The structures crumble. The center doesn't hold. Which comes first?

 My heart hurts today as I read that the Boy Scouts of America have declared bankruptcy because of sexual abuse. To make the pain worse, I hear commercials from Law firms on XM radio advertising for victims to get a “piece of the billions” the Scouts have put aside for settlements.

There is no way I’m advocating for or forgiving pedophiles or their abuses, but to destroy an entire organization ignores the good that it has done in the lives of boys for decades.

As a child, I was fortunate to have benefited from dedicated adult men who were above reproach in OLMC’s Troop 85. The life lessons I learned were invaluable and have served me well my entire life. The BSA has been the repository of the best American values. Even though I’ve often missed the mark in my life, I’ve never been confused about what was right and wrong.

I owe that clarity to two organizations that have fallen way out of favor in popular culture in the last decades: The Roman Catholic church and the Boy Scouts of America.

Let me put the question in simple terms. Would you prefer your children to emulate values from these two organizations or popular culture? Yes, they are both organizations that are flawed, but those flaws exist in the people who populate the structures and not the principles to which they aspire.