Bulling The Boy Scouts

            I always had a great admirer of the Boy Scouts.  Maybe it’s the motto, “Be prepared”, an idea that I believe in.  It could be the nature of a scout; he’s loyal, trustworthy, helpful, thrifty.  I sure it has to do with the oath they take to “do my duty to God”.  It could just be the young men I know that were scouts turn out pretty well. (Did you know that 11 of the 12 Americans that have walked on the moon were Boy Scouts?)  I think that is why the recent controversy involving the national Boy Scout Organization has me so upset. 

If you are unfamiliar with the issue, the Boy Scouts are being pressured to remove the longstanding ban on homosexuals in their organization. Even in their own ranks, great amounts of political and public pressure are on the organization to abandon the policy.  This isn’t’ the first effort to do so.  In 2000, the Scouts were sued to force them to accept homosexuals but the case was eventual dismissed by the Supreme Court.  Losing a court case does little to stop those that want to force their own “lifestyle” on those that think their actions are wrong.  If you don’t agree with them they will use any means necessary to force you to bend to their will.  It wasn’t a year ago when the same people were calling for Chick -Fill-A restaurants to be shut down and run out of communities because their owner dared to support groups that believe homosexuality is wrong.  It’s a pattern of behavior that all of us have seen before.  Do what I want or I will make fun of you.  Do what I want or I will threat and intimidate.  Do what I want or I will make your life miserable.  Simply, they are bullies.

I grew up around bullies. Bullies like to get everyone on their side.  If you’re not, they’re going to make you.  It doesn’t matter to a bully if you are doing your own thing, affecting them in no way, they’re still going to make you do what they want.  Your righteousness is offensive to them.  Reason, fairness, respect aren’t concepts the bully understands.  Bullies will poke, prod and goad you reacting to them.  They will pick on you till you get mad and fight back and then turn you own actions back on you.  They will make you look like the aggressor and demand that you be punished.  Bullies will make you miserable if you let them. So you don’t.

The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:13-14, “Who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. AND DO NOT FEAR THEIR INTIMIDATION, AND DO NOT BE TROUBLED,”.  Bullies want to make you like them, cowards.  A bully can’t stand to see someone that isn’t like them; it reminds them of their own failings. The use violence, intimation, mocking, ridicule and social pressure to warp you in something wrong, so they can feel superior.  Once you realize that it changes how they affect you.  Why should I care what a person like that thinks of me?  If I am going to be attacked let me be attacked for doing the right thing. You realize you don’t have to let them manipulate you in something twisted like them, 

I’m sad to say, it’s not going to stop. Christians have been bullied by a sinful world since the 1^st century and it’s not going to change in the 21^st century.  That’s Ok, Paul says those things seem to weaken us but in reality it only makes us stronger (2nd Corinthians 12:10). Suffering for the sake of Christ is a badge we should all want to obtain.