The long saga of the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boys Scouts of America and the City of Philadelphia added another chapter recently, and what that chapter reveals is that the National Council of the Boy Scouts of America does not measure up to the rules they have set for service. Though I have written about this subject here and here, I suppose some background is going to be necessay. Luckily, the article in the Philadelphia Inquirer today gives a very good precis of the issue, so follow along, if you will, as I summarize it.

Scouting in Philadelphia has a long history, and early in that history the City of Philadelphia gave a perpetual $1 lease to the Council for their headquarters. In recent years, two Supreme Court judgements have come down to complicate that lease. First, the Supremes ruled that the Boy Scouts are within their rights to exclude gay boys and men from participation, that ruling coming in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale several years ago. That set up the confrontation, since the City of Philadelphia has long protected the rights of individuals in the city. When Philadelphia decided to protect gay and lesbian citizens from discrimination, they were forced to look at their material support of an organization that fervently defended their right to discriminate — the Boy Scouts. You see, another Supreme Court ruling does not allow governemtn to materially support an organization that discriminates. But the Cradle of Liberty Council is hardly at fault here.

The Cradle of Liberty Council passed and tried to implement a nondiscrimination policy. I’m thinking they did so because they believe discrimination runs counter to the Scout Law, but certainly that sweet real estate deal of $1 per year rent must have figured into their actions. Alas, the Cradle of Liberty Council was thwarted in their actions to try for compromise by the National Council, who refused to recognize the nondiscrimination policy. The National Council forces the local folks to discriminate. That’s the long and the short of it. And now they are pretending they had nothing to do with this case. That according to Gregg Shields, the spokesperson for the National Council, as quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

And to add to the confusion, the Boy Scouts’ National Council in Irving, Texas, seems to be taking an arm’s length attitude toward Philadelphia’s predicament.

Spokesman Gregg Shields said the National Council - which in 2003 ordered Philadelphia scouts to revoke a nondiscrimination policy adopted to defuse the city standoff - will not intercede on Philadelphia’s behalf.

“This is a local issue for the Cradle of Liberty Council, this is their situation,” Shields said.

Shields said National Council officials do not consider Philadelphia’s dispute to have anything to do with atheism, homosexuality, or any other core element of their bylaws.

“This is solely a matter of where they want to place their local offices,” Shields said.

There’s the crux of it. Shields says the National Council has no responsibility here, when it is clear by any measure that their actions that have brought us to this point. While the National Council claims gay scouts cannot be members by virtue that being gay violates the Scout Oath (they can’t be morally straight, goes their argument), the National Council’s failing to help the Cradle of Liberty Council violates the Scout Law in many, many ways. First, Shields is not truthful when he notes this is merely the Cradle of Liberty’s problem. Disingenuousness may be the Republican way, but it is the opposite of truth. Additionally, of course, they are not helpful, are not friendly, courteous or kind. Their acts of abandoning the Cradle of Liberty Council to conseequences the National Council caused disgraces the very principles of scouting.

Why is this happening? How did the National Council of the boy Scouts of America move it from the progressive organization at its founding to a reactionary organization that makes whiney Republican-like excuses when called on to support its own? I suppose we’ll have to ask them. One thing you’ll not if you go to the Scouting web site, though, is they don’t publish the names of those on their Executive Council.