There’s a lot of hubbub going on lately surrounding the Boy Scouts of America. A few months ago, all the news seemed to be focused in on the Supreme Court and its stance on gay marriage. Recently it’s shifted over to the Boy Scouts with their decision they made to approve gay scouts. Churches in turn, including the Southern Baptists, have become outraged and are sparking a movement for all its churches and other ones as well to remove their affiliation to the organization.
Even as a gay male, I think I understand these churches moral dilemma. Supporting the Boy Scouts for them now on some level means advocating homosexuality. And if they advocate homosexuality on any level, it means for them that they’re going against the Bible and its few passages that speak of it being a sin.
It’s sad that the Bible continues to be used as a weapon in these type of arguments. I don’t think that Jesus would be very happy today to see the polarization happening between people surrounding this issue. He was all about unconditional love and acceptance no matter who you were. What all these churches and other folks continue to be outraged over should be left between those struggling with their sexuality and God.
Sometimes I wonder if people are afraid that someone’s “gayness” is going to rub off on them. Maybe that’s what these churches think deep down as well. I can attest from personal experience, that no matter how much I have been myself in my sexuality, I’ve never changed someone else from who they were not already meant to be.
In regards to a gay youth who wants to grow in their life through an organization such as the Boy Scouts, they never should have been limited in the first place from having that ability. To me it’s a no brainer that everyone should be accepted. But I guess I am biased on some level over the issue. Sadly, this country has gone through so much of this over the years and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better. First it was with women who were denied full rights for the longest time. Then it was with blacks. Now it’s with gay people. People are who they are and no matter what their race, sex, or sexual orientation is, they should be given equal rights. Somehow I see that if Jesus were still walking the Earth, he would be shedding a lot of tears over the fact that churches are rejecting God’s children just because of a few passages in the Bible that may indeed continue to be misinterpreted from their original intention.
Regardless of the churches stance on the Boy Scouts decision, the organization still hasn’t approved gay troop leaders. With the amount of pedophile and sexual child abuse cases that have occurred in this country, I’m guessing they feel it’s the safer measure. What’s sad is that they are having a strong misconception here. Many people still believe that if someone is a gay male, that they will have attractions to young children and might abuse them sexually. Having been a survivor of sexual molestation myself, I can adamantly state that the last thing I would ever want to do to any child is subject them to the horrors I went through. Even more sad is the fact that the person who molested me was heterosexual. And like him, many of the men who sexually abuse boys are in fact not gay. Often they are married or single straight males who are just mentally and emotionally sick. The actual percentage of gay men who have become child molesters is extremely small. But unfortunately, that doesn’t matter at the present time for the Boy Scouts. Thus any scout who is gay and desires to do more for the organization won’t be able to once they reach an adult age. What that leads to is little future growth incentive for a them.
I wish that our country would stop dividing itself again and again. There has been some form of racism present in this country for way too long. We are supposed to be a place that has equal opportunities but we really don’t. Religion continues to be poison for our country’s spiritual growth. I love God and I love Jesus. And I know they both love me, especially for who I’m becoming now in my life, even though I’m a gay male. If people would just stop living in fear of the Bible and cease using it as a weapon to separate each of us, then maybe one day soon the Boy Scouts might actually add a new emblem for all of its scouts to obtain and it’ll be affectionally known as the Rainbow Badge.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson