Don't Call Them 'Boy' Scouts

After 108 years, the BSA's Boy Scouts program is changing its name so as to eliminate "Boy" altogether.

The Boy Scouts of America has long been the target of leftists bent on reshaping American culture. First, it was lawsuits to attack and obstruct the BSA. Then it became a strategy to undermine the Scouts from the inside. The latter has been far more successful, as the Scouts allowed homosexual boys in 2013 and leaders in 2015, and it wasn’t long before the ranks were opened in 2017 to girls and transgender kids.

Now, after 108 years, the BSA’s Boy Scouts program is changing its name so as to eliminate “Boy” altogether. It will soon be rebranded “Scouts BSA,” though the parent organization will remain Boy Scouts of America.

At least until rebranding as the “Social Justice Warrior Scouts of America.”

“We wanted to land on something that evokes the past but also conveys the inclusive nature of the program going forward,” said Chief Scout Executive Mike Surbaugh. “We’re trying to find the right way to say we’re here for both young men and young women.” For an organization founded to help boys become men, that’s quite a shift.

Even still, the integration won’t be total. The Associated Press reports, “The program for the older boys and girls will largely be divided along gender lines, with single-sex units pursuing the same types of activities, earning the same array of merit badges and potentially having the same pathway to the coveted Eagle Scout award.”

One organization isn’t happy with the move. “Girl Scouts is the premier leadership development organization for girls,” Girl Scouts CEO Sylvia Acevedo insisted, while promising to add more badges and focus on outdoor activities, science, math and technology. Girl Scouts attributes some of its membership decline to the Boy Scouts allowing girls.

As Mark Alexander, a longtime BSA Council member, Scoutmaster and father to two Eagle Scouts, once explained, the BSA’s transformation has been driven by its National Board, which is “under the ‘leadership’ of wealthy corporate-types completely out of touch with grassroots Scouting values.” In other words, these leftists are driven not just by achieving their social agenda but by corporate profits. The BSA’s Faustian bargain with these sponsors has allowed the once-venerated organization to rot from the inside.

Fortunately, many individual troops retain solid leadership and membership, as is the case with this author’s son’s troop. But that situation becomes less tenable with each crumbling pillar of morality and common sense at the national level. Membership rolls are already little more than half their peak of four million as boys opt for alternatives like Trail Life USA. And the BSA’s decline will no doubt continue as leftists destroy even the fundamental scientific truth that boys and girls are different.

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Walt Disney World Cancels Christian Music Festival After 34 Years

No more "Night of Joy" at Disney World.

For 34 years, Walt Disney World has hosted a "Night of Joy" event that featured Christian music artists; the park has now canceled it.

A spokeswoman for the park reportedly confirmed to the Orlando Sentinel that "last year was our last event," adding that the decision was made in the interest of "continually changing our offerings." The Facebook page for the "Night of Joy" has also been deleted.

"The resort has hosted the Christian concerts in September since 1983, mostly in Magic Kingdom but with two years at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and at ESPN Wide World of Sports complex for its final two years," reports LifeSiteNews.

Famed Christian musical artists like Steven Curtis Chapman, Amy Grant, Newsboys, Casting Crowns, Chris Tomlin, Kirk Franklin, Michael W. Smith, and Debby Boone have performed at the "Night of Joy" over the years.

The signs for its decline began to show last year when Hurricane Irma forced it to cancel after just one night. Despite the cancelation, Disney World's Epcot Center will still host the annual "Eat to the Beat" concert featuring Christian artists MercyMe and Tauren Wells.

The park's West Coast twin, Disneyland, has surprisingly continued a Christian tradition since the 1950s. Whatever the reason for its mainstay, once a year Disneyland actually holds the "Candlelight Ceremony," where choirs sing classic Christmas carols and someone reads the Nativity story from Luke's gospel.

This past year's "Candlelight Ceremony" featured "Thor" actor Chris Hemsworth reading the gospel. Past narrators include Darth Vader's voice James Earl Jones, Dick Van Dyke and Ginnifer Goodwin, whose vocal talents could be heard in "Zootopia."

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STD — Sexually Transmitted Discrimination?

Reports indicate a rise in STDs, and some are blaming — you guessed it — racism  

The Los Angeles Times on Monday published an article chronicling the rise of sexually transmitted diseases. According to the author, “Officials think racism and stigma may be to blame.” In other words, the acronym STD might as well stand for “sexually transmitted discrimination.” But make no mistake: The details included in the Times’ account make it obvious that the government is what’s making a bad situation even worse.

“In just the past five years, the number of gonorrhea cases in Los Angeles County doubled, with minorities suffering more than most,” the Times reports, later adding: “Nationwide, STD rates have been climbing for the past five years. More people were diagnosed with syphilis, chlamydia or gonorrhea in 2016 than ever before.” That’s troubling, for sure, but what’s the catalyst? And how is it effectively mitigated?

