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THROWING DOWN THE GAUNTLET: 
REFORM JUDAISM AND THE BOY SCOUTS
delivered by Rabbi Henry Jay Karp
Temple Emanuel, Davenport, Iowa
January 26, 2001   

On January 5th, the U.A.H.C. - C.C.A.R. Joint Commission on Social Action released a memorandum to all U.A.H.C. member congregations, as well as to the press. The subject of that memorandum was the relationship between the Reform movement and the Boy Scouts of America. While our local papers and TV stations did not pick up on this press release, nationally it received a significant amount of coverage.

It should come as no surprise to anyone here that Reform Judaism and the Boy Scouts have gone head to head over the question of including or excluding gay scouts and scout leaders from participation in the programs of Boy Scouting.

On the issue of discrimination against gays and lesbians, Reform Judaism has been quite outspoken. I remember attending the 1987 biennial conference of our movement, along with a delegation from this congregation which included, among others, Larry Satin, of blessed memory, and Joanne. It was at that convention, 13 years ago, that our movement passed a resolution calling upon our congregations to welcome gays and lesbians into membership, and to pursue employment policies which would not include sexual orientation as a criteria. Since that time, similar resolutions have been passed by Women of Reform Judaism, the National Federation of Temple Youth, and the National Federation of Temple Brotherhoods. And as for the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the American Conference of Cantors, and the Hebrew Union College - our movement's clergy organizations - each has done its part to eliminate the barriers so that gays and lesbians could become rabbis and cantors.
Nor was the 1987 resolution the first statement of our movement in support of gays and lesbians. Back in 1977, 23 years ago, the U.A.H.C. passed a resolution to support and defend the civil and human rights of homosexuals. Yes, our movement has a long and strong history in its opposition to discrimination against gays and lesbians.

So it was not surprising that in 1999, when the Boy Scouts of America went to the Supreme Court to defend their right to discriminate against gay scouts and scout masters, our Commission on Social Action put forward a resolution calling upon the Boy Scouts to cease this practice. Nor is it surprising that the Commission filed an amicus curiae in that case, voicing their disagreement with the Boy Scout's policy. But as we all know, in spite of their efforts and the efforts of so many other organizations that support gay and lesbian rights, on June 28, 2000, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Boy Scouts.

This brings us to this month's memorandum. Let me share with you an excerpt from its text:
"While we maintain our hope that the Boy Scouts of America will abandon its discriminatory policies, its lack of response to the many expressions of disagreement and disappointment with policies gives us little basis for optimism. Therefore, with pain, we must recommend that congregations sponsoring or housing troops or packs withdraw sponsorship of a troop or pack, and or stop housing one. If a congregation or a congregational affiliate that sponsors or houses a Boy Scout troop or Cub pack shares our conclusion that working from within the Boy Scouts of America is no longer a viable or productive option, it may wish to sever those ties as incompatible with our consistent belief that every individual - regardless of his or her sexual orientation - is created in the image of God and is deserving of equal treatment. If it does so, we encourage the congregation or congregational affiliate to make the action and the rationale known to the Boy Scouts of America and to the public as a means of education on this issue. In addition, we recommend that parents with children in non-Reform affiliated troops withdraw their children from troops or packs. We recognize the difficulty of this parental decision, yet we also understand that many individuals find it impossible to reconcile the Boy Scout's discriminatory policy with our Reform Jewish values regarding gay and lesbian equality.... Even while making those difficult recommendations, we recognize that each congregation and each set of parents must, in the final analysis, make its own decisions, and that there remain many who believe that it is important to work for change from within the Boy Scouts organization."

Now it has been quite a number of years since this congregation sponsored a Boy Scout troop - for those of you who didn't know it, at one time we did. However, there are members of our congregation whose sons participate in Boy Scouting. I am sure that for many, if not all, of them, this call will be a painful one. In my opinion, a painful, but a necessary one.

As I read the text of the resolution, I myself found it very painful. For you see, I, too, was a Boy Scout. I belonged to a troop that was sponsored by my synagogue. And for me, Boy Scouting was a very, very important part of my childhood and my formative years. To this day my life has been influenced, and continues to be influenced, by the lessons I learned in scouting. Every morning, as I get dressed, I am reminded of my scouting days. For while I was a Boy Scout, every troop meeting included an inspection, and you would get points off from inspection if your "gig line" wasn't straight. What's a "gig line"? It is the line that is formed by the strip of your shirt buttons, your belt buckle, and your fly. So still, to this day, every time I get dressed, I check to make sure my "gig line" is straight. Sounds pretty insignificant - pretty trite - doesn't it? But maybe it is not so trite, not so insignificant. For you see, what scouting was teaching me with all of this was the importance of paying attention to detail. It was also teaching me the importance of paying closer attention to myself. These are not insignificant lessons.

But scouting taught me far, far more than just keeping my "gig line" straight. It taught me about how to face challenges; how to stretch yourself to do things that you never thought you could do. It taught me self reliance. It taught me about living in harmony with nature; appreciating the beauty and the wonder of the wilderness.

