[Winona] Boy Scouts

[Phil Carlson]

I support the United Way's decision, but I feel it important to weigh in on two issues discussed recently:   1)  It is certainly legal for organizations to discriminate in this country. Let's not confuse personal choices with legal mandates.  The Constitution only prohibits the government from being party to discrimination or for public accommodations to be selective.  The Supreme Court's ruling on the Boy Scouts was sad, not because it was bad law, but because the Boy Scouts chose to put themselves in such bad company.  For example (taking it to extremes) we cannot force the Ku Klux Klan to admit blacks, Hispanics, Jews, etc., because they have made it one of their stated purposes to oppose integration with these groups. They define themselves as such. The Chamber of Commerce on the other hand has defined itself with a much broader public mission and so cannot discriminate in our public marketplace.  The Boy Scouts went to court clinging to their definition of themselves (at the national level at least) as an organization firmly opposed to accepting homosexuals. They asked to be treated more like the Klan than the Chamber.  They have that right.  And so too, the rest of us have the right to join or shun them for that stance.    2)  Let me echo what others have already said -- there are many religions that do not view homosexuality as a sin.  Indeed there are many that do not view "sin" as the central problem in our lives.  It simply doesn't work any more to take one slice of Christianity as the absolute authority.  Our country and our world have moved way beyond that.    - Phil Carlson, Minneapolis