Resources for Atheist Cub Scouts

As a Boy Scouts of America (BSA) Cubmaster, father of a Webelos scout, and atheist, I'm frequently struggling with how to deal with the scout's bigoted policy regarding atheism and homosexuality. It's an unfortunate part of life that otherwise good organizations fall victim to the glorified bigotry of religion in an attempt to teach "values."  Rather than reject the whole organization over one disagreement, I've thus far decided to work within the organization.  Note that I discovered that atheists weren't welcome after I'd already accepted the Cubmaster position, and I've stayed on because the pack needs me.  Though our pack is sponsored by a church, they have been very hands-off, allowing us to run a secular pack that largely serves the local schools.  Few of our scouts members are members of the church that sponsors us and provides us with meeting space.  I can't help but wonder how they'd respond if they ever asked my religion -- I wouldn't lie, but it's never come up.

But this isn't about me. It's about my 10 year old son in Webelos Scouts.  Ten is too young to have a firm and defensible opinion on the nature of the universe. But since he's close to me and I talk about my beliefs with him often, he identifies as atheist. This could wind up being a problem for my him since BSA doesn't consider it an acceptable to admit honest, rational, and reasonably skeptical world views. I've been looking for a good solution, and I found a few useful tidbits to share.

Unitarian Universalist (UU) Fellowships are not merely tolerant of atheist world views; my atheism is welcomed as the perfectly rational worldview it is and there are many other open atheists in our local fellowship. I know that some atheists consider UU a religion, but I think of it more as a socially conscious club to which I'm a member. There's no dogma (no creed to join), and a very wide range of beliefs are welcome.

Why am I talking about "church"? Because to earn the Webelos badge, scouts MUST accomplish a religious requirement.  The Unitarian Universalist Scouters Organization UUSO Answers the mail for atheists by providing a comfortably secular perspective on scouting in their "Religion and Family" program (note the lack of "god" in the title).  They've done the hard work of getting a dogma-free curriculum through the scouts religion panel. http://www.uuscouters.org/ hosts PDFs of relatively simple workbook you and your scout can work through to complete his religious requirement without being brainwashed into accepting absurd and indefensible claims of magic sky wizards. The material focuses on values and the role of religion plays in society. By helping your son understand what other people mean when they say "God", it's possible to get all the valuable aspects out of scouting without the spiritual woo.

There are two main charitable organizations I regularly donate to that are working to solve this problem over the long haul. 

  Scouting for All: http://www.scoutingforall.org/

  Scouts for Equality: https://www.scoutsforequality.org/

Unfortunately, LDS, Catholic, and Baptist influences hold substantial sway and their closed-minded one True™ answer worldview makes them difficult to work with. 

Why My Family Attends a Unitarian Universalist Fellowship

This is how I inoculate my children against the glittering false promise of eternal life and the frightening empty threat of eternal torture.

There's a lot of people in the atheist community who bristle at anything which resembles a church. And I can sympathize with those feelings. However, since my wife and I have different religious views, it's important that I remain at least a little respectful towards the "I believe it because it makes me feel good" perspective.

My wife wanted a community where our kids would learn about different religions, where acceptance of all people would be a standard value that's taught.

On our first visit, the minister Amy, approached us and welcomed us to the community. She asked what we were specifically looking for, and my wife described our differing religious views. When my wife mentioned that I am an atheist, Amy said that this particular service included some prayer from the Christian tradition, and she hoped it wouldn't be off-putting for me. The mere thought of receiving such a warm welcome at my parents' Presbyterian Church is laughable.

During social time after the service, I have met a great many welcoming people of a wide range of faith traditions. All Have been welcoming of my atheist / humanist views, and a significant fraction share them. This isn't the "welcome" I might get from my parents' Presbyterian church, which is more of a "your wrong beliefs are welcome so we can try to fix them". Rather a sincere welcome as I am. Without the slightest inference there's anything wrong or that needs to be changed. The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship is a small island where I can be open and honest about my views deep in the heart of the Ohio Bible belt.

When there was interest in volunteers to teach Sunday school, I was skeptical that out atheist such as myself would be welcome teaching religious education courses. My contributions were warmly welcomed, and I was pleasantly surprised by the particular curriculum being taught. There was no dogmatic "one true answer", rather there was a concerted effort to teach a broad range of different religious beliefs. This, in my view, it is one of the strongest defenses I can provide my children against the irrational beliefs of the various Christian (mostly) theologies that surround them here in Southwest Ohio.

After Sunday school, I discuss the lessons with my kids. We talk honestly about what was good and what wasn't. We talk about why some people believe and why other people don't. We talk about the failure of faith to result in consistent worldviews between the thousands of religions around the world and throughout time.