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BOY SCOUTS - III - BOY SCOUTS
[As you read my opinions about the Boy Scouts and the Gay question, I wish you to understand that over the years as a person, as a business owner and as an employer, long before there was any such things as Affirmative Action I followed a personal code of conduct in which I treated everyone I met, no matter what their color, race or creed, with respect. I did not need Affirmative Action to teach me how to treat others. At 17 I worked for a black man on Dixwell Avenue in New Haven, as a welder, alongside Bob, a young black boy, and Nathan, a Jewish refugee from Belguim. As a Merchant Seaman at age 16, and then again at 18, I was in the only fully integrated service during wartime. My Key employee for many years during the 1970's & 1980's, was a Gay man. Therefore, I feel that I can state my feelings and opinions as an American without fear, although there are those who will resort to name-calling in an effort to discredit what I have to say. That's too bad for them, as like Michael Moore, it only makes their lack of understanding and their ignorance public.]

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This morning a news item in the LAT stated that the Catholic Church had settled a thirty year old priestly pedophile case for $17 million. They also added another $1.2 million for further treatment of the victim, even though he has been a Navy Seal, etc., and the matter is well behind him.

Obviously, a "hit" of this type would severely impact the Boy Scouts, and a few such judgments could wipe them out entirely.

Yet, I have a question: what constitutes pedophilia? If the young boy is ten and the predator is seventeen, is that pedophilia or homosexuality? If the boy is twelve and the predator is eighteen? Or must the predator be much older, say thirty to a ten or twelve year old?

Yet, if a scout leader is 18 or 19, isn't it much more likely that he can fall in love with a 15 or 16 year old scout, much as an 18 year old highschool senior can fall for an attractive sophmore girl of 15 or 16? I'm serious. This is the way we have to look at such things. This is how we must think, what we must consider. These are questions that if left unanswered can lead to law suits with the most severe consequences.

Finances are the heart and soul of any organization, and the BSA does not have the resources of the Catholic Church. Therefore, they cannot afford to make the same mistakes as the Church has done.

Hell, I don't think that any case of this type is worth $17 million, even though it was a serious problem for the boy at the time. I don't know how you measure the value of such things, but it appears that it is go for the jugular type case and hope for the best. Here it added up to a windfall.

Yet, in view of such potential liabilities can the Board of Directors of the Boy Scouts of America be blamed for their cautious approach to appointing professed Gay young men to positions of leadership and entrusting the future of scouting to luck? I simply do not believe so. Oh yes, at the risk of being called homophobic, I yet have to make a decision by conscience, using common sense, and say that the scouting movement is terrific for all boys, whether their orientation is Gay or not, but that still...still, prudence dictates that they not be assigned the role of scout leaders if they unabashedly admit to a Gay lifestyle.

The prudent parent would not send a son on a week's camping trip with a Gay scout leader either. Is it a difficult decision to make? Certainly. Who wants to distrust or discriminate against a fine young man who may be Gay? Yet, there is a risk and it is one that most parents would not be willing to accept, many because of their religious convictions.

Yet, there is another problem that must be taken into consideration, the prevalence of HIV infections, and the terrible consequences that can now result from even a single homosexual encounter. Total awareness of the potential problems is the only way to avoid them, and anyone who blames the scouts for holding firm to their convictions is not facing reality nor treating them fairly.

When any discussions about the Boy Scouts takes place before a City Council, or in any other forum, we must be there to speak out, to answer the critics, to answer the liberals, who would destroy scouting. Get every parent out there on the fight line ready to do battle, ready to defeat the mean-minded people who spew venom against those things we hold sacred. There is nothing wrong with holding an opinion that differs from some members of the Gay community, absolutely nothing. It does not make us homophobes, if that's their terminology of choice.

It merely makes us people with a different viewpoint, and that is all!