Post 222--Boy Scouts--Mormons-- Post-Gender

The components of this post title seem like strange or, at least, unusual "bed partners," a term that in this context is kind of a pun. I don't know about you, but I love puns and frequently look for them. After you read this post, you may well appreciate this one.  

Not only does the title consist of unusual bed partners, but I may well have just coined a neologism, that is, a new word--"Post-Gender."  At least, I do not recall ever having come across the term.That's another thing I love to do: coin neologisms in my writings. Just because a word is not in the latest dictionary does  not mean it is wrong or illegitimate. Languages grow because of people like me, who create new words that then slowly gain in popularity, till even the dictionary editors agree and include it. Language is one of the most democratic entities in the world. Even the most oppressive civilizations continue to create new words and no one can stop that process--or progress!

As to the connection between these bed partners, I invite you to read the article below by Jim Denison.  Yes, it's an American story, but it will undoubtedly affect the Canadian scout movement as well. I have not done any research on the Canadian scouts and have not come across any media stories about them on the issue of this post, but I would not be surprised if they have beat the Americans to the draw, for Canadian culture is often more quickly accepting of such changes in culture, something I am not proud of. 

I am not sure of my reactions to this change in the Scouts, for I am not familiar enough with them to know what practical effect it would have.  Furthermore, I am wary of gender changes among children and teens, for apparently research is showing that tendencies at that early age are often reversed in the early twenties. I believe that we should fully accept genuine trans-gendered persons, for they are not that by choice but by factors over which we have little control and which they do not voluntarily choose.  
But I also suspect that we need to be careful of this feature in early life.  So, for me the jury is still out.

I do have some advice for my Mormon neighbours. Instead of creating your own scouting equivalent, consider joining the very successful equivalent my own church, the Christian Reformed Church, has been operating for years already.  

Nevertheless, I pass on this article to give you a feeling of the social disruption such radical changes introduce into society.  Should I say, "Enjoy the read?" Not sure.   

The Boy Scouts are dropping "Boy" from their name

Dr. Jim Denison | May 10, 2018

READ TIME: 4 minutes--plus 1 minute for my intro.

I remember fondly my years with the Boy Scouts. Overnight campouts with my father. Lessons in outdoor survival and the care of nature. Building camaraderie in an environment uniquely suited to develop boys into men. As a teenager, I became too involved in academics and other activities to continue in the Boy Scouts, but I have always admired the Eagle Scouts I met and consider their achievement to be enormously significant. The list of notable Eagle Scouts includes President Gerald Ford, astronaut Neil Armstrong (the first man on the moon), Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, and businessman Sam Walton. The Boy Scouts have been one of America's great cultural institutions. Five years ago, things began to change. What the BSA has done From their inception in 1910, the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) excluded openly gay people from membership or leadership. The Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that they had a legal right to continue this position. Then companies such as UPS, drug manufacturer Merck, and the United Way began opposing the organization's policy, choosing to stop or postpone their financial support. A gay advocacy group gathered more than 1.2 million online signatures to protest the BSA's position. In response, the BSA voted on May 23, 2013, to open the organization to openly gay individuals. On July 27, 2015, they chose to permit openly gay Scout leaders. On January 30, 2017, the BSA announced that transgender boys would be allowed to enroll in boys-only programs, effective immediately. On October 11, 2017, they announced that girls would be allowed to become Cub Scouts in 2018 and that a separate program for older girls would begin in 2019. To further the inclusion of girls, the BSA is now dropping "Boy" from the name of its signature program. Starting in February 2019, the Boy Scouts program for boys ages eleven to seventeen will be called Scouts BSA. The overall organization will remain Boy Scouts of America. The organization said the decision was in response to the needs of families and because of dropping membership. The BSA has lost about a third of its members since 2000. Why the Mormon response is important When the BSA decided to include openly gay Scouts five years ago, a leader in the organization told me that the key reaction to watch would come from the Mormon Church. For a century, any boy who was part of a Mormon congregation was automatically part of the Boy Scouts. As a result, more Scouts have come from Mormon churches than from any other organization. However, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has announced it will sever all ties with the BSA. Their affiliation will end on December 31, 2019. This change will affect hundreds of thousands of Mormon boys in more than thirty thousand congregations across the country. The church will create its own youth program, to be launched in January 2020. The church said it was "deeply troubled" by the BSA's decision to lift the ban on openly gay adult leaders in 2015. The Mormon Church opposes same-sex marriage, teaches that sex outside of marriage is sinful, and does not permit openly gay men or women to hold leadership roles. Abandoning vital distinctives I recently read an advance copy of John S. Dickerson's Hope of Nations: Standing Strong in a Post-Truth, Post-Christian World. Dickerson is a pastor, researcher, and award-winning journalist. His latest book is an illuminating, troubling, and inspiring look into the likely future for our culture. In light of Dickerson's outstanding research, it is clear to me that BSA leaders are responding to a culture that should trouble us all. Dickerson notes that 89 percent of Americans believe "people should not criticize someone else's life choices." A frightening 74 percent of Millennials believe morality to be a matter of cultural consensus (compared with 39 percent of Elders who agree). Bernie Sanders ran for president in 2016 as an overt socialist. More Millennials voted for him in the 2016 presidential primaries than for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton—combined. Clearly, the younger Americans are, the less committed they are to traditional values and biblical truth. BSA leaders apparently believe that compromising their traditional values and distinctives by including all sexual identities and genders is the way forward in this pluralistic, relativistic day. I would respond that they are abandoning what made them such a unique and vibrant part of our national ethos. If a ship in a storm jettisons the cargo it was intended to protect, it fails its mission. How to be good ambassadors You and I are "ambassadors for Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:20). Ambassadors have three jobs: (1) understand the foreign culture where they now live; (2) represent the authority on whose behalf they serve; (3) work faithfully until they are called home. Today, you will be the presence of Christ to those you meet. They will judge your Master by his messenger. If you ask the Holy Spirit to author your words (Mathew 10:19) and sanctify your character (Galatians 5:22–23), he will. Jesus came "to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor" (Luke 4:18–19). Let's join him.

