The Boy Scouts of America Showing Cowardice

The Boy Scout of America's (BSA) president, Robert Gates, is trying to get the BSA to change its rules on allowing

gay men into its troops across America. The BSA changed the rules for gay youth on January 1, 2014. Any youth, no matter what their sexual orientation could join a Boy Scout troop. This change caused much backlash in the Boy Scout community. More than one family removed their child(ren) from the program. Most families believed that the BSA's sense of values were compromised. 

The Scout Law has 12 points. Those points are as follow, "A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent." These are 12 points that every Scout is expected to live by. When the BSA compromises its values due to its want to stay politically correct, the organization is living by the tenth point, being brave. So when the BSA changed the rule about gay youth, they did so, not living by their own scout law. Thus compromising their values. 

Now with the new push to allow gay leaders in, there is a whole new bar being set for the BSA. Not a higher bar might I add. By allowing gay adults to join, and become leaders in the BSA; they are creating a whole new list of possible problems. I'm not trying to say that gay men cannot show self control. However, because of possible attractions between adults and boys in the troops, awkward situations could and will arise. There will undoubtedly eventually be a story that gets out about a man not being able to show control. The BSA already has the record for the highest punitive damages awarded to a single plaintiff in a child abuse case, in the US. The total for this judgement was 18.5 million dollars. I doubt the BSA wants to risk adding to that. 

It is in my deepest hopes and wishes that the BSA will stay brave when it comes to becoming more politically correct, or holding strong to their values. The BSA is built on being an organization of values and leadership. The BSA's mission statement is, "The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law." How does the BSA expect boys and young men to live by these values, if they themselves cannot be an example of it? How does the BSA expect to be taken serious if the go back on their values?