Posted on 11/18/2002 7:33:17 AM PST by 2banana
No atheists, no homosexuals, no merit for the Boy Scouts
By Larry Atkins
The Boy Scouts are at it again.
Last week, Darrell Lambert, an Eagle Scout in Washington state, was expelled by the Scouts because he failed to declare belief in a supreme being in accordance with Boy Scout policy. Lambert had earned 37 merit badges, worked more than 1,000 hours of community service, and helped lead a Boy Scout troop in his hometown.
The Boy Scouts of America serve a valuable purpose in shaping the lives of young people. But its continued policy of discriminating against atheists and homosexuals diminishes the organization's value and reputation. And it could - and should - cost it funding down the line.
On membership applications, Boy Scouts and adult leaders must say that they recognize a higher power, not necessarily religious. Lambert had disclosed his atheism to Scout leaders last year in his Eagle Scout application, but he still received the award. The current dispute arose last month, when Lambert got into an argument with a Scout leader at a Scout training seminar as to whether the Scouts should expel atheists.
As a private organization, the group can set its own membership criteria and exclude certain groups from membership. It does exclude gays and atheists. In 2000, the United States Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale confirmed that the BSA is a private organization that could exclude homosexuals pursuant to its First Amendment right of expressive association.
In response, many cities and towns withdrew public funds from Scout troops and barred them from using publicly owned spaces for their meetings. More than 300 school districts nationwide, including New York, Oakland, and San Francisco, dropped sponsorships of the Scouts and no longer provided Scout advisers and organizational help.
In response, Congress passed the Boy Scouts of America Equal Access Act, which mandated that local school authorities must grant access to the Scouts despite local policies banning discriminatory groups from meeting on school grounds. While schools must give access, however, they are not required to sponsor Scout activities.
Many angry Eagle Scouts, both gay and straight, sent their merit badges back to BSA headquarters to protest the Supreme Court decision. Filmmaker Steven Spielberg resigned from the BSA advisory board to protest the group's discrimination against gays.
Last month, protesters in Savannah, Ga., called for a repeal of the Scouts' anti-gay policy and called on the group to stop accepting United Way funds. Also, the faculty at Hamilton College in New York passed a motion encouraging the college to stop giving institutional support to the Utica United Way, which funds the local BSA chapter.
Exclusion of atheists and homosexuals has denied many kids and teenagers access to scouting programs. It also has led to the loss of many volunteers who would be terrific mentors, role models, and leaders of young people.
Meanwhile, this battle will continue on a local level. Religious leaders, community leaders, politicians, and the media must have the courage to take an unpopular stand and speak out against the Boy Scouts on this issue. Businesses and organizations that fund BSA, such as the United Way (which has an anti-discrimination policy) should stop contributing funds to the BSA as long as it keeps current discriminatory policies intact. Several United Way chapters across the country have done so already.
If the Boy Scouts had a policy excluding, say, African Americans, Jews, Muslims, or Hispanics, you could bet there'd be a huge outcry. Organizations representing these and other racial, religious and ethnic minorities should speak out loud and clear against the Boy Scouts.
Meanwhile, another good Scout leader is lost. Darrell Lambert, with an exemplary record of scouting and community service, reportedly doesn't smoke, drink alcohol, or take drugs. He has been a quartermaster and three-time senior patrol leader, an assistant scoutmaster, and a field leader in training as part of the Search and Rescue Program. Under current Boy Scout rules, a crack-smoking, al-Qaeda-supporting, wife-beating member of the Ku Klux Klan would be fine as a scoutmaster, but Lambert isn't.
The Boy Scouts achieves much good - but its policies of intolerance and discrimination deserve no merit badge.
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Larry Atkins (larryLTatkins@aol.com) is a lawyer and writer who lives in Philadelphia.
Is it any wonder that parents don't want their children to be alone in the woods with individuals that may look at them as a sexual object? Just like I will not let my young daughter go into the woods with male girl scout leader, I will not let my young son go into the woods with a gay scout leader. If it is a choice to take a chance on my children's innocence or to hurt someone's feelings, guess what I am going to decide.
As for the atheist - To be a Boy Scout, one must live according to the Scout Law (around since 1905), a collection of 12 statements that define the a boy in the Scouts. A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent. To be reverent means to possess a belief in God.
Why do liberals want to destroy organizations that do not echo their warped view on society? Hate. They hate seeing something work that they do not control. They hate seeing values taught they can not control (like in public schools). But most of all, they hate seeing that they may be wrong.
Comments please! I feel a LTTE coming up!
Yes, he learned many valuable lessons I'm sure. Except how to keep his mouth shut and also that there are consequences to our actions.
If these were his true beliefs, why did he feel the need to speak out now, after putting in all the work towards Eagle Scout? He must have had some idea that the BSA would take exception to this.
Faith-based organizations that tolerate a bucket of crap from atheists get a whole truckload in due time.
If Lambert had any honor, he would have courteously walked away from the scouts the moment he realized he could no longer support their core values. He has no honor.
That's a very good way of putting it.
Where's the logic in this statement? They also discriminate against child molesters, murderers, satanists and other unsavory characters. Letting them in whould enhance the BSA's value and reputation? And, of course, the atheists and homosexuals do not discriminate against the BSA. The organization's value is diminished to them in that there is no free access to the all-your-boys-are-belong-to-us fellas.
Sorry but this kid shouldn't have been in Scouts this long if he didn't believe this. Along with the Law, it is the two things that guide a young Scout's life. He has no ground to stand on and contrary to this paper's opinion, the Scouts will be getting more of a donation from this former Eagle Scout, not less
...failed to declare belief in a supreme being in accordance with Boy Scout policy
What is wrong with people, anyway? In a way, it's like saying that a man who was in fact, driving at 85 mph got a ticket for driving, in fact, 85 mph, in spite of his years of community service and devotion to his wife and children. I just don't get people's self-serving mush-headed stupdity on this simple issue.
Dan
They believe in freedom of expression but don't go for that freedom of association thingy. In other words, they're hypocrites.
Start your own group Mr Author for Philly Inquirer.
Advertise it for those who don't care about God. Let everyone know that gays are throughout. It's your right. Do it. Get it started now. Advertise it now.
Every guy I know who has young boys will send his kids to the Boy Scouts. Who wants his boys in an environment where they can get buggered and de/immoralized?
And I would LOVE to see that happen. I'd LOVE to see smarta$$ do-nothings like this tweeb start a group and tell parents that leaders AND members may be homosexual, no disclosure necessary; and that God and moral absolutes are all merely options. Do that, and leave the BSA alone. See which prospers.
Dan
Because what they seek is a complete destruction of the U.S. as established by Christians and founded on Christianity and to remake it in the image of Lenin/Marx/Trotsky.
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