jimrigby.org

Yesterday I wrote an article about scouting that some felt was unfair. I had based the article on the story of an atheist teen who wanted to be as scout but did not feel he could say the oath of membership. While I didn’t not specifically reference the story, I was also remembering the scout who was refused his Eagle badge because he is gay. Hundreds of scouts sent back their eagle badges as an act of solidarity.

One person who had been a scout said I was throwing out the baby with the bathwater. Another lifelong scout said he had never seen that kind of exclusion and felt there was some “reverse discrimination” going on.

I am a member of some very tainted groups myself. The Christian Church has a long bloody history that I don’t enjoy remembering. I have decided to stay in the church, but for that reason I have a special duty to resist injustice within that group. I have a duty to risk my own inclusion rather than co-operate in the exclusion of another. That does not mean I hate the church. Quite the opposite, it means I love the church enough to want to make it better.

I am also a registered Democrat. Before the election I had some friends who felt any criticism I made of Obama was an endorsement for Romney. But now that the election is over they refuse to weigh Obama on the same scale they used for earlier presidents. I believe I have a duty, if I am to remain in that party, to vocally criticize my party whenever it is unethical, which it often is.

There was a song some time back called “tainted love.” If we are going to live in community, we are going to live in ethical tension and some tainted loves.  So I stay church but I carry on a lover’s quarrel with my denomination. I vote for the candidate that seems best, but then hound him or her to work for universal human rights.  No human group is perfect, but in every case I must I risk my own inclusion for the sake of the outsider my group mistreats.

We all want a better world but all of us have sacred closets where we let the injustice hide. We must realize that the evil we deplore in the world hides in the little pockets where we refuse to be accountable.

Link to NBC coverage of story: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/09/14293913-gay-scouts-come-out-rally-around-teens-eagle-scout-bid?lite

Link to story of other scouts returning their eagle badges in solidarity: http://www.10news.com/news/eagle-scouts-return-honors-to-protest-boy-scouts-anti-gay-policy

Interesting piece on CNN on the controversy: http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/20/us/boy-scouts-future/index.html