It taught me the power and the importance of team work. Just the other day, over dinner, Helene, in her 7 year old innocence, asked me, "What does it mean, 'there is no 'I' in team'?" I explained to her about the play on words between the spelling and the concept, but even as I explained it, I could not help but remember where I learned it. I learned it in scouting. In a scout troop every scout is a member of a patrol. And the success or failure of each patrol depends upon how well its members can work together. When you are on a camp out, and it is the middle of winter, and it is freezing and there is snow on the ground, and you want to have dinner, then whether or not you have that dinner will depend upon how well each of the members of your patrol can work together to make that happen. For one may need to gather wood, while another may be setting up the fire place, while yet another is putting together the ingredients for the meal, and you get the picture. And just as the success or failure of a patrol depends upon how well its members work together, so does the success or failure of a troop depend upon how well its patrols work together.

Scouting taught me respect for others, regardless of our differences. As I said earlier, my scout troop was synagogue based. So the vast majority of its scouts were members of our congregation - kids with whom I went to religious school. But not all of them. There were a couple of Catholic boys who joined our troop. Now our troop went out on weekend camping trips once a month, from September to June. Since we were primarily a Jewish troop, and one of the items in the Scout Law is that a scout is reverent, our leaders made sure that we had a Shabbat morning worship service. While that may have met the needs of the Jewish kids in the troop, of course it did not meet the needs of the Catholic kids. So, without fail, whenever we arrived at a campsite, our leaders searched around to find a troop that was holding a Catholic service on Sunday morning. I remember one time when there was no such troop in the Boy Scout camp. Our leaders called a Catholic church in a nearby town. The priest told them, "If you can find 10 Catholic boys in the camp, then I will come up on Sunday morning and lead a service." So they scoured the camp, only to find 7 Catholics. What did they do? They called the priest and said, "Father, we've got 7 boys here. Can you bring up 3?" Needless to say, the priest came. Yes, having Catholic boys in a Jewish troop did create somewhat of an inconvenience, but it was an inconvenience well worth the efforts it demanded.

Later, we opened up membership in our troop to students from a nearby school for the blind. Blind students were integrated into each patrol. Talk about accommodation! But what an indelible lesson we learned about the innate human dignity of all people.

Yes, scouting was very, very good to me. I was a proud member of the Order of the Arrow, the scouting honor society. I had the privilege of attending the 1964 Boy Scout Jamboree, in Valley Forge. My warm memories of scouting days abound.

But now, all these years later, I find myself terribly torn; torn between the warmth of childhood memories, and the principles of Reform Judaism; torn between my profound sense of indebtedness to scouting for all I received from it, and my profound commitment to cause of justice and equity for all people. How can I turn my back on scouting? How can I call upon others to turn their backs on scouting? It is as if an act of betrayal; a gross ingratitude in the face of wondrous gifts. Yet how can I close my eyes in the face of flagrant discrimination? I, especially as a Jew, should understand what a horrible crime one commits when they allow some people to persecute other people; when they do not speak up, when they do not speak out; when they let it pass because it may not touch their lives directly.

Yes, I have struggled with this matter. For me, there is no happy answer. Only pain, whichever way I decide. But, of course, I have decided. It could be no other way.

As I reflect upon my boy scout memories, and I reflect upon the situation today, I have come to the realization that for me to oppose the Boy Scouts of America for their discrimination against gays is not an act of betrayal. Indeed, by what they have done, the Boy Scouts have betrayed me. They taught me so much about being a "mensch" and then they turned around and violated so much of what they taught me. The Boy Scouts of today, which can do what they are doing to gay boys and men - not to mention teach their boy scouts what they are teaching them by the example they set - is not the same Boy Scouts of my youth. It is a far more narrow and mean spirited organization. The Boy Scouts of my youth stood for what was best about America. The Boys Scouts of today stand for what is worst, for they stand for that radical right mentality of "If you are not like me, then you are nothing."
However, even as I take this stand, I cannot condemn scouting with a broad brush. The policies of the Boy Scouts of America are national policies. Yet they may or may not be reflective of what happens on a local basis. For local boy scout troops are made up of everyday people, like you and me. In my heart of hearts, I still believe that most of those people are good and decent and caring people. As such, I pray that many of them join me and the Reform movement in taking exception to the policies of their national organization. Before we can condemn them and reject them, we have a responsibility to find out who they are and where they stand. We owe it to them.

The Joint Social Action Commission recognizes that there will be those in our movement who will not be ready to sever their ties with scouting. It encourages those people to continue to work from within, in order to effect a change of policy.

It is in that spirit that I turn to all those members of Temple Emanuel who are involved in Boy Scouting, and give the following counsel:

First, recognize that there is a serious philosophical breech between Reform Judaism and the Boy Scouts of America. This is a breech of values and ethics, and must not be ignored.
Second, you must seriously consider your need to sever your ties with scouting because of this breech. If this makes you feel uncomfortable, just consider how you would feel if they were discriminating against Jews rather than gays.

Third, before you sever your ties with scouting, it is imperative that you discuss this issue with your local scout leaders. While this policy of discrimination may be the national policy of scouting, it may not be the policy of your scout troop or scout district. We must not accuse our local scout leaders of this sin until we are certain that they have committed it or intend to commit it. Those people who give up so much of their time for our children at least deserve the opportunity to dialogue with us on this issue before we turn our backs on them.

Let me conclude by saying that I realize that a Shabbat sermon only reaches a limited number of our congregants. Yet I feel that this issue is an important one, which should be addressed by all of our congregants. Therefore, I have instructed Betty to reprint this sermon in the "Scribe." By doing so, I hope to open a positive and fruitful dialogue among us. I pray that those who are most directly touched by this issue will seek me out so that we can explore the alternatives together.

Controversy is only meaningful if out of it something finer is born. May it be so in this case.

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