said this year's event of 200 or more Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Girl
Scouts includes a presentation by Orthodox Rabbi David Polsky of
Congregation Anshe Sfard, representing Judaism's traditionalist wing, as
well as Christian and Muslim speakers.
The Scouts will have lunch at a Mormon meeting house. Islam does not have
the Ten Commandments, but the Quran enjoins the same sins at various places
throughout its text, said Rafiq Nu'man, a frequent project participant as
imam of the Masjidur Rahim mosque.
Berk said she participated in past years despite her discomfort with the
Scouts' membership policy. That discomfort has been evident across the
Reform Jewish landscape for years.
Support for qualified gay men and lesbians as Scout leaders was already full
-blown in 2001 when the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
recommended that Reform synagogues refrain from sponsoring Scout packs or
troops.
Under internal and external pressure, the Boy Scouts of America reviewed its
membership rules last year. In July, it announced that after a two-year
internal study it would keep its policy:
"While (Scouting) does not proactively inquire about the sexual orientation
of employees, volunteers, or members, we do not grant membership to
individuals who are open or avowed homosexuals or who engage in behavior
that would become a distraction to the (Scouting) mission."
Deron Smith, the spokesman for Boy Scouts of America, said Scouting was not
pursuing an agenda or making "social commentary." Rather, he said Scouting
had chosen to defer to what it sensed were the wishes of most Scouting
parents.
"The vast majority of parents Scouting serves value their right to address
issues of sex and sexual orientation within their family," Smith said in an
email. "They do not sign their children up for Scouting to expose them to
this topic."
That decision galvanized Berk.
"Maybe it would be one thing if this were a long-standing policy and they'd
never revisited it -- but the fact that they freshly revisited it and
rendered a freshly bigoted opinion, well, I freshly feel like I can't
participate," she said.
"I can't participate in religious experience that uses religion as a hook on
which to hang bigotry."
(Bruce Nolan is a contributing writer for the Times-Picayune in New Orleans)
.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/07/jews-push-back-against-boy-scouts-over-policy-banning-gays_n_2084336.html | w*****8
发帖数: 703 | 2 More bad news for the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), as a major donor has
announced plans to sever funding to the organization on account of a
controversial anti-gay policy.
The United Parcel Service (UPS), Inc. will soon adopt a non-discrimination
policy that disqualifies the BSA from future funding, the Gay and Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) reports. UPS follows the Intel
Foundation in withdrawing corporate sponsorship from the BSA, GLAAD
officials note in an email statement.
"UPS and The UPS Foundation do not discriminate against any person or
organization with regard to categories protected by applicable law, as well
as other categories protected by UPS and The UPS Foundation in our own
policies," UPS officials note on the company's website. "These include, but
are not limited to race, gender, national origin, disability, sexual
orientation, gender identity, veteran or military status, pregnancy, age and
religion."
Among those to applaud the UPS move was Zach Wahls, the Iowa student whose
impassioned pro-gay marriage speech to his state's legislators became the
most-watched political clip of 2011 on YouTube after going viral twice last
year.
"UPS showed true bravery today in standing with the 80,000 Americans,
including thousands of Scouts and Scout leaders, who oppose the Boy Scouts’
hurtful anti-gay policy. That bravery is what Scouting is all about,”
Wahls, who is also a regular HuffPost Gay Voices blogger, said in a Change.
org petition. “Corporate America gets it better than most: policies that
discriminate aren’t simply wrong, they're bad for business and they're
hurting the Scouting community. You would think that after all the Boy
Scouts have lost as a result of this policy, they would understand that.”
Added GLAAD President Herdon Graddick: "Equality is not only good for
business, but supported by a vast majority of Americans. The time is now for
the BSA to end this outdated and unpopular ban before other corporate
funders pull dollars and scouting families drop their support."
The petition also noted that UPS gave more than $150,000 to the Boy Scouts
of America, despite the organization's policy banning gay Scouts and leaders
from participating, just two years ago.
In July, BSA reaffirmed its policy of excluding gays from participating as
scouts or troop leaders, citing support from parents as a key incentive. "
The vast majority of the parents of youth we serve value their right to
address issues of same-sex orientation within their family, with spiritual
advisers and at the appropriate time and in the right setting," the Scouts'
chief executive Bob Mazzuca told the Associated Press. "We fully understand
that no single policy will accommodate the many diverse views among our
membership or society."
The issue had been brought the forefront again after the case of Jennifer
Tyrrell, the Ohio-based mother who was forced to resign as den leader of her
son's Tiger Scout group because she is a lesbian. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/12/ups-boy-scouts-america-donations-anti-gay-policy_n_2118878.html |
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