No atheists, no homosexuals, no merit for the Boy Scouts

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.

Many angry Eagle Scouts, both gay and straight, sent their merit badges back to BSA headquarters to protest the Supreme Court decision

Seriously, how many gay Eagle scouts can there be?

Larry Atkins (larryLTatkins@aol.com) is a lawyer and writer who lives in Philadelphia.

Perhaps this is the homosexual lawyer Tom Hanks played in the movie Philadelphia.

To be reverent plainly does not mean to possess a belief in God,

Yes, it does in context. The oath is clear in its intent and meaning. See above.

Many angry Eagle Scouts

Because no number is given, I would say many = 2-3. If there had been just one then they could not honestly have said "many." If it was hundreds then I am sure we would have heard the real number.

I agree with your comments, in our troop a young man had some concern about the religious part of his Eagle application. I reminded him that belief in a higher power did not require he conform to any specific religious institution. He accepted that this was OK with him and went on to do his Eagle project for a local church.

He learned an important lesson about integrity as he did not want to take an award which would not be in conformance with his beliefs, but his concern only went to not believing in the established religious institutions.

In the same district, the Budists have a thriving scout troop. Why would an atheist want to be a boy scout and profess a belief that he does not believe? It has much more to do with the leftist desire to promote their belief system than the BSA.

Why do liberals want to destroy organizations that do not echo their warped view on society? Hate.

I don't think it's hate. It wasn't hate that propelled James Dale, the gay scout who was expelled in Jersey and took his unsuccessful case to the SC. He honestly loved scouting.

It's liberals in their own way pressuring private organizations to conform to their worldview. The left would love to have a civic-minded group like the BSA within their camp.

Like a few years ago in NYC, when they tried to equate the so-called "Stonewall Riots" with historical civil rights struggles. A bunch of creepy transvestites start hitting cops with their purses, and all of a sudden they're heroic passive resistors? Please.

Actually, the Stonewall riots in 1969 were in retaliation to the NYPD who were in the habit of flagrantly invading the Stonewall gay bar and carting all the patrons off to the pokey. A clear violation of basic civil rights.

I don't think it's hate. It wasn't hate that propelled James Dale, the gay scout who was expelled in Jersey and took his unsuccessful case to the SC. He honestly loved scouting.

I disagree. Mr. Dale cost the BSA millions of dollars in legal fees, damaged its reputation, was a poster child to liberal groups to pressure fund raising organizations (like the United Way) to stop donation to the BSA, ...

It sure doesn't sound like "love"...

The only reason I say is because I heard him speak once and he seemed to express a genuine regard for the tenets and principles of the BSA. I guess whether his legal and public actions after getting ousted resulted from love or hate is speculative and debatable.

I've always wondered why those people who feel the Boy Scouts are intolerant can't go out and start their own kids' club.

It's because they aren't interested in tolerance or kids, they want to destroy an institution.

I don't think funding will be a problem for Scouting. As local "charities" pull their funding, people will bypass the charities and give directly to the Boy Scouts. I know I did this. The United way can pound sand. Cutting out the middleman means more cash for the local Scout councils.

You do not need to believe in the Judeo/Christian God to be a member of the BSA. You do need to acknowledge that there's a higher power than pure human reason; that humans must submit themselves to a spiritual power of some kind (whether it's incarnated in one or more specific deities).

Larry Atkins is at it again, trying to force the Boy Scouts to accept homosexuals into positions where they will have unsupervised control of young boys.

We saw where attitudes like Larry's got homosexuals in the Catholic Church.

It's curious how the American Left Wing can have its cake and eat it, too. Homos in Church, "bad pedophile priests", homos in Boy Scouts, "good diverse scout leaders".

Actually, the idea of throwing a boy out of the Scouts who once believed in Theism, but who now doubts it is inanely stupid and narrow minded.

It's also not what happened here. What happened was that an adult who professed atheism after he had signed an application professing that he subscribed to the BSA's Declaration of Religious Principle was thrown out of the BSA, since he was a liar.

The Boy Scouts of America serve a valuable purpose in shaping the lives of young people.

How is this possible if it is run by a bunch of right-wing, religious, homophobic idiots?

It's amazing. On the one hand, the author praises the organization and acknowledges the good it does in the lives of young men. On the other, he slaps the tag of intolerance on it. Seems to me that people who don't like the position of the B.S.A. should be trying to eliminate the organization altogether, on the grounds that any organization that advances such beliefs cannot possibly be shaping the lives of young people in a valuable way.

Or perhaps its just possible that the values taught by the Boy Scouts are one of the reasons it is such a valuable force in shaping the lives of young men. In which case, maybe its best to just leave it alone.

I've always wondered why those people who feel the Boy Scouts are intolerant can't go out and start their own kids' club.

For the same reason animal rights groups demand veggie items on hamburger chains' menus instead of just starting their own veggie fast food chain -- because they know the public wouldn't go for it, and they would lose a bundle.

To qualify for Eagle Scout you have to complete a multi-week Religious Award program.

Not true. And, never has been. In fact, you don't even have to belong to a specific religion to get Eagle. All you have to do is acknowledge a higher power, one based purely on the spiritual plane. Whether it manifests itself in one, many, or no incarnate Gods is immaterial. As long as you acknowledge that humans must be ruled by more than human reason and emotion alone, and that duties thereby devolve upon you that you yourself can't reason away, you qualify.

Note that the author never mentioned the Boy Scouts' win in their Supreme Court case.

Supreme Court decisions that don't go liberals' way are irrelevant. Roe v. Wade merely pointed out, and protected, for all time, a woman's sacred Constitutional right to an abortion. The Boy Scout decision was nothing but a politically-motivated assault on basic human rights by a bunch of Republican-appointed activist judges.

Seriously, how many gay Eagle scouts can there be?

I know more than one. Think about a kid who's gay, and may not at the time even be dealing with it consciously himself. He doesn't date, because coming out is either more than he can handle, or (depending on where he lives) dangerous. So, he sublimates that energy into something else. What better than into making Eagle, and thus gaining the approbation of all?

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