The BSA Bows to the god of Political Correctness

The Middle Tennessee Council of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) has issued a summary of the resolution passed by the National Executive Board on July 27^th.

This summary consists of four points regarding what the BSA will and will not allow, and what they will and will not defend as it pertains to homosexual adult leaders in the organization.  The bottom line is that the organization will allow homosexual adult leaders among the youth of BSA, a point of contention with many religious organizations which sponsor Boy Scout and Cub Scout troops.

The problem with this newest Resolution is that the BSA issued a previous resolution stating this would never happen.  When the BSA now says "The BSA will steadfastly defend the right of religious Chartered Organizations to select leaders whose beliefs are consistent with those of the religious organization," they actually mean they will defend that right until the next BSA decision to the contrary.  

The Boy Scout Promise starts out: "On my honor I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country..."  Now, to be truthful, Boy Scouts will have to say some along the lines of "...to do my duty to God, except where BSA officials give me leave to disobey Him."

Several organizations such as the Mormons and the Assemblies of God church have formed their own youth organizations to replace the BSA.  Maybe that is a good thing.  If God is to be the center of our teachings to today's youth, we should at least ensure God is obeyed, and not treated like a smorgasbord meal -- a little from here and a little from there.  He is either God and the center of our obedience, or He is not and we should not play games with what He requires of us.  

Sadly, grown men have bowed in worship to the false god of political correctness and the power of the mob.  I maintain that political correctness is merely a loose invention by the unprincipled to have their own way over critical thinking; an excuse for stereotyping, glossing over, and not having to deal with reality.  How unfortunate that tomorrow's leaders must suffer this example of poor leadership; the spectacle of leaders of industry bowing before the false god of mercurial public opinion.

"THIS IS WAR. PEOPLE ARE DYING."

By Ed Evans, MGySgt. USMC (Ret.)

"THIS IS WAR. PEOPLE ARE DYING." -- Alonzo Lundsford, U.S. Army Staff Sergeant (Ret.), Victim of 2009 Fort Hood terrorist attack

For my Marine friends, the double tragedy of this cowardly shooting in Chattanooga is that these four Marines were members of the 4th Battalion, 14th Marines, 4th Marine Division. While a couple of Marine units have been known as "Dark Horse", this unit was the Dark Horse of Fallujah, the heroes of Fallujah who set a record for number of mortar rounds fired, taking the city that couldn't be taken from the enemy. This unit also served in Afghanistan. These Marines didn't deserve to be cowardly slaughtered, unarmed, like this.

We must change our strategy. This is war. A stronger stand overseas and armed military at home. They go armed overseas, why not at home, where the war has now come to us?
I make the point that when the Fort Hood Army Major took his personal weapon on base and began to murder soldiers, they were unarmed. When a female Army MP got to the scene with her weapon, she took him down immediately. One woman less than five foot tall, with her weapon, took him down. Name any terrorist murder scene with a shooter, and one person with a weapon would have stopped it when it started. 

This is war. People are dying.

We know the enemy and we know who supports them.  Yet we do not properly equip those trained to do the fighting.  We don't go after them with victory in our throat, and that is at our own peril. Our pansy leadership today, dragging ROEs, collateral damage issues, bean-counting practices onto the battlefield are ultimately responsible for our cemeteries of warrior dead, and the fact that we face an enemy inside our gates, and that we stand so deathly close to losing our God-given freedoms and liberties.

This is war.  People are dying.

Commitment is a Verb

By Chaplain Ed Evans

          The word “commitment” has always seemed to me to be a word of action.

          But as my high school English teacher would affirm, “commitment” is a noun.  It doesn’t describe anything so it’s not an adjective, and contrary to what I think, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary says it is not a verb, not an action word.

          What “commitment” is, says the dictionary, is a promise to do or give something; to be loyal to someone or something; the attitude of someone who works very hard to do or support something.  Now, those all sound like actions to me, but I won’t quibble because I would rather discuss what one of our patriot forefathers – John Adams – had to say regarding “commitment”.

          What brought this subject to mind is that I had been spending the 4^th of July watching a series of patriotic films on the Turner Classic Movie TV channel, specifically the movie "1776", the three hour portrayal of the newly formed American Congress as they struggled through creating the Declaration of Independence, accepting the difficult task of setting aside their own families and fortunes to put this nation on the course destiny held for it. 

          While visiting Philadelphia, I had the opportunity to spend time in that room used by those men, so watching that portrayal had a special interest for me.

          The give and take of crafting that remarkable document – the Declaration of Independence – brought about several verbal and physical assaults.  The original document crafted by Thomas Jefferson saw hundreds of words deleted and added.

          Three quotes in the film stayed with me, perhaps because those three lines were also matters of history.  In the first, Benjamin Franklin assures his fellow members of that first Colonial Congress that if they do not hang together on this issue, they shall surely hang separately.  Once the document is signed, John Hancock is the first signee but the discussions continue until Hancock declares, “Gentlemen, if we are arrested now, my signature is still the only one on the damn thing!”

          But it is one of the final quotes by John Adams to which I wish to direct your attention.  In the film, Abigail Adams finds it necessary to remind her husband, John Adams, of what he has said to her many times: “There are only two creatures of value on the face of this earth - those with a commitment and those who require the commitment of others.”

          I bring that quote to your attention because in our current day and age, it seems to be the very quality of commitment that is missing, covered over and shoved out of place by political correctness.  It’s my private theory that “PC” is a loose invention by the unprincipled to have their way over critical thinking; an excuse for stereotyping, glossing over, and not dealing with reality.

          I believe John Adams must have been an intellectual prophet of sorts, or perhaps humanity has not really progressed all that much since the 1700’s.  For throughout the United States and the entire world itself, John Adams’ observation remains true.  There are those who are committed to a cause, and those whos e3ntire survival often depends upon those who are committed to a cause.

          U.S. Marines like to quote the words of a Marine from the Korean War era: “Freedom is not free, but the U.S. Marine Corps will pay most of your share. -- Captain J.E. "Ned" Dolan, USMC (Ret.) Platoon Leader E/2/7, Korean War.  There you have an example of commitment, and those who will only survive by the commitment of others.

          Finally, there is one last Korean War era quote I would share with you, from 1^st Marine Division Chaplain Father Kevin Keaney, “You cannot exaggerate about the Marines. They are convinced to the point of arrogance, that they are the most ferocious fighters on earth -- and the amusing thing about it is that they are.”

          Where is your commitment?  To yourself, your skill, your God?  The word of God tells us commitment should be found in various aspects of our life: commitment to our families, neighbors, employers, the church, our health, and in everything that we do and say.  Those things are referenced in Ephesians 6:5; Hebrews 10:25; and 1st Corinthians 6:19 and 31. Commitment to all the things we might expect.  And yet, the Bible also teaches the chief commitment of our lives must be to God Himself. Jesus said, in Matthew 22:37-38, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”  True, it’s a commandment to us, but it should also be a sacred commitment by us.  Are we committed, or relying on the commitment of others?