I've been volunteering nearly continuously in Scouting programs for our church since 1990. I've been in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and for the most part it has been a lot of fun. Until recently.
The ecclesiastical leader over the Scouting program was changed about a year ago. The new guy is a pompous ass who I used to work with over at the school. He loves to hear himself talk, and is devoted to the Scouting law and manuals like no other. He knows every little bit of those manuals, but hasn't an ounce of Scouting spirit in him. I hated working with him, getting emails from him, even seeing him.
One of his first acts as Reichs President was to put his wife in as my assistant (I'm the committee chair), specifically over advancement. She's the type of person who says horrible things about the boys, and then turns around and says what "neat young men" they are. They have really mean children, and Tinkerbell is right in between two of them age-wise. Her children are constantly teasing and putting her down, both in public and in private. Frau Ass is very dedicated to her advancement duties, no doubt about that, but doesn't want any input or help from me. Fine, have at it.
Last week we had the weirdest Court of Honor I've ever seen in my life. Herr Ass had everyone saluting and repeating the Scout Law like a bunch of Hitler Youth. He goes on and on and on and on for seemingly forever. He said some outrageous things. For instance, the reason Lord Baden Powell created Scouting was to bring boys to God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Um, no. He did believe religion was important, but was also a socialist who loved Mein Kampf and supported Mussolini. Details, details. He wanted the boys to invite their scout leaders to their temple weddings in the future, and said that the Scout Law should be considered the "Oath and Covenant of the Aaronic Priesthood." Now if you're not LDS, I'm not going to explain all that, but suffice it to say that that's a pretty sacrilegious thing to say.
I got up and walked out. Just couldn't take it anymore.
Flash forward to the following Sunday, and lo and behold they thank me for my service in Scouting and send me on my way. I'm now going to be in the library handing out chalk and erasers where I can do no harm. So I thought it would be the nice, magnanimous thing to get all the files in order for the next person. I asked Frau Ass for the files back so I could go through them and clean them up. Oh no, my email this morning contained a letter from Herr Ass saying I should turn everything over to her, and he would train my replacement, even though neither of them knows how to keep records.
Well, fine. But I won't ever talk to him again, or give him the records. I'll give them to the bishop and let him deal with it. I deleted the troop email account, the Facebook page, and the blog. I won't organize one blessed thing, or tell them how low the account is at the Scout store, so when Frau Ass goes to buy awards, she'll have to pay out of her own pocket. Ha ha ha. That's what I had to do when I first started, all from scratch. They don't want my help? Fine, you're on your own.
Normally I wouldn't publish this. I have loads of posts I wrote in a tiff and keep as drafts. But this one goes online.
Bite me.
2 comments:
Thank you my wonderful friend! Loved this post! I'm totally supporting you too!I hate when scouting becomes a testimony of the true church. People are slightly skrewed up!Am I correct in my thoughts as to Herr Ass? :)
You done good. Don't waste another precious brain wave on these types. In the words of our famous parents, "if that's the kind of people they are, then they aren't worth worrying about". And in the words of Zoolander's father, "you're dead to me, boy, (Herr/Frau Ass)"
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