Why is this day special?
Not because some men who get paid very handsomely to play a game will meet in what is almost always an overhyped, underplayed contest that allows people all over the country an excuse to come together, drink too much, and gather around their televisions for several hours so they can watch a few minutes of game, punctuated by ads that cost their sponsors dearly for the privilege of an inebriated audience.
February 7, 2010 is Scout Sunday.
In 1910, when Sir Baden Powell formed the Boy Scouts, having reverence as one of the group’s core values for its young charges was hardly controversial. At the time, religion, as it is commonly understood, was still very much a part of the American Psyche, and considered a necessary element of a moral and just society. This was in keeping with prior generations, reaching back to the one that originally threw off the yoke of european leadership and formed this nation.
In the century since, there has been a relentless assault on religion and its place in society, lead, ironically enough by a religion, albeit one that tries to avoid the title at all costs. Secular humanism has clothed itself in the garb of a neutral and liberating doctrine that rejects God and what he requires in favor of what the human heart deems to be progress. It has employed terms that it refuses to model, like ‘tolerance’ to characterize all moral judgement as bad, and continues to espouse the beliefs that the only absolute truth is that there is no absolute truth, and that to judge is wrong, unless it is to judge those who believe in absolute truth. This means that the Boy Scouts, as any institution still believing that reverence has a place in society, has come under attack from those who preach the gospel of self, and the good news of their own selfish desires, regardless of the clear damage that such beliefs cause when practiced in real life.
Nevertheless, the Boy Scouts have remained as an institution, instilling proven values in boys, as well as teaching valuable skills, so that they can continue to learn and grow with confidence, and be an example to others around them. And I am glad not only because they are helping my sons to grow this way, but because they helped me.
I can remember being no more than six or seven years old and attending Cub Scouts – won a ribbon in the Pinewood Derby. A proud moment indeed! Then I turned stupid.
I tell this story so hopefully somebody, possibly an informed father which I never had, might lead their kids down a better path than I took. And maybe some kid, who might think Boy Scouts not as desirable to being accepted to whatever these days is deemed hip, might learn a lesson that I discovered much too late.
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Somewhere along the line, I got the idea that Boy Scouts were for sissies and dweebs who dressed in strange garb, not cool enough for a decorated jock like me. I dressed in popular clothing (like bell bottoms and flowery, disco looking shirts). All the “in” guys did. 😳 Whatever it took to stay accepted and popular, or at least what I perceived was popular, I did.
Life didn’t work out like I thought they would. While I wasted my early years establishing talents with no lasting benefit and being cool, these Eagle Scouts, these dweebs and sissies, were learning something useful and hanging with people who as adults have made something of themselves. My friends did not.
I can’t tell you how many times since then as an adult I wish I had forgotten the sports and the like and stayed with the Boy Scouts.
Here are but two recent examples (and there are many more):
(1) Out fishing with a younger student from medical school last year, who happened to be an Eagle Scout and one of the top students in our medical school class, Mark proved incredibly handy. From tying knots, to casting, to positioning the boat in the perfect spot, to setting camp and cooking, I asked him how he had learned all these skills. He answer, “I was an Eagle Scout.”
(2) During clinical skills, where they teach things like how to suture wounds, my attempts at suturing looked liked something out of the book of Dr. Frankenstein. My partner’s sutures were a thing of beauty the first time. I marveled at how easy soon to be Dr. Thai made it look and commented as such. He tried to teach me to no avail. I got to return to clinical, young Mr. Thai moved on. Before leaving and being somewhat embarrassed, I asked Thai “were did you learn to do that?” He answered, “That? Oh, not much different than what I learned from Boy Scouts.”
Anybody see a pattern?
BIC, since you touched on the Super Bowl, will you permit me to go off topic for a moment and voice my disapproval about a burgeoning phenomenon straight out of bowels of Gehanna?
It’s the new fad of sports journalists now believing their “talents” can extend into explaining public policy, politics and religion; more specifically, progressive liberal theology and secular humanist cheerleading, George Bush and Sarah Palin bashing, evil Christianity, and the regular diss of tea party folks and the equally wicked pro-life crowd. 😡
From ESPN (original fame of the insufferable Keith Olbermann), to Sport’s Illustrated, to ABC, CBS and NBC, sports is now laced with political dialogue, commentary and blogs. If you were to scan a few blogs, you would notice that Tim Tebow, who with his mother this afternoon will discuss a mother’s decision to keep her baby during a difficult pregnancy, have really come under attack with religious bigotry of the worst sort. Now I fully expected this from NOW, and NARAL and the rest of the infanticide crowd.
But it also seems to be the opinion that sports journalists are having a real difficult time with Tim daring to advertise himself as a Christian, being there are so many more important things to discuss – how dare Tim Tebow have the nerve to take a stand. And believe me, Tebow has been unmercifully criticized by ESPN.
And while I have voiced my displeasure over the years by simply canceling my subscriptions, I am getting incredibly weary of both Hollywood and so called sports professionals, especially the journalists, interceding by believing they know better. I have been ‘debating’ with a particularly loathsome ‘talent’ named Jeff Pearlman as of late who has been particularly vile concerning Tebow. Jeff’s a real talent, you know?
While Keith Olbermann is the most visible, there is a new army invested in an agenda of using sports entertainment to preach a new leftist gospel bent with print and across the airwaves.
Anyone else noticed this?
Good post! I have a son in the BSA and I for one am very happy he has this as an outlet. I personally despise a number of the leaders in his troop but I don’t put that on him. I also think the church they are chartered out of is a bit lost in the biblical sense. Still he and his fellow scouts stand out in many ways over the clones walking around town they put them down.
My Dad was a big supporter of the Boy Scouts, having had a good Scouting experience himself in his own youth. As an adult, he served as an adult leader for several different Scout Troops, and really worked at promoting Scouting.
My own experience with Scouting was not nearly so good. In the troop of which I was a member, the boys did not really live up to the ideals of Scouting at all, and there was not even lip service paid to this by the adult leadership. The older boys terrorized the younger boys on camping trips, and they taught the younger boys many bad practices (such as smoking grape vine). I found the whole thing really disgusting because it was so hypocritical, so contrary to what Scouting professed to be. I quit as a First Class Scout because I was simply repulsed by the whole thing.
I have two grandsons, the older of whom is now a Cub Scout. He seems to think it is great, and I hope that he gets a lot out of it. He will be moving on into the Boy Scouts soon. I am watching with interest to see how it goes for him.
I’m sorry to hear that. I’ve never been able to figure out why the adults would be involved if they didn’t care to do it correctly.
The camping was really the best part. Swimming, archery, hiking, and shooting bolt-action .22s. Canoeing and lots of other good activities like building monkey brigdes and rappelling slopes. Good times.