Let boys be boys: The followup of BSA policy change on sexual orientation and Scouting

The Boy Scouts were in the news the other day in the swirling controversy whether to allow boys with same sex attraction into the century old scouting program.  After months of internal reflection within the organization,  the decision came out on Thursday. A portions of the official announcement reads as follows...

"Approved a resolution to remove the restriction denying membership to youth on the basis of sexual orientation alone. The resolution also reinforces that Scouting is a youth program, and any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting.

Here is the clincher quote from BSA officials that stands out for me;  "While people have different opinions about this policy, we can all agree that kids are better off when they are in Scouting."
  
From what I've been reading, the varied opinions are hotly contested on both sides of the spectrum. This is a topic which I certainly have wrestled with and could understand both sides of the argument. I believe BSA has made the right choice but with a caveat. The bottom line is that teenage boys are going through so many hormonal and body changes that I don't think a boy of 15 can self proclaim himself as a "homosexual or gay" The culture so easily likes to  put labels on us and if we don't fit into one of the labels, where should we go? I have seen several instances where teenagers have "come out" and declared their sexual orientation as early as 16 years old. To find out a few years later they have changed their minds. Human bodies go through so many changes during those years that any orientation may not finally settle in until our 20s or maybe even later in life.  Our culture and the media as put so much emphasis on our sexual orientation and labels that we haven't allowed to let boys be boys.  

I think we can acknowledge that there is same sex attraction in our world. The debate on what causes these attractions are many, and my guess is a mix of cultural and biological influences. I would lean heavily on the cultural side but that argument can be for another day.  My guess is most of us have experienced same sex attraction in varying degrees through portions of our lives.

This whole debate that has focused on the boys sexual orientation should be redirected into just let the boys  have fun camping, hiking, and learning a variety of life skills.  As a formal Eagle Scout, this program offers so much to each boy in building character and shaping them into the men they will become. As in the BSA quote from above, "kids are better off in scouting."  I couldn't agree more!  Can we keep the sex part out of it for a few more years?    You might say that if I believe in the Theology of the Body teachings within this blog that my endorsement of the BSA decision is hypocritical.  This is my caveat, that I believe all boys should have the chance to belong in scouting; but all the labeling of "sexual orientation, gay, and homosexual language should be removed from the BSA documents.

You can certainly see how this topic may fit into our previous discussions on relativism, truth, and Theology of the Body. I will be addressing more of this in the future. In the meantime, I invite comments and opinions on this topic.

JP2 and Motherhood

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms today! John Paul 2 certainlly had something to say about Motherhood. I wanted to share a few snipits from John Paul 2 which were published in an earlier translation of TOB, Human Love in the Divine Plan. Below are his words.

"Motherhood is the fruit of the marriage union of a man and woman, of the biblical "knowledge" which corresponds to the union of the two in one flesh."

"According to the bible, the conception and birth of a new human being are accompanied by the following words of the woman: "I have brought forth a man into being with the help of the Lord" Gn 4:1.  This exclamation of Eve, the mother of all the living is repeated every time a new human being comes into the world. It expresses the woman's joy and awareness that she is sharing in the great mystery of eternal generation. The spouses share in the creative power of God!

"The Creator grants the parents the gift of a child. On the woman's part, this fact is linked in a special way to a sincere gift of self. Mary's words at the Annunciation-"Let it be according to your word"

"The man, even with all his sharing in parenthood always remains on outside the process of pregnancy and the baby's birth; in many ways he has to learn his own fatherhood from the mother.

"The history of every human being passes through the threshold of a woman's motherhood"

"Parenthood-even though it belongs to both-is realized much more fully in the woman, especially in the prenatal period. It is the woman who pays directly for this shared generation, which literally absorbs the energies of her body and soul. It is therefore necessary that the man be fully aware that in their shared parenthood he owes a special debt to the woman. No program of equal rights between women and men is valid unless it takes this fact fully into account."

Sex sells; or does it?

Abercrombie and Fitch is in the news again, a clothing retailer who targets the young and chiseled, yet excludes a large chunk of the population in larger sized women apparel. In 2006, CEO Mike Jeffries of A&F made the below comments;

“In every school there are the cool and popular kids, and then there are the not-so-cool kids. Candidly, we go after the cool kids. We go after the attractive all-American kid with a great attitude and a lot of friends. A lot of people don’t belong [in our clothes], and they can’t belong. Are we exclusionary? Absolutely. - Jeffries

Wow, did he really say that?  Now in 2013, according to a recent article in Forbes, sales are declining and are in the midst of closing 180 stores, almost 10 percent of its store base.  Are we finally seeing beyond the idol worship of the all-American body and blatant discrimination? In reality, this kind of body they promote probably accounts for less than 1 percent of the overall population. Yet our culture continues to market this tiny percent of the population yet leaving the majority in despair that they desire this idolized body. 

