@abge - The Boyscouts are a private Christian organization and can do what they like. Be thankful they are starting to reverse their views of gays. But as a Christian organization they will not (nor should they) reverse their views on atheism.

The Boy Scouts of America aren't technically a Christian organization though, even if by far most of the members are and that those who lead it via the National Headquarters in Texas are (part of the root of the problem). The BSA doesn't care what religion you are, as long as you believe in a higher power they believe you can fit in their organization and become a moral person. Which leads us to the problem. They refuse to recognize that atheists and agnostics can be good and moral people too. I severely wish they would change their position on this, or at least let it be allowed on the local level. I was in the BSA and between me and the other 8 or so friends in my age group who also became Eagle Scouts, half were atheist/agnostic and the other half I simply never heard their opinions one way or another. Though this was unknown to the adults, the religious aspect of the organization was never more than a nominal aspect of our troop. You mention god in the Pledge of Allegiance and the Scout Oath/Law at the beginning of meetings, and there are maybe a couple events per year where there was a prayer before event, but that was it. I don't think we had anyone who was gay even try to join our troop so it never came up and I can't say for certain how the adults in our troop would have handled that. Pretty much every kid I knew in the BSA agreed that both the policies against gays and against atheists/agnostics should be changed so those groups could be allowed in. But then again I'm from a solidly blue state.

A key quote from the below link:
The BSA version of the Scout Law states in part: "A Scout is reverent. He is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties and respects the convictions of others in matters of custom and religion." The BSA "Declaration of Religious Principle" states that "no member can grow into the best kind of citizen without recognizing an obligation of God and, therefore, recognizes the religious element in the training of the member, but it is absolutely nonsectarian in its attitude toward that religious training. Its policy is that the home and organization or group with which the member is connected shall give definite attention to religious life."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_emblems_programs_(Boy_Scouts_of_America)

Lol no wonder I wasn't a boy scout. Must be religious to be the "best kind of citizen?" Tell me more!

What rot.

I dropped out of Boy Scouts in sixth grade when they forced me to read from the Bible in order to get some dumb badge.

Wow, I'm glad I just joined the cool scouting groups where we lit fires and sailed boats. Never been confronted with any bible thankfully.

W/e, Czech scouting has been God-optional for more than a century already.

well done bo!

The thing about Boy Scouts is that everyone paints it as a great organization from the outside. At some levels, it is. Still, you see the things like troop leaders that are convicted sexual predators in some cases and you see gay members being kicked out for doing nothing but service throughout their entire lives. You see atheists being told to go fuck themselves in a corner for upholding the code of honor that we were all forced to memorize. That's all they did. It's purely prejudiced yet it's such a highly regarded organization that it's taken years for all this to come out.

When they told me to read, they wanted me to read a passage out of Deuteronomy. If the passage was from the five books in the Torah, they considered it religiously neutral only after protests from within the organization a few months after I joined. It never went public; they had too much money wrapped up in their PR and they still do. They obviously thought of themselves as a high class Christian organization but it was clear they were only demeaning to those that didn't agree with them rather than accepting of those that simply wanted to help the community like everyone else.

My grandfather wrote for the Star (Indy paper) at the time and he pushed his editor to allow him to do a story on situations like mine. The editor, who I'll leave nameless because he's still with the Star, called the troop I was in and asked some questions. They essentially blew off my entire claim. Of course it was never going to be a story anyway, who was I but some sixth grader, but still, it just showed what they were really for to me. So yeah, that's about why I left.

When we crossed the ropes going from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts, they had a minister reading from the Bible there. I was too young to give it a second thought. I don't personally remember it but my parents told me that they'd done that a number of other times in the past. To this day I don't know what they would have done with me had I told them I was atheist (which I consider myself to be), but it was probably best for both parties that I left altogether.

They took a lot of kids' dreams away, including mine. All I wanted was to be an Eagle Scout for most of my elementary school life and I would have been forced to read from the Bible a number of times between sixth grade and that point in my senior year I'd assume. Maybe I sound like I'm offering up a sob story, but I genuinely wanted that. It's too bad they couldn't let me because they had their own imaginary values to uphold.