Critics of the Scouts who are outraged that the group is allowed to exclude gays and atheists while receiving federal funding are urging Obama to reject the group’s honorary presidency, a designation bestowed on every U.S. president since William Howard Taft in 1910.”I’m hoping and praying he turns down the honorary presidency,” said Howard Menzer, president of Scouting for All, which advocates for inclusion of gays into the Boy Scouts.”No way should he be involved with a discriminatory group. That would be the best thing that could happen if he said, ‘You discriminate too much for me. I can’t be your honorary president.’ I think that might begin to change a few things.”Obama was meeting with a delegation of the Boy Scouts in the Oval Office on Tuesday afternoon, at which time he was to accept the group’s 2008 Report to the Nation.A Boy Scouts spokesman said Obama has indicated he will accept the title of honorary president.
Both his parents would be terribly insulted that President Obama will accept the leadership position of a group that would treat them as immoral outsiders. Bad choice Mr. President!
It’s high time the BSA did disband, and something more inclusive and non-discrimatory replaced it. It will never happen though.
Neil Giuliano would never have accepted such a defamatory title.
IF, instead of discriminating against people who happen to be homosexual, or happen to be non-theist, would Pres. Obama STILL be excepting the honorary Presidency?
I would like to see Obama accept the honorary presidency of the BSA and mark the event with a statement calling for the end to the BSA’s exclusionary practices. Hey, I can dream.
This is not unexpected. It is disappointing. I had hoped President Obama would decline the honorific until such time as the BSA abandoned their discriminatory policies.
Bad decision.
I know you will ignore my advice again, Dave, but let me reiterate,
You choose your battlegrounds poorly. Boy Scouts is by no means a perfect organization, but you will win no friends by being their enemy.
Do you remember, on chance, the Faith Based Initiative. Leave the Scouts in peace and go do the job you chose for yourself.
NeoWolfe
Nobody is allowed to have sex until they turn 18 though.
Time to picket. The BSA and Obama. If I was in DC, I’d be there, or wherever this will happen.
I once heard that the BSA was whites-only when it was founded. Searching online hasn’t revealed evidence of that to me yet. Assistance?
joe zamecki,
http://www.aaregistry.com/detail.php?id=2781
Try googling:
“Boy Scouts” + black
lots of entries
Oh no!
We don’t get a Preview option??
I have a feeling this might have been a strategic move on the president’s part. With secular thought on the rise, the boy scouts will eventually do themselves in. It’s only a matter of time.
Just goes to show how ingrained religion is into our social and political mindsets. If the President believes gays should be allowed in the Scouts, he can’t say so without being called immoral. If he does not think gays should be allowed in the Scouts, he is a fraud when he describes himself as a progressive. Of course, it is the Scouts that have allowed themselves to be used by religion, as if there can be no such thing as a good Scout unless they are religious and not gay. More than silly