That's a lot harder to get
If you want to look for your keys under the lamp post, fine, but don't expect me to fail to recognize that it's bogus. <g>
Not exactly. They are sponsored by churches...Or maybe you meant your Brownie group was sponsored by a church, not that all scouts are.
My anecdote pertained to my hometown. That's the way they did it there at that time.
I don't think it matters to our discussion who sponsors the troops. I did not mean to introduce sponsorship as an factor. I mentioned it in my anecdote only for background on why my friends and I were in different troops. As you know, I was raised Catholic. More important is the integration of scouting, however sponsored, with my school.
I will add that I don't have a problem with any church that sponsors a troop setting troop membership standards. In my anecdote, you may have noticed that I did not take my troop or my friends' troop to task for having different standards.
Something's only voluntary if everyone involved consents to it.
It depends what the something is. The antecedent controls the meaning. For a relationship, which by definition involves multiple parties, to be voluntary, all parties must consent, of course. But for an individual act to be voluntary, only the individual's intent matters. If I take the initiative of my own free will go house to house to notify my neighbors about something, that is a voluntary act. It matters not what my neighbors think about it, whether they welcome it or not, let alone have agreed in advance to be contacted. For someone to be convicted of voluntary manslaughter, do you really think that the victim need to have consented to die? All that matters is the individual's intent, the individual's initiative to take action.
If someone signs up for the Scouts, that is a voluntary act. If that person is rebuffed, his act is still voluntary. If the Scouts are forced to accept a member they don't want, then for their acceptance of the member is involuntary and the membership is involuntary. But the member's signing up is still voluntary. And, for him, not being a member is involuntary. |