“Many health experts,” the Times claims, “say that public health problems are best tackled outside the doctor’s office — that fixing the culture that perpetuates them is more effective than changing a single patient’s behavior. For sexual health, that means combating the stigma around sex.” Yet the Left’s idea of “fixing the culture that perpetuates” illnesses and the “stigma around sex” is Spring Into Love, described by the Times as “the brainchild of a coalition of L.A. County health advocates trying to bring down STD rates.” These health advocates argue that the STD problem is directly linked to a lack of contraceptives, ostensibly because they’ve been stigmatized.

Some of the grossly mislabeled “sexual education” activities that Spring Into Love sponsors are quite disturbing. For example, the Times says an 18-year-old “showed a group of students how to safely open a condom wrapper,” which took place inside a church auditorium. A church is supposed to discourage debauchery, not cultivate it. You can chalk up the lack of moral certitude among even some of our supposedly Christian institutions as one reason for today’s STD environment.

Adding insult to injury, the Times “went there” by playing the race card. It’s story promotes the idea that “officials need to evaluate what’s called structural or systemic racism, the way housing or education policies may negatively impact people and their health.” The report continues: “Studies have found … that people with HIV who had low levels of literacy were less likely to follow their treatment, and that poorer Americans were more likely to engage in risky sexual behavior, increasing their risk of STDs.” Furthermore, “Poverty or a lack of opportunity may be forcing women to exchange sex for resources, leading to the spread of STDs. … There also tends to be a mistrust of the medical system among African Americans, making them reluctant to seek care.”

Consider the irony: The same statist government system that perpetuates poverty — and by extension STDs, using the Left’s argument — among minorities is the same system leftists allege can mitigate STDs. That’s paradoxical, but there’s also a parallel. The same person who thinks more government is the solution to minority well-being is just a likely to think government-led sexual education that promotes contraceptives, not abstinence, is the answer to our STD problem.

Because it can be awkward, many parents have delegated the discussion about physical intimacy to the government. And that’s where the 18-year-old from the church auditorium has a point. She said, “Sexual health was something in my household that was taboo. All I heard was, ‘Don’t get pregnant.’” That’s not good enough. Parents have to have a detailed and prolonged dialogue about sex and the importance of premarital abstinence with their children, not leave it to the state. Otherwise, STDs will continue rising, and the government’s only response will be to demand more control of your lives and education — while blaming racism, of course.

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Sexism in the Australian Army

Medals for women, students over male soldiers

FEMALE recruits are being awarded the Australian Defence­ Force medal in half the time it takes their male counterparts.

And gap year students who join up for a 12-month “adventure” have that service taken into account, also cutting­ the time it takes them to qualify for a medal.

Critics say the rules have made the medal, which honours­ military attendance, “meaningless”, claiming they have taken “discrimination against men” to “farcical” levels.

Female members of the Al Muthanna Task Group in Iraq.
Last year The Daily Telegraph revealed ADF recruiters were told to actively target females­, including for combat roles, but were given no targets­ to hire men for 35 of 50 army positions.

To encourage women to join up, Defence cut the minimum four-year period of service that applies to men to just two years for females. The gap year program also targets women.

The Australian Defence Medal is given to members of the military after four years, or at the completion of their enlistment period — meaning female­ recruits get the medal in half the time of males.

Those who spend a gap year experiencing “what a career in the navy, army or air force could be like” have that 12 months included in their service time if they then enlist full-time.

Ex-soldier and military commentator Bernard Gaynor said he had been contacted by defence personnel­ who said morale was suffering over this latest example­ of political correctness­. “The defence force’s discrimination­ against men has become farcical,” Mr Gaynor­ said.

“Males who sign up for frontline combat roles now need to serve double the time as females­ to get the same medal. This is blatant discrimination­ and it is having a serious impact on morale.

“If females­ want to serve alongside the men, they should do so with exactly the same entitlements­ and requirements. Anything else is just politically correct social engineering.”

Australian Conservatives Senator Cory Bernardi said Defence was “creating an unequal workplace for men”.

“The morale of troops has been squandered on this diversity­ agenda and it is about time they got back to what they are supposed to do which is defending Australia,” he said.

A Defence spokesman said there was “no intent” to change the policy regarding ­required service periods for the Australian Defence Medal.

“The length of service is determined­ by the required training needed to ensure­ the member is proficient in their role,” the spokesman said.

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Political correctness is most pervasive in universities and colleges but I rarely report the  incidents concerned here as I have a separate blog for educational matters.

American "liberals" often deny being Leftists and say that they are very different from the Communist rulers of  other countries.  The only real difference, however, is how much power they have.  In America, their power is limited by democracy.  To see what they WOULD be like with more power, look at where they ARE already  very powerful: in America's educational system -- particularly in the universities and colleges.  They show there the same respect for free-speech and political diversity that Stalin did:  None.  So look to the colleges to see  what the whole country would be like if "liberals" had their way.  It would be a dictatorship.

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH,   EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS and  DISSECTING LEFTISM.   My Home Pages are here or   here or   here.  Email me (John Ray) here.  Email me (John Ray) here. 

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