Eagle Scout Stories: my contribution

As a lifetime member of the National Eagle Scout Association, I was recently invited to contribute a short statement about how my experiences in scouting had contributed to my life. Here is the full text of my submission:

Scouting was a very important part of my youth, and I will always look back upon those days with fondness. The discipline and skills I learned in the pursuit of the rank of Eagle have served me well in life, both in my profession and in my personal life. Scouting instilled in me a spirit of adventure that eventually led me to move to Sweden, and later, Switzerland.

I feel it is my duty to acknowledge my disappointment in the BSA’s regrettable decision to exclude gays and atheists from scouting. Scout organizations in other parts of the world do not discriminate on the basis or religion or sexual orientation. It is high time that the BSA take a more enlightened view, and respect the rightful place of all who wish to participate.

It is my sincere hope that the NESA include my contribution in its entirety in the publication, to be entitled Eagle Scout Stories: Tales from the Trails of Scouting’s Highest Rank. The Boy Scouts of America holds that atheists and agnostics are incapable of being good citizens, and that homosexuals are morally crooked and unclean. The BSA’s position is not just controversial; it is indefensible.