One my guilty pleasures is a subscription to USA Today. The eye-catching article at the bottom of page 1 today is "Boy Scouts rethink ban on gay leaders."
When Bob Gates (former Secretary of Defense and Texas A & M President) went to head up the Scouts, I was unimpressed. Another high profile status quo guy to help the BSA dig itself out of the various scandals it has created (e.g., falsifying numbers of troops to get more federal funding)?
When Bob Gates (former Secretary of Defense and Texas A & M President) went to head up the Scouts, I was unimpressed. Another high profile status quo guy to help the BSA dig itself out of the various scandals it has created (e.g., falsifying numbers of troops to get more federal funding)?
My bad - It just may be that the Scouts brought on Gates as the high profile guy with impeccable conservative credentials who could move them forward without being accused of being a tree-hugging Communist Muslim. And it is a radical shift. In 2000, the BSA (based in Irving, TX, BTW) took Eagle Scout and assistant troop leader, James Dale, to the US Supreme Court - and won its claim that it could exclude anyone it chose from leadership.
I do wish Gates had said the reason for the shift was because it's the right thing to do (as Admiral Mike Mullen said in arguing for the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell) rather than because of "social political and judicial changes taking place in our country" - but the Scouts' move into the 21st century is welcome, nonetheless.
Now I wonder what the Church of the Latter Day Saints will do. Mormon churches currently sponsor more than one-third of all faith-affiliated troops. I have no doubt Gates spoke with the Mormon leadership before making his proposal to the BSA board, just as I have no doubt the board was on board, you might say, before Gates spoke to the press.
I do wish Gates had said the reason for the shift was because it's the right thing to do (as Admiral Mike Mullen said in arguing for the end of Don't Ask Don't Tell) rather than because of "social political and judicial changes taking place in our country" - but the Scouts' move into the 21st century is welcome, nonetheless.
Now I wonder what the Church of the Latter Day Saints will do. Mormon churches currently sponsor more than one-third of all faith-affiliated troops. I have no doubt Gates spoke with the Mormon leadership before making his proposal to the BSA board, just as I have no doubt the board was on board, you might say, before Gates spoke to the press.