Preliminary thoughts on the BSA membership requirements change

I didn't much enjoy my time as a Cub Scout, it being another occasion to feel insecure around my peers. When I moved up to the only local Boy Scout troop, which was organized on roughly the same principles as was the island in Lord of the Flies, I didn't even last out the first year. But when I was teaching in Texas, an older teacher and Scoutmaster guilted me into joining him on one of his troop's camping trips. (Al Sauter: "Boy, Kingsbury, it would sure be a shame if those boys weren't able to go camping just because you were too selfish to change your weekend plans and provide them with another adult chaperone. It's your decision, of course.") 

In short order, I found myself at the Sam Houston Council Scout Shop buying a uniform. While my Scouting experience had been easily discarded, that wasn't the case with the troop of which I became an assistant Scoutmaster. Al Sauter had personally recruited most of the boys from Jane Long Middle School, where we taught what are gently called "underprivileged youth" in the heart of gang-infested territory. For many of the boys in our troop, it was either pursuing an Eagle badge or joining a gang. I thought being a part of that venture was worth giving up some of my free time.

As a fairly hard-core Presbyterian, I've never been enchanted with Scouting's moral foundations. At best, it's a very generic version of what, in America, we've come to refer to as "Judeo-Christian," although, of course, Muslims, Buddhists, Bahais, et. al., are always welcome. Nonetheless, just as "duty to God" has a red-line border which can't be crossed (i.e., a Scout cannot be an atheist), so too has the duty to be "morally straight" had a definite meaning. Now, however, the Boys Scouts of America has determined to change that by permitting boys with "homosexual orientation" to become Scouts. At least the leadership is still willing to say "any sexual conduct, whether heterosexual or homosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting."

But how long will even that last? The BSA has determined to go in the same direction as America, and now "morally straight" will come to mean "well, you know, nice." At the same time, those of us who believe "morally straight" ought to mean what it has always meant are getting the same message we have gotten from our President (honorary president of the BSA, ironically): namely, that those of us who have not "evolved" as rapidly as he are no longer welcome to participate in the national conversation as moderated by himself. 

And at the moment, that's what I feel regarding this moment. One more link to the past has been broken, and we have received one more reminder of just how difficult it is to participate in this society without compromising one's core beliefs. I have never had any sympathy with Christian separationists; the Incarnation, by itself, would appear to be God's word on the advisability of mingling with those of questionable faith or practice. While I do not want to be separate, I have begun to wonder when my country, like my president, will insist on separating me, my family, and my people from itself.

The community-integrated marriage

In "What's Wrong with 'Family Values'" over at the First Things site, Peter Leithart makes a compelling argument for meddling in each other's private affairs. After all, as he observes, that's one of the things the Church is for.

An adult points out the obvious to "conservatives"

As a conservative, I am profoundly alienated by the "Republican"* party, as its primary mission is less about advancing a conservative political philosophy, to say nothing of contending for the moral principles foundational to the American republic, than ensuring the advantages of the most financially privileged among us. Its "conservatism" is to oppose proposals brought by the other government-sanctioned political party, but not to engage in any serious way with the issues of the day.

Some conservatives have more hope than I that American "conservatives" can mature past histrionics aimed primarily at winning the next election to engage constructively with today's social and political realities. Such a noble effort is R.R. Reno's The Triumph of Capitalism, which summarizes the true political crisis of our time thusly:

I want to be clear: The triumph of economic freedom is a good thing. It’s made possible a global economy that has lifted and promises to continue lifting hundreds of millions of people out of poverty. But that’s only part of the story. If American conservatism is unwilling to face the fact that economic freedom creates social and therefore political problems—political problems that will require in one way or another limiting economic freedom—it will be irrelevant to our age.

*"Republican" in quotes because I think a party thus named should be working towards the restoration of the republic, as construed by the United States Constitution, rather than expanding the imperial powers of emperors they happen to like. But I'm funny like that.

Practical hints from a Lutheran pastor

Presbyterian identity was so eroded by the fundamentalist-modernist wars in the early twentieth century and the evangelical envy of the baby boomer era that conservative presbyterians tend to identify more easily with those outside their tradition than many within it. The majority, in my experience, lean Baptist: the congregation's individual identity and distinctives are paramount; focus tends to be on individual and family success over against integration into presbyterian tradition; children aren't considered genuine Christians until they make profession of faith. The minority of which I'm a part leans Lutheran: primary emphasis is on the means of grace and presbyterian distinctives; priority is on holistic integration into, and use of, presbyterian artifacts such as the Catechisms; the Christian life is envisioned as a slow progression from cradle to grave, always within the bounds of the Church and, generally, not much spiritual excitement between those two milestones (other than Bible camp).

Hence, Lutheran pastor Russell Saltzman's "A Parish Survival Guide for Senior Seminarians" strikes me as eminently practical, extremely useful, and grounded in the realities of pastoral ministry. It is a tad Lutheran, but one could do worse.

