From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie)
Subject: Re: Family values, a euphemism?
Organization: Oedipus Oats -- You and Your Mother Will Love Them
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 01:07:44 GMT


Kerry Stephenson defines "traditional family values":

>  growing up, getting married (once), having children, and working hard to
>  ensure that your children would have a better life than you did.  These
>  also include values like sacrificing your own convenience for the needs of
>  others, standing up for what is right, no matter how unpopular you may
>  become as a result.  Values like respect for the rule of law, tempered by
>  mercy.  Values like reverence and respect for God and an acknowledgement
>  that all our good fortune comes only by His grace.  Values like giving a
>  fair day's work for a fair day's pay, honesty, integrity, and virtue.

The problem with this is that it does nothing to justify the anti-gay measures
that many political groups support.  How many homosexuals are against the
things you mention?  What are their names?  When did they say that they
wanted their children to have WORSE lives than they had?

I know some homosexual Christians who have managed to remain Christian despite
the concerted efforts of their brothers and sisters to make Christianity into
a tool of hatred.  Several have studied the Scriptural passages on sexual
immorality very carefully, and do not agree with the traditional reading of
the NT passages.  They "stand up for what is right" in the face of
unpopularity far worse than most of us can even understand.  (And I know some
gay people who left Christianity because they saw the Church as a hateful
group of violent and dangerous fanatics.)

I know a homosexual man who has been in a committed monogamous relationship
for over 13 years -- better than many heterosexual marriages.  I suspect that
he would agree with everything you've listed, and that he hopes to instill
such values in any children he might be blessed to adopt.

Of the un-traditional families that I've known, they have no problem with
family values.  As far as they're concerned, they ARE a family; they want to
instill the values you mention, and they want to raise children who will be
responsible adults.

How are these people against "family values"?  How do they constitute an
attack on my family, or your family, or anybody else's family?


> Could these be the same values that the evil, sexist, homophobic
> Boy Scouts of America are trying to instill into children ?

Sadly, no.

I was a Boy Scout, and I think it was a very positive experience.  However,
the BSA has recently expelled gay people who were committed to Scouting ideals
and who had devoted much time -- in some cases, over half their lives -- to
the Boy Scouts.

As I learned it, `loyalty' meant "to be faithful under all circumstances,
to stand by, to stick through thick and thin" -- in 1992, the Boy Scouts
are teaching that "loyalty" means "to be faithful only when you want to".


There is no official BSA condemnation of homosexuals; they have not one
written word to justify expelling the homosexual scoutmasters.  But they did
it anyway, and didn't even offer an explanation until pressed.

I learned that "it feels good to `keep your honor bright' and be able to
look people straight in the eyes" -- not to hide the reasons for your
actions like a coward, and explain only when a lawyer comes to call.


In every case of a Scoutmaster charged with child molestation, the alleged
perpetrator has been a married man with children -- and these Scoutmasters
were NOT kicked out.  [ Information from a column on today's _Philadelpia
Inquirer_ commentary page. ]

 --

Actually, I find it odd that some of the people who spoke ill of the Masons
are now speaking well of the Boy Scouts.  The BSA has religious emblems for
Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Latter-Day Saints, in addition to the ones for
the mainstream Christian denominations.  They encourage non-Christians to
develop and grow in their faiths, to be reverent to those of different
beliefs, and other similar Satanical things.  In fact, the Scouts share
several things with the Masons: atheists are not allowed to join, everybody
takes the Oath in a dark room full of candles, they talk about helping others
a lot, they have official handshakes and uniforms, and everybody respects
everybody else's religion.

So far as I can make out, it's okay to put a kid in an organisation which
approves of, and may expose him to, weird religious ideas -- but it's not okay
for an adult to join a similar organisation.

If the Masons dressed up in olive-drab outfits and went camping, I suppose
that would fix their image problem.  1/2 8-)


Darren F Provine / kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu
"Virtues, n. pl.  Certain abstentions."
                                 -- Ambrose Bierce, _The Devil's Dictionary_ 
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