To listen to their self-descriptions, you would think the Boy Scouts of America and the Unitarian Universalist Association would get along famously.
A Boy Scout, according to Scout law, “is faithful in his religious duties” and “respects the beliefs of others.”
Unitarians, according to a denominational statement, “seek to act as a moral force in the world” and “affirm the worth of all women and men.”
Indeed, the dual imperatives of ethical living and interfaith appreciation have, over the years, brought the two movements together. Unitarian churches have sponsored Boy Scout troops. Scouts who worshiped at Unitarian Universalist churches wore a denominational emblem on their uniforms.
But in late 20th-Century America, wearing your religion on your sleeve or breast pocket is never that simple.
In recent years, the Unitarian Universalist Association, which prides itself on being open-minded, has been sharply critical of the Boy Scouts.
In response, the loyal, friendly and cheerful Boy Scouts effectively excommunicated the Unitarians this summer, declaring that the church could no longer sponsor the Boy Scout “Religion in Life” badge, and that Boy Scouts could no longer wear the Unitarian Universalist emblem on their uniforms.
The 250,000-member Unitarian Universalist Association represents 1,000 churches around the nation that are difficult to characterize theologically. Unitarianism began as a 16th-Century offshoot of Christianity that denied the mainstream, Trinitarian understanding of God; over the centuries, belief in Christ, and even traditional belief in God, became optional.
Instead the emphasis fell on ethical living, individual spirituality and a liberal social agenda.
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By the mid-1980s, that led the leadership of the Unitarian Universalist Association to distance itself from the Boy Scouts, citing the Scouts’ ban on homosexual members and leaders. Because each Unitarian congregation is autonomous, however, many worshipers continued to be involved in Scouting.
In 1993, the UUA made its public disapproval of the Boy Scouts policy on gays part of the official teaching Scouts were to receive in order to earn the Unitarian Universalist “Religion in Life” badge.
Perhaps because the Boy Scouts have been under so many different attacks regarding their stance on homosexuality, that did not elicit an immediate reaction. But in May, Lawrence Ray Smith, chairman of the Boy Scouts of America Religious Relationships Committee, sent the UUA a letter saying that until the UUA changed its teachings, “youth may not be awarded a Unitarian Universalist religious emblem in Scouting or wear the emblem on a Scout uniform.”
A month later John Buehrens, UUA president and former Boy Scout, sent back a letter accusing the Boy Scouts not only of discrimination against gays, but discrimination against children and an entire religion.
“We will not stop distributing a Religion and Life Manual that reflects our religious principles,” Buehrens wrote. “We will not stop providing Religion and Life awards and Life and Help emblems to Scouts and Scout leaders.”
In the Chicago area, where there are only about 5,500 Unitarian Universalists, the escalating battle of words is unlikely to have much effect. There were only two Unitarian Universalist churches that sponsored Boy Scout troops; one, in Deerfield, discontinued its program before the latest edict, while the other, in Naperville, continues apparently undaunted.
Moreover, a spokesman for the Chicago Area Council of the Boy Scouts said that no word of any ban on Unitarian Universalist emblems had come from BSA headquarters in Dallas.
From Boston, where the UUA is based, Buehrens said that he still hopes to meet with national Boy Scout officials this fall.
“You don’t walk away from something like this,” he said. “If you do, it’s the ethics of (Pontius) Pilate–you wash your hands of it.”
He added that there are enough progressive voices in Scouting that he hopes some day the organization will change its policy toward homosexuals and its insistence on an oath to God.
In the same breath, he anticipated that this fall Boy Scout officials will continue to demand a change in the Unitarian Universalist “Religion in Life” teachings.
In the polity of the Unitarian Universalist Association, denominational leadership has no real power over individual congregations. For its part, Boy Scouts of America is defending itself against so many other discrimination lawsuits that it seems unlikely to start pulling UUA emblems off Scouts’ shirts.
But their struggle does provide an education in the way faith morphs itself into politics in modern America. Perhaps Scouts who study it and learn its lessons can be awarded a new badge–“Moral Arm-twisting.”
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