United Way or United Gay

United Way is comprised of many local chapters throughout the United States. Like many large groups, different chapters can have different beliefs or policies. The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania voted to cancel the second-half payment of a $400,862 grant to the Cradle of Liberty Council of the Boy Scouts, the nation's third-largest, serving 87,000 youths in Philadelphia and Delaware. They believe that the Boy Scouts should not receive funding from their group because they do not allow active gays in the group. In reality, it is a trend not entirely different than the Episcopal Church's problems. As established groups in America allow leadership voids to exist, often the entire organization is hijacked by groups of people that do not even believe the fundamentals values of the organization. With just small wording changes or more liberal interpretations of existing policies, the entire meaning and focus of a group can change.

As for discrimination, many types exist in the world. To some degree, discrimination will always be present. Some people assume tall people can play basketball or that French men are better cooks. Certain types of discrimination, such as race, color, sex, or national origin are protected by law. The recent trend of several organizations is to treat a life style decision as a deciding factor in granting money to charities, to call it discrimination.

The Boy Scouts argue, and I believe very well, that when a person becomes a scout, they agree to obey the scout law which talks about being "morally straight". They believe that avowed homosexuality is counter to the oath. They are not a religious organization that is calling the people condemned or are they denying someone the ability to earn an income. They are just trying to stand by their values.

Under the pressure of losing the grant, the local Boy Scouts organization agreed to allow gays into their programs. It was an example of dollars overcoming character. The national Boy Scouts organization quickly moved to bring the local group in line with its charter. While the Cradle of Liberty chapter is now in line with the national group, they are out over $400,000

Believe it or not, the primary point that I am trying to make is not about gay rights. While we know that there is great pressure by some groups to accept things such as Gay Day at Disney World, gay Episcopal priests, and same sex marriages, we will leave these discussions for another time. The fundamental message is this:

• Find out more about where you give your charity dollars. Make sure that your charity is consistent with your values. For example, if you support the Boy Scouts, maybe you should give directly and bypass the United Way.
• Don't assume that the group you were involved with is the same as in the past. Imagine a bishop in the Episcopal Church being able to pass through time from 1930 to today. Would he find the same church?
• Is your local chapter aligned with the national group?
• Get involved in your charitable contributions. Everyone appreciates the gifts, but you will learn so much more if you take a more active role.

As far as organizations such as the United Way, it is clear that they have some big obstacles to overcome. Individual chapters may even be changing their policies to increase donations. For example, maybe large gay rights groups or a large gay donor was going to boycott the United Way chapter if they did not comply with their group's demand.

Maybe a designated gift program would work for them. When a group becomes eligible for receiving funds from the United Way, gay people that don't like Boy Scout policies could simply indicate that their funds should not go to that specific group. In the same way, others could also direct funds to individual charities that are of interest. This keeps the national group from having to be "straight" or "gay".

At the end of the day, gay groups that wish to restrict funds to the Boy Scouts are exercising legal discrimination by denying funds to the group. In a cruel sense of irony, many people that are working to fight discrimination against gays, are doing it by discriminating against groups such as the Boy Scouts that wish to serve no other purpose than developing character in our young men. Whenever you discriminate against a group, such as African Americans, you are not discriminating against the group, but against each individual in the group. In this case, each child that would have been impacted by any of the $400k plus dollars that was denied was discriminated against.

Jim Stephens

Jim Stephens is based in Thomasville, Georgia and writes articles and commentary for a variety of internet sites in the United States.

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