Does the BSA prevent Unitarian Universalists from becomingScouts?
Description
This article is from the Scouting FAQ, by Bill Nelson nelsonb@nospam.aztec.asu.edu, Soaring Golden Eagle eagle@rangernet.org and Alan Houser troop24@emf.net with numerous contributions by others.
Does the BSA prevent Unitarian Universalists from becomingScouts?
Date: 21 May 1999
There are no specific restrictions on Unitarian Universalists becoming
Scouts in the BSA. Unitarian congregations can still sponsor units if
they feel their aims and purposes are compatible with ours, and
Unitarian boys are welcome to join troops.
There is a controversy surrounding the wearing of the UUA religious
emblem with the BSA uniform. Although it has been reported by the UUA
and = BSA representatives that this controversy had been resolved
there seems to be a disagreement about the terms of the resolution.
The UUA feels that both sides agreed to removing the offending
material from the handbook and including a separate set documents with
different wording. A letter was sent to the UUA from the BSA
Religious Relationship Committee (and published by the = UUA at their
web site) as follows:"
May 7, 1999 Dear Dr. Buehrens:
It has come to our attention that you have posted on the UUA web site
a letter of April 28, 1999, in which you state that the UUA has
revised its "Religion in Life" manual to the satisfaction of the Boy
Scouts of America, referring to a letter of April 23 from Thomas
Deimler of the BSA.
Your letter goes on to say the following: "The new edition of Religion
in Life will be available from the UUA Bookstore this summer. Along
with each copy , the Association will separately provide a letter from
me, along with resources appropriate to dealing with issues of
homophobia and religious discrimination." Unfortunately, this simply
reopens the entire issue of using boys as a venue to air your
differences with the policies of the Boy Scouts of America.
These circumstances were not contemplated when Mr. Deimler wrote his
letter. Therefore, Boy Scouts of America is not in a position to
authorize the awarding of the Religion in Life emblem to Scouts and
the wearing of that emblem on a Scout uniform.
Sincerely yours, Lawrence Ray Smith, Chairman Religious Relationships
Committee
The 1999 General Assembly of the Unitarian Universalist Association
adopted a resolution encouraging UUs to join Scouting, supporting UUs
who remain in Scouting, and supporting UU churches which sponsor Scout
units. See http://www.uua.org/ga/ga99/aiws.html#aiw4 The resolution
also calls on Unitarian Universalists to work for changes in BSA
policies.
More information and the UUA response may be found at:
http://www.uua.org
The BSA web site is: http://bsa.scouting.org
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