2 Story Idol of the male in A&F Singapore 

I took a look at some of their campaign images and found mainly male models, glossy, black and white photo shoots and lots of chiseled abs and crotch shots with open button jeans. Very little clothing can be seen while photo shoots included boy kissing boy, girl on top of boy (mostly no clothing), and 2 girls and a boy. In some of the group shots the models appeared to be loose and having fun. Their campaign is selling not only clothing but open sexuality; including homosexuality and multiple partners.  As an impressionable teenager or 20 something, who would not be attracted to this type of body and what they are promoting?  Heck, I would like to have that kind of body and I would be lying if I said I didn't find some of these models attractive.

The Blessed John Paul 11 called our current society, "the culture of death" which idolizes the human body instead of showing the body with dignity. With A&F's recent decline and apparent outrage of customer discrimination, maybe we can see a glimmer of light that points desire in another direction. Many of our desires point towards the things of this world of perfect bodies, money and materialistic needs. We need to use John Paul's Theology of the Body to point us to our true desires towards God.  As I love to quote C.S Lewis about desire. "If we have a desire which can not be fulfilled in this world, chances are those desires were made for another world."

Baseball and Truth. Go see the movie "42"

  I saw the movie "42" this weekend with my son Matthew.  We both loved it and offers inspiration of the human heart. Matt just wanted to go play more ball! Loved the quote when Jackie Robinson asks Branch Rickey (GM of Dodgers), “Do you want a ball player who’s afraid to fight back?” Rickey responds, “No, I want a ball player with the guts not to fight back.” Sounds something that Jesus would say and do.

Go see this movie and take the kids (maybe 10 and up?).  My teen boys have seen it but think my 11 year old daughter should see it as well. There is quite a bit of the "N" word used,  but valuable lessons to be learned. This movie has way more wheat than weeds. 

A few weeks ago, George Weigel wrote a piece on this movie which ran in the Denver Catholic Register and quoting him he said at the end of the piece "amidst vast cultural and political confusions, Americans still believe in moral truths, moral absolutes, and moral courage—and yearn for opportunities to celebrate them. There’s an important lesson in that for the country’s religious and political leaders."  To see the entire article see the following link. http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/10125?CFID=55251902&CFTOKEN=63576832

Most of us, including myself seem to shy away from that moral courage to fight the relativism of our world.  If we search deep into our hearts, does racism really belong in our lives?  Does abortion?  We have come a long way but probably still have a long way to go.  We can all lead by different ways.  Jackie Robinson lead by  showing is courage by leading on the baseball field and not fighting back.  Martin Luther King Jr. lead by speech. How will you lead?  

Relativism exposed

Using Theology of the Body do either of these images portray the dignity of the female human body?

Showing both extremes in cultures

TOB for Youth. They are our Future!

Youth Movements with Theology of the Body. Check them out. Parents, try and steer your kids this way...

A Theology of the Body camp for teens with the link below. May be too late already for this summer but certainly something to consider for the future. 

http://dumboxproductions.com/information/content/8/echo-2011-theology


I met some great folks from Generation Life at TOB class last winter. Check them out below.

http://www.generationlife.org/

More on Truth and Relativism

The philosophical debate on absolute truths vs Relativism rages on. I see or read it consistently in the literature and in every day life and have had some interesting debates on Facebook circles. I find this a fascinating topic and even amongst Christian circles there seems to be very opinionated ideas on truth. There is some literature on the topic which I am now reading which I will hope to blog in the coming weeks.  Everyone seems to have strong opinions and I would encourage anyone to comment on this blog.

Below is some information gathered in the past few weeks. 

"There is no true peace without the truth! There cannot be true peace if everyone is his own criterion, if everyone can always claim exclusively his own rights, without at the same time caring for the good of others, of everyone, on the basis of the nature that unites every human being on this earth"...Pope Francis

via...George Weigel, "Impoverished Spirits" Denver Catholic Register. April 10, 2013
 
George Weigel finishes the above referenced article with this quote..."You can count on this pontificate to challenge the dictatorship of relativism in the name of authentic humanism."

The Denver Catholic Register has been running several excellent pieces from Archbishop Aquila on Marriage. I encourage you to take a look. http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/9707/Columns/

From Archbiship Samuel Aquila column on April 10, 2013. "Today, people seem to believe marriage is an institution created by governments-a recognition of a partnership of adults. In some ways, marriage has become viewed as a social recognition of mutual affection between two adults. This view of marriage is relativistic and self centered."