eaglebadges:

August 5, 2012

Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazzuca and the BSA National Executive Board

1325 Walnut Hill Lane PO Box 152079 
Irving, TX 75015

Dear Mr. Mazzuca and the Board,

It is with a heavy heart that I resign my Eagle Scout and return this badge to you.  The Boy Scouts decision to exclude gay scouts and families, as well as its continued exclusion of atheists, means that I can no longer continue to be part of, or support, the organization that I have loved for the majority of my life.  Let me be unequivocally clear about this: YOU ARE WRONG!  I do not know if it will take 5 months, 5 years, or 50 years, but there WILL be a day that the Boy Scouts look back at this ruling with shame and disgust.  It appears that the Boy Scouts will wait until membership dwindles, volunteers become scarce, and Eagle Scout fathers withhold their sons from joining before they admit that all people deserve respect and that inclusion is the only acceptable policy.

I am incensed by Deron Smith’s comments that 50,000 scouts earn their Eagle Scout a year and only a few had returned their badges in protest.  How dare you try to marginalize such a gut-wrenching decision on our part!  One Eagle Scout cutting his ties with the Boy Scouts is one too many, and the fact that more and more are doing so should be a clear signal to the Boy Scouts that this policy is abhorrent. 

To this day, I can recite the Scout Law from memory:  A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent.  I still consider these my core values and I try to live by them every day.  I know the 11 years I spent in Scouting from ages 7 - 18 helped make me the man I am today.  Unfortunately, the policy of exclusion that the Scouts have just reinforced stands in direct conflict with the Scout Law. 

-          I cannot consider myself trustworthy if I turn my back on people when they most need it. 

-          I am not loyal to my friends who are homosexual or atheists/agnostics if I choose to exclude them from something that can be such a positive influence in their lives. 

-          I cannot be helpful if I refuse to take a stand because it is too difficult. 

-          My definition of friendly does not include making others feel bad about themselves, especially at a time in their lives when they need comfort and support the most. 

-          Being courteous means you are polite, and it is never polite to point out someone’s differences to publicly shame them. 

-          Kindness has to extend to everyone, not just the people I identify with the most. 

-          Obedience requires you to dutifully comply, and I will not comply with the Boy Scouts misguided rules but with a much higher rule, The Golden Rule.  Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. 

-          I refuse to cheerfully tell another person that they do not deserve my respect because of their sexual orientation or religious beliefs. 

-          Being thrifty is to be thriving, prosperous, or successful.  How can I view my life as successful or prosperous if it comes at the expense of making others feel worse? 

-          Brave is not standing up for your beliefs; brave is standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. 

-          How can I claim to be clean if the act of excluding people who are different makes me feel so dirty? 

-          To be reverent is to show a gesture of deep respect, and I respect anyone who wants to join an organization with the goal of improving themselves.

Years ago, I almost sent back my Eagle Scout over your exclusion of atheists.  I wish I had taken this stand earlier, but at least I still have the opportunity to remedy that.  It was not easy for me to make this decision because I am so proud of being an Eagle Scout.  I know with a concrete certainty that Scouting helped me form the values that I hold so dear today.  It is because these values are so strong that I have the will power to stand up to an organization that I love and make such a difficult choice.  Until the day that the Boy Scouts recognize that all young men deserve respect and compassion, I will refer to myself as a “former Eagle Scout.”  I look forward to the day that I can proudly say that I support the Boy Scouts again, but unfortunately that day is not today.

Respectfully,

Phillip Scott Mosier

Eagle Scout, 1997 - 2012

Troop 106 – Costa Mesa, CA

(via generalbriefing)