Political correctness and Scouting

Steven Spielberg has announced he is leaving his post on the advisory board of the Boy Scouts of America because the organization actively and publicly participates in discrimination by excluding homosexuals as Scout leaders.

Let me dissect Spielberg's politically correct position.

Firstly, what is "discrimination"?

Let's face it, the very name Boy Scouts suggests discrimination, does it not? This organization is not the Scouts. It is the Boy Scouts. Thus, no one can pretend that this is an organization that is all-inclusive, that it is meant for everyone. Instead, it is a private organization with a specific mission -- to provide boys with an enriching and wholesome experience.

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It is not for girls, nor does it seek to compel all boys to participate. It is a voluntary organization -- one that has nothing, I repeat nothing, to do with sexual activities of any kind.

Discrimination then, I suppose even Mr. Spielberg would have to agree, is not necessarily a bad thing. We all discriminate every day. We choose to do certain things and not to do others. We choose to associate with certain people and not to associate with others. We choose to believe in certain principles and not to believe in others.

I don't think any of us could live a healthy and productive life full of choices without discriminating between those that are good for us and those that are bad for us.

I teach my kids to discriminate. I tell them which foods are healthy and which are not. If they did not exercise discrimination, they would probably eat nothing but chocolate and ice cream. I teach them some things are right and some things are wrong. Without discriminating between right and wrong, we become amoral people.

So, let us agree that "discrimination" is not necessarily a bad thing.

Can it be a bad thing? Yes. I teach my kids not to discriminate -- meaning show preference or partiality -- toward people because of their race. I think racial discrimination is a bad thing -- whether it is racial discrimination against black people, brown people or white people. It is wrong. Period.

But that does not mean that all forms of discrimination -- meaning "to make distinctions" -- is bad. The ability to make distinctions is a requirement of self-governing free people. Otherwise, we allow others to make distinctions and choices for us.

And that is what Spielberg and others seek to do with a great organization that should be as non-controversial as any.

There are good reasons for the Boy Scouts to ban homosexual scoutmasters. I don't have any boys, but if I did, I would not allow my kids to join if they were supervised by homosexuals.

Why? Do I think all homosexuals are predators? No. But some are. That's why the Girl Scouts don't allow men to supervise their members -- because some, perhaps even a tiny minority of men -- are predators, and give in to their lust for little girls.

The same self-evident principle applies to Boy Scouts. Men who have an express sexual preference for members of the same sex should never be placed in positions that give them power and authority over little boys.

Frankly, that I have to state such an obvious fact in the year 2001 is frightening to me. But I do -- such is the sorry moral state of our nation and culture. So I will say it loud and clear. Homosexual men should be kept away from children -- not because they are all predators but because some are.

We need to think of the children first. Their protection must be paramount. No one has a God-given right to supervise children. That is a privilege that must be earned. It is a position of trust. It is nothing short of insanity to turn children over to supervisors and authority figures who would be tempted to sexually corrupt and abuse them.
Sex is not a part of the Boy Scout mission. And those who seek to turn this organization into a political whipping boy because of the common-sense principles it upholds are worse than despicable. They are misguided. They are dangerous. They are evil. They threaten not only one of the greatest private organizations in the United States, they threaten our entire culture -- our ability to think clearly, our sense of morality, our ideas about right and wrong.

I have one question for Mr. Spielberg to ponder. I don't know if he has any boys of his own. But, if he does, would he knowingly hire a self-proclaimed, practicing homosexual babysitter to care for him? Whatever his public answer to that question might be to that question, I sincerely doubt he would. And if he would, he's crazier and more wrong-headed than I thought.