The Boy Scouts: An Interesting Look into the Mindset of Our Culture

By Paul Hair
Clash Daily Guest Contributor

Apparently, some Boy Scout leaders in Utah pushed over a rock in Goblin Valley State Park and got into a lot of trouble for doing so. They even became the targets of international outrage. Analyzing this incident against another piece of recent news involving Utah Boy Scouts provides fascinating insight into the mindset of our culture.

The Boy Scout leaders who toppled the rock have allegedly been removed from their positions, with the Deseret News reporting that, “The council of the Boy Scouts of America announced the removal in a brief statement that also reiterates Scouting’s ‘Leave No Trace’ policy, which teaches the value of natural areas and ways to help protect and conserve them for future generations.”

The Deseret News later wrote in the same article that, “The Boy Scouts of America earlier condemned the action as disappointing and reprehensible.”

So the BSA is capable of indignation and disciplining its members. Regrettably, the BSA apparently is only capable of becoming indignant and issuing real discipline over politically correct things.

Earlier this year, Utah Boy Scout leaders Peter Brownstein and Neil Whitaker marched in a same-sex-agenda parade. Whitaker wore his BSA uniform and both men, along with others, used their BSA association as part of their marching in the parade.

And then they continued brazenly defying the BSA and its ban on using Scouting to promote a political agenda.

“The men refused to sign the apology letter, which warned them a similar future offense could lead to the revocation of their Scouting membership,” The Salt Lake Tribune reported in mid-June.

NPR ran a de facto press release for one of those men, Peter Brownstein, on July 31. The press release was unrelated to the parade incident but Brownstein continued promoting the same-sex agenda. And the NPR press release continued identifying him as a Scoutmaster.

So it looks like Brownstein and his co-conspirators got away with telling the BSA that they will set the rules from here forward. The BSA was unable to muster real indignation or follow through with any discipline of significance for these men breaking the rules.

Even if I’m wrong and Brownstein and his co-conspirators were eventually punished, they either weren’t punished much (there was no reported threat of dismissal for participating in the same-sex parade in the letter they refused to sign — only a threat to dismiss them if they did it again) or the punishment only came belatedly and apparently with much hesitation on the part of the BSA.

And I guess that makes sense. After all, same-sex advocates had already redefined morality for the Boy Scouts prior to Utah sin-pride parade.

Now compare what happened to the BSA leaders who marched in the sin-pride parade with what happened to the Boy Scout leaders who knocked over a rock. The BSA, following the cultural lead which increasingly deifies the environment, instantly pounced on them and punished them.

The BSA didn’t consider leniency or second chances for these men. The BSA essentially deemed them heretics and dealt with them accordingly.

That tells us a lot about people’s way of thinking in the U.S.

In fact, our way of thinking has changed so much that the Boy Scout leaders who toppled the rock are reporting death threats. And no one is talking about that.

Where are all the cries over how the demonization of those who don’t worship the earth has resulted in murder threats against these Boy Scouts leaders? Why don’t we hear hysterical people crying about this act of bullying? And where are the pundits who should be demanding that we end our support for the environment and opposition to those who engage in a rock-toppling lifestyle so that they don’t have to live in fear for their lives any longer?

The bottom line is that knocking over a rock is now considered morally wrong — so wrong that it generates public outrage and death threats. Meanwhile, exposing boys to sexual immorality is praised and any opposition to it (even the mildest of rules that don’t allow for the political celebration of it) generates societal condemnation.

The most important lesson to learn from this analysis is not that leftists are so fanatical in pushing their sin agenda, but that conservatives (particularly Christians) have no such passion in fighting back against it and pushing an agenda of good of their own.

This tells us much about our culture.

Image: Courtesy of http://newsasylum.com/men-destroy-200-million-year-old-rock-formation-in-goblin-valley-utah-video/