The oath goes something like this:

On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; To help other people at all times; To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake and morally straight.

The Scout Law is a now twelve-point catch-all that includes "reverent" as the last of a set of virtuous traits that define what it is to be a Scout. Typically it starts with "A Scout is...", though clearly this is not much of a law, per-se.

If modern Scouters need an excuse to exclude gay youth from the program, the commonly applied lever is that one cannot be a homosexual and remain "morally straight".

Clearly this is a matter in which one's moral compass in no small way dictates whether this is true or not. A number of religions which exclude practicing homosexuals from membership and clergy at the same time allow those who are homosexual so long as they do not actively practice homosexuality.

Beyond this though, scouting says it is wrong even to orient homosexually for it is morally incorrect.

This creates a strange place to be: a great many boys who would be involved with Scouting are likely at the same time not dating (especially in the earlier years of the program) and it is strange that whether one "likes boys" or "likes girls" or really not care much about either one makes a whole lot of difference in the matter of being morally correct. One would expect that for a clean rule to be applied here, premarital sex would fall under the same kapu that once was applied to masturbation in earlier editions of the Scout Handbook.

For one to believe this one must therefore define homosexual thought as morally incorrect and therefore a moral choice like whether to wash one's hands after going to the lavatory. One cannot believe in homosexuality being a preference-oriented persuasion such as liking the color blue or certain foods. Gentleman prefer blondes, but Scouts must chase only women as a moral imperative.

Herein lies the paradox between "Duty to God" and "A Scout Is Reverent" and unto themselves. Typically, reverence is defined as honor or respect shown, be that between a Scout and his parents, a Scout and his teacher, or a Scout and his higher power.

American Scouting conflicts this by defining this as solely:

"A Scout is reverent toward God. He is faithful in his religious duties. He respects the beliefs of others."

This is used in combination with the maxim that one's "duty to God" somehow precludes agnostic, atheistic or non-mainstream religious Scouts from being able to do so.

Interestingly, one would think that since it is very rare that even within a singular belief one's "duty to God" is clearly defined and agreed upon by all adherents. One can regularly attend and be considered a good member of a particular Jewish Temple, for example, and at the same time be looked upon as heretical by more orthodox members of the religion. So it goes between Christians and other Christians, Christians and Jews, Jews and Muslims...

This is the slippery slope that "duty to God". One can, for example, obtain a special "Duty To God" award signified both by a service award and a medal as a practitioner of Buddhism, though it could be easily argued that there is not truly one central God figure around which to do one's duty towards.

Under such circumstances, could not one argue that if one believed in no central deity, one's duty to God would therefore be simply fulfilled?

Truly, this is a difficult argument to make in either direction, but churches sponsor more Scouts than purposefully atheistic ones and it is clearly within the interest of the organization to push youth in that direction. Clearly, however, one can argue that no belief is not a belief one must respect, so out they go.

So here's the interesting dilemma for the modern youth: at a formative age one questions everything. Whereas sexuality is very much an individual self-understanding, much of our moral compass comes from our parents and in some ways it is very much expected to be. During Scouting's strongest years, 12-18, religion like many other morals-based decisions are up the air. As a fall-back, however, one can at least argue that one could fall back on one's parent's beliefs and still fall under the generally understood definition of "reverent"; showing honor or respect.

Not so. In American Scouting, youth must first respect God, capitalized and singular or in any other religion that has managed to convince Scout Headquarters in Texas to believe that they are mainstream enough to be respected. By the strict definition, one need show no reverence to others outside of whatever constraints that deity may put upon one, and in any case that's not something for the Scouts to judge.

Woe be gramma, Principal Bob, Officer Jones and the modern Scout whose religion fails them in this matter.

Fortunately for them (and us), Scouting puts no limits to which directions one can follow generally accepted moral superiority, just in those one is required to demonstrate moral superiority.