Some Unsolicited Advice for Conservatives
January 29, 2013 by linnposts.com
I was a Boy Scout when I was growing up, so any news about the organization gets my attention. Yesterday the national office issued a statement resending its decision of only a few months ago banning homosexuals from all local chapters. Now that decision will be left in the hands of local chapters. They can choose to do what fits the character and practice of the local group.
Apparently this change came in response to criticism of its earlier policy. That at least was the conclusion of Herndon Graddick, the president of GLAAD, an advocacy group for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. “The Boy Scouts of America have heard from Scouts, corporations and millions of Americans that discriminating against gay Scouts and Scout leaders is wrong,” he said. “Scouting is a valuable institution and this change will only strengthen its core principles of fairness and respect.”
Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, a conservative group that lobbies for public policy based on faith, family and freedom from a Christian worldview, disagrees. He criticized the change as being the result of the Boy Scouts national board having been “bullied by homosexual activists.” the result of which he says will be that “the Boy Scouts’ legacy of producing great leaders will become yet another casualty of moral compromise.”
My first thought when I read what he said was to wonder why he chose to call people with a different view from his “bullies.” Apparently Perkins believes expressing disagreement with conservative policies is “bullying,” but expressing support for them is standing up for moral principles. I’m afraid this way of thinking is quite widespread among conservative Christians. Surveys consistently show that a majority of evangelical Christians believe our nation is becoming anti-Christian. They do so because they believe decisions such as this one by the Boy Scouts are not simply wrong, they are intentionally anti-Christian.
Think about what these people are saying via their belief that our nation is becoming anti-Christian. They are saying that any Christian who supports things like the BSA national board decision on gay members, or supports other causes they think are “liberal,” is fighting against Christians. It’s like the war on Christmas has now expanded to a holy war that has engulfed the entire nation. Only it’s an imaginary war. It’s not real. I disagree with Tony Perkins and those like him on most issues, but I am not anti-Christian or anti-American. But I do believe they are nurturing a destructive and ultimately self-defeating attitude among their followers. There is no future for any person or any group that builds straw walls and then fires up the crowd to tear them down. Eventually everyone except those intentionally blind sees how fake the fight is and how wrong the predictions of doom always turn out to be.
So here’s a word of unsolicited advice for conservatives, religious and political. Critique views and positions with which you disagree while making a good case for your own and you will be heard. Choose instead to call your opponents names and impugn their intentions, and you will be ignored and sidelined more and more.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Related
Posted in Uncategorized | 5 Comments
Excellent, Jan.
One typo. I believe that the Boy Scouts rescinded their directive, not “resended.”
I’m one Eagle Scout who for years has spoken out in favor of lifting the ban. Tony Perkins may think me a bully for having done so, but I wish he’d talk to me about it before passing judgment. Frankly, it’s high time the Boy Scouts took seriously that being gay is not incompatible with being “morally straight.”
it is also about money, people like Perkins gets thousands from knuckle draggers who believe that these people are actually fighting for them.
It is good to know the BSA is supportive of GBLT youth wanting the scouting experience. One of the founders of the BSA was a man named Charles Alexander Eastman. a Santee Sioux, and first Native American formally educated as a physician in the country. I bring this up because most Indian tribes considered gay men to be “twin spirited”, having both male and female spirits. They had a special place in the community. The BSA’s inclusive position mirrors this founder’s cultural heritage. The more I learn of our supposedly more primitive native brothers the more I appreciate their innate visionary ability to be inclusive and spiritually in tune. Those who see the brotherly love of Christ in Christianity know the BSA is on the right track as they work with the spiritual essence of the boys in their fold. Thank you for this message.
Thanks Jan!