I love “thinking out loud” posts.
I think I told you before that I grew up around a lot of mormon kids. One thing that really struck me, is that even the most moderate of my mormon friends became hardliners once they went to mormon colleges. In retrospect, I chalk it up to the perils of groupthink, of living in a cultural and spiritual vaccuum. As much as I respect the need to shut out other influences, that also means shutting out much of God’s creation.
I haven’t seen the Penn & Teller thing about the boy scouts, but the prejudices you listed are pretty much why our boys aren’t participating. It’s a shame, I was a girl scout for six years and have really great memories of everything (well, except the selling cookies part). P & T did a horribly one-sided, simplistic skewering of the bible on one of those shows, and it was a complete turnoff. Penn can be so smug.
Anyway, what I’m getting at here is that vehemence tends to breed equal and opposite vehemence on the other side. I could stand for someone to debunk these things with a bit more moderation and humilty. Your post does a good job of this–thanks for sharing your thoughts.