It’s possible the scouts might be outdated, but not because of the little symbols of achievement, I don’t think. Kids are actually very big on those. Those in wrestling wear those safety pins and their medals on their jackets. What high school freshman doesn’t proudly wear that football letter if he manages against all odds to get in enough varsity game time? Swimmers wear little symbols of even their victories in heats. Basketballers in grade school wear shirts showing their victories. Kids who advance in JROTC wear their uniforms, rank and decorations proudly. I know. I have grandchildren who do all of those things. Kids aren’t at all symbol-averse, though perhaps those things in which they take pride have changed over the years.
Personally, I did not, and would not, knowingly expose a child of mine to a morally dysfunctional family or group. My adult children to not allow their children to even watch television except carefully chosen shows on their own “Family movie night”. They do (as I did) encourage reading that may well deal with human evils, but do so in a way that imparts correct moral values and/or that informs. A lot of that exists.
That’s not to say none of them were or will be exposed to corruption. They will be, and, by living in this morally adrift society, are. But I am not obliged, by my actions, to condone it or seem to condone it. Rather, I am morally obliged to speak against it and act accordingly. Certainly, if I keep a marijuana “stash”, my words to them in condemning its use will seem hollow and unpersuasive. Therefore, I have a moral obligation not to keep a “stash”, or to use it at all. I have a moral obligation never to have pornography in my possession or presence. What was it that Jesus said about all of this? "
“But he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea.”
Serious words, those. Foolish and un-modern as I may be, I actually think it’s possible to live in accordance with them.
But we’re encouraged by this increasingly pagan society to think of sexual perversion the way most pagan societies have thought of it; “something to be open and accepted even if I don’t indulge in it myself”. But when the “authorities” in a society openly condone and encourage scandal among “these little ones”, one really does have to draw the line against their message.
This whole business of “gay acceptance” is a marvel to me. We would not condone children overtly expressing sexual proclivities of other sorts, and we largely do not. We do not condone overt expression of other moral failings, and do not, by our acceptance, passively approve of them. And yet, when it comes to homosexuality, we are somehow expected to accept expression of that gravely disordered condition among children and see nothing wrong in it.
Those who promote its acceptance as “normal” are fools. We who agree with them to the extent of exposing our children to it are the greater fools.