For example, lean Baptist instead.

The Man Comes Around

I get up an hour or so before the rest of my family on Sunday mornings to make a large breakfast of animal protein, gluten-rich carbohydrates, and clarified caffeine products in order to fuel the morning service. As a spiritual discipline, I take advantage of the solitude to carefully attend to appropriately edifying music. In addition to listening to John Coltrane's A Love Supreme a hundred times or so, I like to work through Johnny Cash's American Recordings. A highlight, of course, is "The Man Comes Around." Given that we repeatedly hear how Americans are turned off by Christianity's claims to exclusive truth, the broad appeal of a song about the impending divine wrath is a bit surprising. It's not just evangelicals who love this song; in fact, I get the impression the majority of its fans have never darkened a sanctuary door.

I think two factors explain its appeal. For one, no one is actually interested in moderation or vague, life-affirming sentiments. People want truth and clarity, both of which must, by definition, be direct and hard-edged. Our Lord's return in glory and judgment must terrify because it is true. When it comes to the divine, most people prefer the clarity of terror to the uselessness of generic affirmation.

The second factor, quite simply, is the King James Version. Johnny Cash thoroughly absorbed its vocabulary and, more importantly, its cadences, and here produced his own impressionistic rendering of John's Apocalypse. Listening to "The Man Comes Around," one is never entirely sure how each word or phrase is to be understood, but the cumulative imagery is quite plain, and undeniably grand. There's nothing quaint or humorous about 

It's hard for thee to kick against the prick.
In measured hundredweight and penny pound,
When the man comes around.

In context, those words hit just about as hard as

Whoever is unjust let him be unjust still.
Whoever is righteous let him be righteous still.
Whoever is filthy let him be filthy still.
Listen to the words long written down,
When the man comes around.

Just, righteous, or filthy, nothing quite sounds as much like the Bible as the good old KJV, and nothing terrifies or comforts so much as the clear truth our Lord Jesus Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead.

Throwaway kids

A while back, I met with the local Teach for America alumni coordinator, who asked whether I still believe in the organization's mission statement: "One day, all children will have an equal opportunity for a quality education." I explained I believe the obstacles to that vision are primarily in the breakdown of the family, not in the administration of public education systems. Nat Hentoff reports on some of the practical consequences of that breakdown in "Keeping Low-income Students from Being Throwaway Kids." While debates about education, particularly in Christian circles, revolve around ideology, we do well to remember a child's educational success has much more to do with home environment than the teacher's party membership.

Getting back to that TFA-oriented conversation, I went on to explain my belief that families can be solid only when their foundation is the Church. Being an atheist, Nat Hentoff doesn't reach a similar conclusion. Nonetheless, Christians do well to remember our society will be well-ordered only when the Church returns to its center.

Daylight Stupid Time

The secular humanist conspiracy to keep Christians out of Sunday worship was successful in the case of at least one family in our congregation this year. (When people miss worship, the pastor always charitably assumes sudden and grave illness.) As much as I hate shilling for the federal government, I try to make sure a warning appears in the bulletin the week prior to the initiation of Daylight Satan Time, but it caught me by surprise this year; I only learned the dread tidings on Wednesday of last week.

In light of my omission, I was sent this hymn, which I will in turn recommend to the OPC's Psalter-Hymnal committee:

What goes on in my marriage counseling sessions

Thanks, Brewster Rockit!

Let that Weight Go

"The Moth" is a story-telling cooperative and competition which puts out a weekly podcast: all stories are autobiographical, often anecdotal, and occasionally profound. Two weeks ago it posted a story by Walter Mosely, famous mostly for wildly popular detective fiction. In just around 10 minutes, Mosely summarized the difficulties of living as a black man in these United Stated in the 20th century, and the corresponding difficulty of bringing that experience into the 21st.

Warning: there are a whole bunch of potentially offensive words in his narrative, but no cussing.

Advertisement: this is the most insightful, witty, and provocative 10 minutes on race I can remember hearing since my heady college days when I was immersed in Malcolm X, John Hope Franklin, and Spike Lee. I will be thinking about the questions he raised for a very long time. Strongly recommended.

Pro-life because of biology

In a comment to my post "So what if abortion ends a life?," Anonymous asked, "When do you believe that life begins and what is your biblical basis for your belief!" I should let Anonymous know that, as a presbyterian, while my understanding of the world is shaped and controlled by the Bible, I do not believe that every fact which I believe must be explicitly stated in Scripture. For example, I believe I live in the great state of Colorado, which fact can be found nowhere in the Bible.

In this regard, I point my vast readership to Great American Hero Nat Hentoff, who says he is a pro-lifer "not for religious reasons, but because I'm an atheist who can read biology." For me, my high school biology class and the 6th Commandment are sufficient to believe abortion is murder.