Post 177--Millennials and Political Correctness

Again, someone else's article with my comments attached. It seems that Scott Masson of Toronto does not wish to accord the transgender population their full recognition.  I feel very sorry for that group and do not think their condition was part of what God intended when He created humanity. At the same time, they are here and not be their own decision or choice. By birth, would be my opinion. As such, they do not have a lot of choice in the matter. I know a couple of them and know they suffer because of their condition.  It is my firm opinion that they must be given their full human rights same as I do, even though I do not think their condition is desirable and should not be considered standard.  So, it seems I disagree with Masson on this aspect.  

What interests and concerns me in Masson article below is that millennials seem to have lost the traditional freedoms and rights that families have enjoyed for centuries in our Western civilization. They are, in fact, quite prepared to trample on them and force their opinion on everyone else, even to the extent of disregarding the rights of families and of breaking them up when they hold opinions contrary to those of millennials. The sense of social justice, according to Masson, has gone completely topsy-turvey. That to me is a serious issue and does not bode well for the future of freedom and democracy. So, have a listen and see where you find yourself.

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A new survey was released in the US last month, and it showed just how far society has moved on the issue of gender confusion. The poll focussed on “millennials” – generally people under 30 – and it found almost half of them would be OK with the notion that the government should take children away from parents if those parents refuse to affirm those children’s gender identities. Scott Masson is an Associate Professor of English at Tyndale University College in Toronto. He says the survey shows that traditional views of family are starting to change, especially in a certain segment of society. “It says that those that are most animated by issues that we would call ‘social justice’ are in favour of breaking into the family and its historic freedoms in order to justify the ends of what they would call ‘social justice’.”

He says the survey shows that respondents don’t have “any notion of what we would call ‘sphere sovereignty’.” Masson says the poll’s focus on millenials shows the impact that political correctness has had in the education system over the past 30 years. “I’ve been living with that in the university system ever since the 1980’s, and certainly it’s the case that millennials (have) experienced nothing but that. They’re not used to freedom of expression. If they find a view that they don’t like, they’re gonna have no tolerance for it.” He says that demographic is not bothered by the loss of liberty that we’ve seen in recent legislation in Canada, because “they never really thought those liberties really ought to exist as long as social injustice was being done.”

Post 150--The 149 Story Continued

The time between this and the previous post is a lot longer than intended. This time it is not an excuse such as being too busy or traveling. The problem was a technical one with this blog as a whole that I, try as I may, was not able to overcome. I needed a techie to get back on the road. I did find a techie soon enough, but he was not able to come until just two days ago. So, I'm back.  Please welcome me!

The material in this post was supposed to have been placed only one day after no. 149. It was actually written that day. Thus it reads that way as well. It is the next day's development of the March for Life. 

It is time I make something clear. This post along with 149 may give you the impression that I am a conservative and a supporter of Trump and his ilk. People assume that a pro-lifer must be conservative, right?  The same if you say something positive about Trump.  When on top of all that you include a negative reference to liberals, well, then you've clinched it: you're a true blue conservative.  

Well, I'm not. But neither am I a liberal. I am a Christian with a different frame of reference. I support some conservative issues as well as some liberal ones. I disagree with many conservative issues as well as many liberal ones. Being associated with conservatism embarrasses me to no end as a Christian, for conservatism embraces so many causes I could not possibly support. Same for liberalism. This is the reason it may seem that I sometimes jump the fence between the two sides. I am neither; I have my own "side."  So, I don't jump fences! It's almost like "A plague on both of you," but Christians don't wish a plague on anyone. Hence, I won't go there. 

Alright, having made that clear--at least, I hope I have!--let's get back to the topic of 149.  In the next post I will move on again.

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This is the same writer of 149:  Kristan Hawkins--

If there's one thing I took away from yesterday's March for Life, it's that the hundreds of thousands of young people who showed up are ready and willing to get to work to abolish abortion.

You and I already know that this generation of young people is the Pro-Life Generation. In fact, polls show that a majority of Millennials support severely restricting or banning abortion!

But despite the media's narrative that young people are lazy and just want to be coddled, the more than 1,800 young people that showed up ready to get to work at today's SFLA East Coast National Conference (and the 500 more that showed up last Sunday at our West Coast National Conference) have proven that narrative couldn't be more wrong!  

These young women and men are determined to win the battles ahead of us in the next few weeks: to defund Planned Parenthood, confirm a pro-life U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and abolish abortion in our lifetime.

I'm so grateful for the support we have received from you to be able to put on the nation's largest pro-life conference.

We're providing so many valuable resources for these young people to go out and make a pro-life impact in their community, and we couldn't have done it without your support.

Today, students are learning the best messaging to reach their peers on the life issue.  They're learning what rights they have -- this is critical as we see more and more high school and college campuses cracking down on "free speech" (i.e. everyone who has a different opinion than the left-wing college administrators).

Students at our national conference are also learning how to help women in crisis by working with their local pregnancy center and taking part in SFLA's Pregnant on Campus Initiative.

For Life,
Kristan Hawkins
President, Students for Life of America

P.S.  President Trump and Vice President Pence have forced the media to take notice of our March for Life.  Yesterday, SFLA was featured in at least 18 different news articles or interviews from Fox & Friends to CBS News, The Weekly Standard, TIME, and even NPR!
P.P.S.  This morning, I'll be on MSBNC to debate a former Clinton staffer and Planned Parenthood executive, so please keep me in your prayers!